Chapter I: Part 1

Ethno-Geographic Reader, No. 1

STRANGE PEOPLES

BY

FREDERICK STARR

BOSTON, U.S.A.

D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS

1901

Ethno-Geographic Readers.

BY FREDERICK STARR.

No. 1. STRANGE PEOPLES. 40 CENTS.
No. 2. AMERICAN INDIANS. 45 CENTS.
No. 3. HOW MEN DO. IN PREPARATION.

D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS

COPYRIGHT, 1901,
BY FREDERICK STARR.

Plimpton Press
H. M. Plimpton & CO., PRINTERS & BINDERS
NORWOOD, MASS., U.S.A.

THIS BOOK

STRANGE PEOPLES

IS DEDICATED TO

WILLIAM FOSTER YOUNG

PREFACE.

The author claims no originality for the matter of this book for young readers on _Strange Peoples_. He has culled material where he could. His aim has been to present a series of sketches which may render the maps in the geography more interesting and give school children a broader and deeper sympathy with other races and peoples. Indebted to many books, he has been under constant obligations to Verneau’s _Les Races Humaines_ and Ratzel’s _Völkerkunde_. Other books which have been helpful will be found listed at the close of this volume.

At first the author planned to use only original or new illustrations. It has been, however, impossible to carry out this plan. Less than one fourth of the pictures are really new; it is believed, however, that all are authentic and will prove instructive.

It would have been easy to make the book more interesting by the introduction of descriptions, more detailed, of the ridiculous or dreadful practices of some races. The purpose has, however, not been to hold other peoples up to ridicule nor to teach morality by contrast; there are, indeed, too many matters for criticism in our own mode of life to warrant such a treatment. Nor would it be possible in a book for children to present that full discussion which might be expected in a treatise on ethnology for students. The book makes no pretence to systematic treatment; only a few people are taken, here and there, almost at haphazard, to illustrate the marvellous richness of the field for study which, even now, is presented by the _Strange Peoples_ of the globe.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION 1

II. THE PEOPLES OF NORTH AMERICA: ESKIMO 6

III. WILD INDIANS 13

IV. MEXICANS 17

V. SOUTH AMERICAN PEOPLES 26

VI. THE PEOPLES OF EUROPE: FAIR WHITES 33

VII. DARK WHITES 38

VIII. BASQUES 43

IX. FINNS 47

X. LAPPS 53

XI. TURKS 60

XII. THE PEOPLES OF ASIA 65

XIII. CHINESE 69

XIV. COREANS 76

XV. TIBETANS 81

XVI. JAPANESE 88

XVII. AINU 95

XVIII. HINDUS 101

XIX. TODAS 107

XX. ANDAMANESE: MINCOPIES 112

XXI. ARABS 118

XXII. THE PEOPLES OF AFRICA: KABYLES 123

XXIII. NEGROES 128

XXIV. NEGROIDS 134

XXV. PYGMIES 138

XXVI. BUSHMEN AND HOTTENTOTS 143

XXVII. MALAYS 150

XXVIII. THE PEOPLES OF THE PHILIPPINES 156

XXIX. MELANESIANS 163

XXX. POLYNESIANS 172

XXXI. CONCLUSION 180

LIST OF REFERENCE BOOKS 185

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Australian (Ratzel) _Frontispiece_

PAGE
1. Group of Greenland Eskimo. (Nansen.) 9

2. A Greenland Eskimo Fishing. (Nansen.) 11

3. Victorio—an Apache Warrior. (Lummis.) 14

4. Mexican Ox-cart. (From photograph.) 21

5. Mexican Water-carrier. (From photograph.) 22

6. Otomi Indian Girls, Mexico. (From photograph.) 24

7. Peruvian Antiquities. (Ratzel.) 27

8. Botocudo Indian with Lip-plug. (Tylor.) 31

9. Fish-girl of Scheveningen, Holland. (From photograph.) 35

10. Boats made from Shoes, Holland. (From drawing by Haité.) 36

11. Italian Child. (Miln.) 39

12. Basque Cart. (Verneau.) 46

13. Finns Singing. (Verneau.) 51

14. A Group of Lapps. (Verneau.) 54

15. Laplander on Snow-runners. (Verneau.) 57

16. Caravan preparing to start: Asiatic Turks. (Verneau.) 62

17. Chinese Mandarin. (Ratzel.) 71

18. Chinese Boy choosing Toys. (Doolittle.) 73

19. Corean Hat. (Lowell.) 78

20. Tibetan Lamas blowing on Shells. (Verneau.) 84

21. Mongols choosing a Lama. (Huc.) 86

22. Japanese Girl with Baby. (Arnold.) 89

23. Boys’ Festival: Japan. (Bramhall.) 92

24. Ainu—a Hairy Specimen. (Batchelor.) 96

25. Ainu Women, showing Tattooing. (From a photograph.) 97

26. Hindu Dancing girls and Musicians. (Verneau.) 103

27. Hindu Snake Charmers. (Brehm.) 105

28. Group of Todas. (Verneau.) 111

29. Andaman Mincopies. (Tylor.) 116

30. Camel and Palanquin. (From a photograph.) 120

31. Group of Kabyles: Algeria. (From a photograph.) 125

32. Making Couscous in the Desert. (From a photograph.) 127

33. Negro Smiths at Work. (Ratzel.) 131

34. Waganda Musicians. (Ratzel.) 137

35. Huts of Ashango-land Dwarfs. (Du Chaillu.) 140

36. Gora-player: Bushman. (Ratzel.) 145

37. Bushman Rock Picture. (Ratzel.) 147

38. Hottentot Kraal. (Ratzel.) 149

39. Malay Family: Java. (Verneau.) 152

40. Buffalo Cart: Java. (Ratzel.) 154

41. Krises: Java. (Ratzel.) 155

42. Philippine Negrito. (Meyer.) 158

43. Houses of Igorrotes. (Meyer.) 160

44. Head-hunting Party: Igorrotes. (Meyer.) 162

45. Fijian. (Ratzel.) 165

46. Pile-dwelling Village: New Guinea. (Ratzel.) 167

47. Canoe: New Guinea. (Ratzel.) 168

48. Tattooed New Zealander. (Verneau.) 173

49. Helmets and Idol-heads of Feathers: Hawaii. (Ratzel.) 175

50. Kingsmill Islander. (Tylor.) 179

STRANGE PEOPLES.

I.
INTRODUCTORY.

We are to read about some of the _Strange Peoples_ of the world. We shall find many curious customs. There is an old saying,—

“Many men of many minds;
Many birds of many kinds;
Many fishes in the sea;
Many men who don’t agree.”

Peoples differ in so many ways. There are tall Patagonians and short Bushmen. There are white peoples, and black, yellow, and brown peoples. There are peoples whose bodies are so covered with hair as almost to be called furry, and there are peoples whose faces even are hairless except for eyebrows and eyelashes. There are lively peoples and there are sluggish peoples; gay peoples and sad ones. Negroes do not think and feel like white men, and the Chinaman thinks and feels differently from either. All peoples have their own customs. When we speak of other peoples as _Strange Peoples_, we must never forget that we are as _strange_ to them as they are to us. We think it curious that the Chinese dwarf, by bandaging, the feet of their women; they think it strange that we do _not_. To us the Chinese face seems much too flat; the Chinese think ours are like the face of an eagle and that they are harsh and cruel. We think the flat, wide nose of the negro is ugly; negroes think it far handsomer than ours. So we will remember that all these peoples are “strange” only because they are _unlike_ us: that we ourselves are just as strange as they are. They have as much right to their ideas and customs as we have to ours: often indeed we might find theirs better than our own.

We begin with North America. We then pass to South America; then to Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific Islands in order. We shall find that the different peoples of the world are not scattered haphazard; on the contrary, they are quite regularly distributed by types. Thus until lately the peoples living in America were all Indians, with red-brown skin, straight and coarse black hair, and high and wide cheek bones. Europe and Northern Africa (which really belongs rather to Europe than Africa) form the land of the white peoples. South Africa—Africa proper—is the home of negroes and negroids, with dark brown, almost black, skin, narrow heads and faces, and woolly hair. The proper population of Asia is yellow peoples, with round heads, slant eyes, and straight, long, black hair. In Australia are brown peoples with curly or bushy hair. In Oceanica are several well-marked types—the little brown Malays, the dark, almost black, Melanesians with crinkly hair, and the tall, well-built, fine-featured, light Polynesians. This is, in general, the distribution of the human races. But there has been much movement. There are now both white and blacks in America; the English whites have crowded in upon the natives of Australia; in Asia there are white peoples, like the Ainu and Todas, who have certainly lived there a long time.

The different peoples are unlike in their culture. Some peoples live on wild food, having no cultivated plants or domestic animals. They hunt animals and catch fish; they search for birds’ eggs and honey; they grub up roots and gather barks, leaves, fruits, seeds, and nuts for food. To such tribes, who usually wander in little bands from place to place, the name savage is given. The word does not mean that they are fierce and cruel in disposition; most savage tribes, to-day living, are neither. The Eskimo and Mincopies are savages, but they are quite kind and gentle. When peoples settle down to cultivate the soil and build homes, or when they raise herds of animals with which they move from time to time for new pastures, their life is easier. To such peoples—so long as they do _not_ know how to work iron by smelting, to write by means of characters that represent sounds, and to make animals assist them in tilling the ground—the name barbarian is applied. When any peoples have learned these three great helps, they are called civilized. There are then three great stages of culture,—savagery, barbarism, and civilization. The Eskimo is in savagery; the American Indians are mostly in barbarism; the Chinese are in civilization.

The way in which the life of peoples is affected by the lands in which they live is most interesting. The Eskimo live in the cold north; there is little wood there for construction; fuels such as are used elsewhere are rare; no fibre-yielding plants grow there. Yet the Eskimo has made full use of what nature gives him. He builds his house, when necessary, of the snow itself, heats it with animal fats and oils, clothes himself in excellent garments of skins, knows the ways of all the animals and birds around him for their destruction, and has invented an ideal hunter’s boat and devised a beautiful series of weapons and tools. The way in which he has fitted himself to the place in which he lives is wonderful. The world over we notice the same thing: man everywhere ransacks his home-land to find out what is useful and turns it to his needs.

Often where two different peoples live in the same district marriage takes place between them, and mixed types arise. Where one people has long occupied a country alone the type is very well-marked, and all look alike. Thus in the Andaman Islands, the little Mincopies look so much alike that a person needs to know them well to tell them apart. We, ourselves, are a great mixture. Even in one family there may be tall and short, light and dark, blue-eyed or brown-eyed persons. Such differences are only found where there has been much mixing between different peoples. In Mexico, once purely Indian, there has been since the coming of the Spaniards much mixture, and to-day a large part of the population is of a new type—part Indian, part Spanish. The people range in color from almost white to dark brown according to the amount of Spanish or Indian blood each has.

II.
THE PEOPLES OF NORTH AMERICA: ESKIMO.

For the larger part, North America is now occupied by populations of our own kind. The greater part of the people of Canada is of French or English descent; the people of our own country are mainly Europeans or of European descent. There are of course many negroes, especially in the South, who have descended from African slaves. There are also some Chinese, Japanese, Hindus, Malays, and others. Formerly the United States and Canada were occupied by Indians, but now there are few left, who mostly live upon reservations. South of the United States lie Mexico and Central America. They, too, were Indian lands when first visited by white men. In Northern Mexico a new, mixed population live; Southern Mexico is yet quite purely Indian. In Central America we find the mixed Spanish-Indian in some districts, and pure Indians in others. In the northmost part of the continent live the Eskimo. We shall speak about the Eskimo, wild Indians, and Mexicans.

The home-land of the Eskimo is dreary. They live in Labrador, Greenland, and the Arctic country stretching from Greenland west to Northern Alaska. Generally, it is a land of snow and ice, where it is impossible to raise even the most hardy plants. The people are forced to live chiefly on animal food. Not only is the weather usually cold, but for a large part of the year the Eskimo do not see the sun, and for the rest of it they see the sun all the time. In some districts the swarms of mosquitoes in the warmer part of the year are a great trouble. There are few trees, and those are stunted; wood is precious, and drift wood is carefully gathered to make into tools and weapons. But notwithstanding his dreary home the Eskimo are rarely ugly and ill tempered.

They are little people with yellowish brown skin. Some Greenlanders are of fair stature. Their faces are broad and round, with coarse features. The eyes are small, dark, and often oblique, like the Chinese; the nose is narrow at the root, but fat; the cheeks are round and full; the mouth is big, with good, strong teeth. Eskimo are usually filthy and appear much darker than they really are.

The clothing is generally made of skins with the hair left on. Men and women dress much alike. Trousers are worn by both: a shirt or jacket with a hood attached is much used. That worn by men is often made of bird skins, and the feather side is worn next the body. The lower part of the legs and the feet are encased in _kamiks_, skin socks and boots. The little babies are carried naked in a great pouch at the back of their outer jacket. This pouch makes a fine nest for the little creatures, as it is lined with soft sealskin or reindeer skin. Formerly—and perhaps sometimes now—the Eskimo mothers used to wash their babies by licking them with their tongues.

In Greenland the Eskimo houses are usually built of stones and earth. They are partly below ground, and only the upper part shows outside, like a mound of dirt. To enter the house one crawls through a long and narrow passage, also built of stones and earth, and which is also partly below ground. The house is not large, and consists of one room. It is lined with skins. Wide benches around the sides, covered with skins and moss, serve as beds. Several families live crowded together in one house. One house in East Greenland, measuring twenty-seven by fifteen feet, contained eight families,—thirty-eight persons. The houses are so low that a tall man cannot stand upright in one. Until lately the only heating was by stone lamps. These were flat and hardly deeper than a plate: oil was burned in them. They were kept burning day and night, and above them were racks of poles on which wet clothing was dried. In the middle part of the Eskimo land they build the quaint round-topped huts made of blocks of snow, of which you have often seen pictures.

The Eskimo eat the flesh of seals, whales, birds, hares, bears, dogs, foxes, and deer. In that cold country they like _fat_ meat. Sometimes meat and fish are eaten raw, but they may be boiled or fried. Fresh, raw blubber is much loved. The skin of whales, seals, and halibut is favorite food. Travellers tell astonishing stories of the quantities of candles and oil that Eskimo eat and drink when they are supplied to them. The supply of plant food is small: stalks of angelica, dandelion, sorrel, berries, and seaweed are used.

The man’s great business is hunting. He has studied the habits of the bear, deer, seal, and walrus, and has learned just how to capture or kill them. He has invented many curious darts, harpoons, spears, bolas, etc. The bird spears have several points projecting in different directions from the shaft, so that if one misses, another may strike, or several birds may be impaled at once. The bolas consists of several pebbles attached to cords, which are knotted together at the end. These are set to whirling and then hurled through the air at birds to entangle them. The point of the harpoon separates from the shaft when an animal is struck; it remains in the game while the shaft floats on the water; the point is connected by a line to a bladder, which, floating, shows where the animal goes, and helps to tire him out. In hurling harpoons and darts the Eskimo uses a spear-throwing stick which enables him to send them with more force and directness than by his hand alone.

Much of his hunting is done from his canoe or _kayak_. This is narrow, sharp-pointed at both ends, and light. It consists of a slight framework over which skins are tightly stretched. The opening above is but large enough for him to get his legs and body through. When he has crept in, he ties a collar of skin, that surrounds the opening, about his body, below his arms, to prevent the water dashing into the _kayak_, and paddles away. His different weapons are all fastened in their proper places on top of the canoe, where he can seize them when wanted. The Eskimo are wonderful boatmen and drive their _kayaks_ over the waves like seabirds. If they tip over, they easily right themselves.

Formerly the Greenland Eskimo made long summer trips along the coast. The clumsy, great, woman’s boat was brought out. The oldest man, the women, children, and baggage went in it. The younger men went in their _kayaks_. In the big boat the women rowed while the old man steered. They often went fifty miles a day. At good spots they landed and built a tent of thin skins. They loved these summer journeys as our boys love their camping trips.

III.
WILD INDIANS.

There are no really wild Indians left in the United States. Formerly there were many tribes of them, but some have disappeared, and others have lost their old-time spirit. To-day our Indians live idly on the reservations or work their little farms with fair industry. Sometimes a tribe, roused by new wrongs inflicted on it by the white man, takes the war-path; sometimes some religious idea goes from tribe to tribe creating great excitement, like the Ghost Dance. But such outbreaks and excitements are less and less common.

Mr. Lummis has written of the Apache warrior and described the war led by Geronimo. It was a daring thing. There was but a handful of the Indians. “Thirty-four men, eight well-grown boys, ninety-two women and children”—that was all. Only forty-two who could be called fighters. On May 17, 1885, the little band broke forth from their reservation and headed for Mexico. It took the United States a year and a half of useless trouble and expense to pursue them. Time after time, when it seemed certain that the Indians were trapped, they vanished. They never stood for a pitched battle. But anywhere, concealed behind rocks or hidden in brush, they picked off the soldiers sent to capture them. The forces of the United States and Mexico were both kept constantly upon the move. When a year had passed about sixty of the Indians returned home. Twenty warriors, with fourteen women, kept up the battle, when they too went home. During the year and a half of fighting more than four hundred whites and Mexicans were killed; only two of the Indian band were destroyed. During that time Arizona and New Mexico and all the northern part of Mexico were kept in constant terror. These Apaches were truly “wild Indians.”

The Navajo are _not_ wild Indians though they are related to the Apaches and were formerly bold fighters. They live near the settled Pueblos and have learned from them many things. They are a prosperous tribe, numbering fully ten thousand. They are well-to-do, having nine thousand cattle, one hundred and nineteen thousand horses, and one million six hundred thousand sheep and goats. They dress well in their own way and wear many ornaments.

A Navajo house is a simple affair. It consists of sticks or poles stacked up so as to meet in a point above; they are then covered over with bark, weeds, or earth, a hole being left for an entrance and one at the top for smoke escape: an old blanket hung over the entrance hole serves as a door. Near this hut there is often a little shelter of boughs where the family spend most of their time on fine days. The Navajo also build sweat houses for vapor baths. These are like the regular hut, but have no smoke hole, and are thickly covered over with earth. Stones are heated in a fire outside and carried into the sweat house between sticks; water is dashed over them, and in the steam thus made the bather sits.

The Navajo are good workers in silver and are all the time improving in their art. They make spherical beads, bracelets, and rings of several sorts, breast ornaments, decorations for harness and bridle, and many other things out of coins or other silver furnished them. The Navajo excel as weavers of blankets, though they use extremely simple looms. The yarn is home-spun from wool taken off their own flocks; they do, however, buy some yarn ready-made from the white man. Formerly they dyed their yarn with dyes taken from various plants or colored earths, but now they mostly use white men’s dyes. Their blankets are firm and closely woven and shed water finely. They are woven in bright patterns. All the Indians who live near the Navajo like their blankets and pay good prices for them. The Navajo greatly like turquoise beads, but they do not find turquoise on their reservation. For these beads and ornaments they trade their fine blankets, and silverware, and good ponies with the Pueblo Indians who live near the mines of this handsome greenstone.

The Navajo are great singers and have many songs; but it is the men who sing and not the women. They have also many interesting stories and curious customs, but we cannot stop to tell about them. The Apaches and Navajo are but two tribes out of the hundreds of American Indian tribes. In another book, _American Indians_, you may read about their manners and customs, their songs and music, their stories and worship.

IV.
MEXICANS.

Though Mexico is our next-door neighbor, life and customs are greatly different there from our own. Three different peoples make up the population. First, are the pure-blood Spaniards, who have been born in the country; second, there are the _Mestizos_, mixed people, partly Indian, partly Spanish; third, are the pure Indians, who now form about five-twelfths of the whole population. From the City of Mexico northward the land belongs chiefly to the mestizos; from the City of Mexico southward Indians prevail.

We will say nothing of the Spaniards nor of the wealthy mestizos, both of whom are like European whites generally in their life. But the poorer mestizos in the cities and towns and the country people generally are interesting. The dress of the country gentleman was brilliant. It was of broadcloth or soft-dressed leather, of a buff or brown color. The little, close-fitting jacket, cut square at the waist, was supplied with two lines of silver or steel buttons, and embroidered with patterns in gilt or silver thread. The trousers fitted almost as a glove fits the hands, and there was a double row of bright buttons up the sides of the legs and a lacing of silver cord. The shoes, which were tan or buff, were sharp-pointed. Unfortunately this handsome costume is not common nowadays. All mestizos, rich and poor, still use the _serape_, which is a long and narrow blanket, usually of handsome, bright colors. In putting it on, one corner is held with the hand at the left shoulder, while the blanket is passed behind the back and around the body in front; the free end is then thrown over the left shoulder and hangs down behind. It thus holds itself in place and needs no tying or pinning. However poor a mestizo may be, he wants a fine hat or _sombrero_. Mexican sombreros have high, pointed crowns, and wide brims. They are made of palm or wool. Those of wool are of various colors—gray, brown, black, sometimes red, blue, or green. They are of all prices. They are decorated with bands of silver or gilt tinsel, and true silver ornaments are made in many forms for fastening to them; a fine sombrero, well made and well decorated, may weigh several pounds and cost _many_ dollars.

The Mexicans are highly polite in manner. This is partly the result of Spanish training, but is also partly due to the old Indian fondness for ceremony. The movements of the hands and fingers by which they greet each other are graceful and pretty. Friends, meeting each other, warmly embrace. If a boy is spoken to by a gentleman he politely removes his hat and holds it while he is being addressed and while he answers. Should a stranger ask a little Mexican his name, with his hat off the boy would reply, giving his name and adding, “_Servidor de usted, señor_”—“your servant, sir.”

The houses of poor Mexicans are miserable. The walls are usually built of great sun-dried _adobe_ bricks; there is but one room and that is small. There are no windows and but one door; the roof is flat and the floor is of dirt or stone. Generally there is no bed and there may be no table, and few if any chairs or stools. There are usually some rush mats in the corner, which are spread out upon the floor at night for sleeping on. There are always a _brasero_ and a _metate_. The brasero is a little kettle-shaped earthenware stove, where food is cooked over a wee fire of charcoal. The metate is the grinding-stone, on which the woman grinds corn-meal.

The three common foods of the Mexican poor are corn-cakes, eggs, and beans—_tortillas_, _huevos_, and _frijoles_. The corn after being well soaked is ground on the stone; the woman, taking the lump of wet dough, throws it back and forth from one hand to the other, turning it as she does so around and around. In this way she shapes a flat, thin, round cake which she bakes upon a round pottery griddle. The eggs are usually fried, so are the black beans, a great deal of lard being used. Often they use no knives, forks, or spoons in eating. The corn-cakes themselves will be used in handling the eggs and in scooping up the beans. After thus serving as a fork and a spoon it will itself be eaten.

But rich people in Mexico have beautiful homes. The outside, on the street, is quite plain. The house surrounds a square court or space which is called a _patio_. Passing through a great doorway, one goes from the street into the patio. All the rooms of the house open on the patio, either directly or under pretty arched galleries or corridors. The patio itself may be planted with trees and shrubs bearing sweet flowers, and often there is a fountain at the centre, with goldfish in the basin.

Cages of birds are hung around the patio, or under the corridors, and the little captives delight with their brilliant colors or their sweet songs. Every one in Mexico keeps birds as pets, and you may see, even in the houses of the very poor, mocking-birds, doves, parrots, or clarins with their clear, whistling note.

Wherever there are real _roads_ in Mexico, there you may see the quaint old-fashioned ox-carts with wheels often made from solid blocks of wood cut to shape. Two oxen are generally yoked to each, but when heavy loads are to be dragged, four, six, or even more are used at once.

In Central Mexico water is precious, and in the cities special men make it a business to sell water from house to house. The water-carriers of different towns greatly differ in the form and size of the jars they use and in the mode of carrying them. In the city of Mexico, where they are becoming an uncommon sight, the man carries two water-jars of metal, one in front, one behind, hanging by straps from his shoulders and cap; in Guadalajara a number of round pottery water-jars are set into a sort of a frame mounted on a cart or barrow; in San Luis Potosi there are four oval jars set into a wheelbarrow with an enormous wheel; in Guanajuato they use great slender jars nearly as tall as the man himself, with a ring of wood at the bottom to hold them when they are set on the ground.

In the centre of every Mexican city or town of any importance is the _plaza_ or public square. Sometimes this is surrounded by handsome buildings and laid out with care as a garden. Among orange trees laden with sweet blossoms and golden fruit, rose bushes, banana trees, there wind pleasant walks with benches in the shade, where rich or poor may rest. Usually at the centre of the plaza there is a band-stand where on certain evenings every week fine concerts are given.

The plaza is the pleasure-spot and gathering-place of all. To it flock venders of all kinds, with cakes, candies, fruits, sugar-cane, peanuts, toys, etc. Some of the wares are strange, and I am sure you could not guess them. There goes a man with a lot of pretty colored balls like wee toy balloons; they are red, white, blue, yellow; they are chewing-gum! There is another man with a great crumpled sheet of some whitish brown stuff; children flock to him with their coppers, and he cuts off pieces which they walk away munching; it is fried pigskin!

Mexicans delight in holidays, and they celebrate a great many. The 2d of November, the day of the dead, is a great day. For several days beforehand thousands of strange toys have been offered for sale. Some are skulls made of sugar or clay; there are skeletons of various sizes and materials, corpses, funeral processions, grave monuments. These are all called “deaths.” When the day of the dead comes children expect to receive these strange presents. When they rise in the morning their first cry is, “Papa, mamma, give me my death.” There is a great excitement the day before Easter. All down the streets may be seen figures of Judas hung up above the heads of the passers. In the big cities there will be hundreds of them of all sizes and shapes. They are made of cardboard and paper, and have fireworks inside. At a certain hour they are all set on fire, and burn and explode at a great rate, much to the delight of the boys and girls. But these are only two of many occasions during each year to which little Mexicans look forward with delight.

We have spoken only of the mestizos. The Indians are also interesting. There are many tribes, all with their own customs, and many with their old languages still in use. In the State of Oaxaca alone there are fifteen languages still spoken. Among the many Mexican Indian tribes perhaps the Aztecs, Otomis, Tarascans, Zapotecs, and Mayas are the best known.

V.
SOUTH AMERICAN PEOPLES.

South America, like North America, was occupied by Indians at the time of the discovery. The tribes differed in appearance, language, and customs, but all were true American Indians. To be sure, some tribes were dark, others light; some were tall, others short; some were true savages, while others were almost civilized.

Probably the most advanced tribes lived along the Pacific border. In Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chili many relics of ancient art and many ruins of old buildings are found. Here and there east of the mountains similar evidences of culture are found, but they are less known. Best known of all are those of Peru.

The ancient Indians of Peru were industrious and hard workers. Their rulers, the Incas, were called “the children of the sun.” The old Peruvians had important towns and cities. They diligently cultivated their fields and irrigated them by great systems of canals. They wove capital cotton cloth, from which they made good clothing. Their cloth was often decorated with pretty inwoven designs in colored threads. They tamed and bred the llama, and trained it for a pack animal. They could not write, but kept accounts by knotted cords called _quipus_. Differently colored cords were used for different things, and knots of varying sizes stood for varying numbers. Thus an owner of llamas might use a white cord for males, a reddish cord for females, and a yellow cord for young. A simple knot might stand for _one_, and larger knots might mean _five_, _ten_, or _twenty_. In this way the herder might keep exact account of his animals.

The old Peruvians were great potters and thousands of their old water vessels and food dishes, which were buried with the dead, have been dug up. These had curious forms and were often adorned with colored patterns. Some of these jars were shaped like human faces, human figures, or animals. Sometimes they were “whistling jars,” which were so made that they whistled when water was poured in or out of them. The old Peruvians were skilled in working copper, silver, and gold, and made many ornaments and figures in these metals.

They disposed of their dead carefully, and many of the dried bodies, or “mummies” have been found in the ancient graves. The dead were folded into a sitting position and bound; they were then wrapped about with fine cloths. After the last wrapping was in place, it was painted, a false face was marked on the cloth or placed over the proper place, and imitation ear ornaments were hung at the sides of the head. Many objects were buried with the dead,—vessels of food and drink, and the objects they had used in life,—with a woman, cotton, spindle, and work-basket; with a man, weapons and ornaments. The old Peruvians built fine public buildings, and temples of stone and some ruins of such buildings still remain.

After the discovery of America two nations chiefly gained possession of South America—Spain and Portugal. Portugal secured what is now Brazil; Spain gained almost all the rest. The Spaniard settled chiefly where the native tribes had already been living a quiet and settled life. In those districts, just as in Mexico, there was much mixture between the two peoples, and to-day there is a large _mestizo_ population, whose mode of life has been influenced by that of Spain. In Peru, Brazil, Chili, and the Argentine Republic we find lands which are making progress, and in whose beautiful cities are fine buildings, handsome parks, and artistic statuary. It is a great mistake to think of any of the South American countries as uncivilized.

Still, even in countries like Peru and Chili, centres of old and interesting settled life, there are plenty of pure-blood Indians to-day. These still keep up much of their old life and customs. And when, instead of looking at the old culture centres, we examine the tribes which were truly _wild_ at the time of the conquest, we find little change. On the eastern slope of the Andes, in the valleys of those streams which unite to form the Amazon, in the dense forests which border that mighty river itself, are many truly savage tribes to-day—or, when not savage, in low barbarism. Some of these tribes use the blow-gun in hunting. This is a tube, eight or ten feet long, made from a cane or bored out of wood. It is carefully straightened and smoothed on the inside. The shaft of the little arrow used with this is slender and ends in a sharp point; a tuft of cottony material, which just fits the bore of the blow-gun, is wrapped about the upper end of the arrow and fastened. When the arrow is placed in the blow-gun, this is raised to the lips, and a sharp puff of air from the mouth sends the little weapon on its way. These arrows go a long distance and with great force; as they make no noise they are especially good for bird-hunting. The arrows not only kill by their sharpness, but by poison, which is put on their tips. Several of these Indian tribes know how to make deadly poisons, chiefly from plants.

Many of these wild tribes delight in bright feathers. They make necklaces, head-dresses, arm-rings, bracelets, leg-bands, aprons, and capes from them. Not that a single tribe makes all of these many ornaments; some will use the feathers in one way, others in another. Among the tribes of Brazil, the Botocudo are famous for the ornaments they wear in their lips and ears. These ornaments are mere disks or plugs of wood, which are inserted in holes pierced in the ears and lower lip. Some Botocudo lip plugs are three inches in diameter. Such a lip ornament holds the lip out almost like a shelf.

In eastern Ecuador and on the eastern slope of the Andes, near the Amazonian headwaters, are several tribes who cut off the heads of slain enemies as trophies. Best known of these tribes are the Mundurucus and Jivaros. The Mundurucus, after cutting off the heads, paint the faces, comb the hair, add feather ornaments, and then so dry the head that it retains its natural size and form. The heads that are kept by the Jivaros are even more curious. After they have been cut off the bones of the skull are removed piecemeal from below. The heads are then shrunken by means of astringent fluids, smoke, and pressure, until they are no larger than the fist. The features retain their form, but everything is reduced in size. It is hard to believe, when seeing one of these, that it could ever have been a full-sized human head. Believing that the spirit of the dead man will curse them and thus harm them, the Jivaros sew the lips of the trophy together with cords.

In Guiana some of the Indians make beautiful baskets of split cane. The splints are sometimes stained black or brown, and thus pretty patterns are woven in color. These patterns look like simple geometrical designs—diamonds, meanders, etc.—but often they are really pictures of snakes, monkeys, or human beings. These tribes use _cassava_ for making bread. The roots or tubers, when first dug, are poisonous and unfit for food. These are first grated on a board set with sharp bits of stone. The shredded or grated pulp is then packed into a great tube of basketwork closed at the bottom. This is hung to a beam and a pole is passed through a loop at the lower end. By turning this pole the basket tube is twisted, and the cassava pulp is squeezed so tightly that the poisonous sap runs out, leaving the wholesome flour.

VI.
THE PEOPLES OF EUROPE: FAIR WHITES.

Europe is the continent of white peoples. While there are white peoples in other continents, they are there as invaders. But even among the whites of Europe itself there are differences. Most of the Northern peoples, like the Swedes, Dutch, Russians, Germans, are light peoples, with delicate skin, light hair, blue eyes, and rather long heads. They are mostly tall in stature. The Southern peoples are dark—Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, Greeks, are all brunettes. They are shorter, more slender, with dark skin, dark eyes, and black hair. In the region between these two types of European whites there are peoples of medium stature, rather stout, somewhat dark, with broad, round heads. Mr. Ripley names these three kinds of Europeans—Teutonic, Mediterranean, and Alpine peoples. We will speak simply of light whites and dark whites. All the Europeans we have named speak languages that are much alike, belonging to a group of languages to which the name Aryan is given. There are, however, some peoples of Europe who do _not_ speak Aryan languages. Such are the Basques, Finns, Lapps, and Turks.

All the fair whites are so like ourselves that it will hardly do to call them _Strange Peoples_. Yet we would find many curious things even in those who are most like ourselves, as the Hollanders. You know something about little Holland? It is a low, flat country, and much of it was formerly under the sea. The industrious Hollanders have built great dikes or walls to keep the sea back, and, by pumping out the water, reclaimed the land. A rich and fertile land it is, intersected by a network of little canals. Everywhere you go in Holland you see windmills. Because the country _is_ so low and flat, there are no rapid streams to furnish water-power for mills, so they must use the wind. At some places, like Zaandam, hundreds may be seen at once. With us windmills are simply for pumping water, but in Holland they do many kinds of work. Some are flouring mills, others are sawmills for cutting timber, others run oil presses, etc.

The fishing towns of Holland are interesting. Every traveller wants to see Vollendam and Scheveningen and the hamlets on the Island of Marken. The men and women in these towns are kind-hearted, simple people, who are proud of their own village and think their own dress finer than that of other towns. Each of these fishing villages has its characteristic costume. The men of the Island of Marken wear a close-fitting jacket which ends at the waist and great, baggy, knee pants. Marken women wear round, white caps, fitting the head closely, with an open-work border, and a bright waist, with striped sleeves, over the front of which is a square of handsomely embroidered cloth. Little girls all through Holland dress exactly like women. But for her child face you would take the little girl from Scheveningen to be a grown person. She wears a dainty white cap pinned on with two great round-headed pins. Her ample dress quite reaches the ground; her white apron is neatly tied, and her purple shawl, tightly wrapped about her shoulders, is demurely crossed, and the ends are tucked under her apron strings. She wears the common wooden shoes of the country. A crowd of boys running in such shoes over the hard paved roads makes a great clattering. On Sunday the wooden shoes of men and boys are usually fresh whitened; if their owners enter a house, they leave the shoes outside the door. I am sure you cannot guess what little Dutch boys do with old wooden shoes. They make capital little fishing boats out of them, which they sail on the canal. The real big fishing boats are really shaped very much like shoes too.

Edam cheese is one of Holland’s famous products. The people are wonderfully careful in making it. They take great care of the cows; when the weather is wet or the flies troublesome, they put blankets over them to protect them. The stables where they keep them are as clean as soap and water will make them; the stalls are made of handsomely planed wood, and there is a window at each one to let in light and to give the cows a chance to look out on the green meadows. The cheeses are made of cream and are pressed in clean, white, earthenware moulds, into the shape and size of cannon balls. They are then colored and sent to market. The greatest cheese market of Holland is at Alkmaar. Scores of boatfuls are there unloaded every market day. The market is at the water’s edge. The cheeses are colored orange or red, and are oiled and wiped till they shine. They are stacked in piles like cannon balls.

Among famous Dutch towns is Delft, where they make a beautiful white porcelain with blue designs, which is a favorite everywhere: then there is Schiedam, where they make “Schnapps,” or gin, which is as famous probably as the Delft ware, but not so praiseworthy; then there is Haarlem, famous for its flower gardens, its tulips and begonias; at Leiden there is a noble old university and a museum where one may see objects made and used by all the Strange Peoples we shall study and many more. Holland has had many great artists, and their works are preserved in the art galleries at Rotterdam, Leiden, The Hague, Haarlem, and Amsterdam. Holland was once the great commercial and naval nation of the world: that day is past, but her ships still sail all seas; the little kingdom is still a centre of intelligence, industry, and education, and the thrifty and wealthy Dutch are a worthy example of the Fair Whites.

VII.
DARK WHITES.

Among the dark whites of Europe the Portuguese, Spanish, Italians, and Greeks are conspicuous. In speech they are kin to each other, and to the fair whites. How different they are otherwise! They are handsomer in face, more lithe and graceful in body, more quickly aroused, more changeable in purpose, than the fair whites. Their faces, their gestures, their movements, more emphatically betray their emotions. They live more in the present than the somewhat sober and sombre northern peoples.

Just now people are apt to forget how much _we_ owe to the dark whites. They have done _much_ for the world. Greece taught Europe to think, developed an art and architecture which impressed the world, formed a literature and theatre that have never been surpassed; Rome taught mankind government and law; Italy has produced the greatest paintings; Spain discovered the New World. These are a few of the achievements of the dark whites. Nor are they idle now; in Greece and Italy to-day, in Spain and Portugal, art, invention, literature, and science are making rapid progress.

Every one has seen Italians. Those who come to us are mostly poor, and badly represent their people. They are dark skinned, dark brown or black eyed, black and curly haired, and have fine and regular features. They are, perhaps, the handsomest of European peoples. They love the company of others in their work and play. They delight in bright colors, and the women fasten bright kerchiefs about their dark hair, fold a brilliant cloth across the breast, and hang gaudy earrings in their ears. The Italian language is sweet and lively, and the people who speak it are impulsive and sunny in disposition, though easily angered, and quick to resent an injury.

Perhaps old Rome was the greatest city the world has known. The Roman people ruled the known nations, and their armies and governors were in all lands. Fine roads connected the city with every part of the Empire, and fragments of these roads still exist though almost two thousand years have passed. Rome was a centre to which flocked the painters, sculptors, poets, and orators of the world; there they produced their great works. At Rome were grand temples, great public buildings, the mighty Coliseum where public games were held. Ruins of these famous structures are still visited, and show the ancient grandeur of the dark whites of by-gone days.

Not far from Rome are ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, towns where many of the Romans had their country homes. In the year 79, more than eighteen hundred years ago, Vesuvius burst forth in a terrible eruption and destroyed the two cities. Pompeii was buried under a sheet of “ashes,” while Herculaneum was overflowed by streams of lava. For centuries no one knew that underneath these layers of “ashes” and lava a great part of the two cities lay undestroyed. Recently, by digging away the covering, they have discovered many curious and interesting things. House walls, paintings, tools, weapons, ornaments, all remain to tell us how the ancient Romans worked and lived.

But later Rome was also great. It was the central city of Christendom, the seat of the Pope’s power, the location of the Vatican. For this reason it was the place where master minds dealt with great problems, where great architects designed wonderful cathedrals, where painters produced the famous pictures of the world. Nor is Rome small to-day. She is no longer the mistress of the world; the temporal power of the church has been lessened; but modern Rome is still the capital of a great nation, a centre of enlightenment, a hive of industry; a shrine to which the lovers of art and beauty make their pilgrimage.

Even the poorest and meanest in Italy love music, painting, and statuary. Everywhere in public places one sees sculptures in fine marble. Such works in our own land would run some risk of injury or destruction, but in Italy no one thinks of harming them. The Italians all love music, and most of them know how to play some instrument.

Italian mosaics and cameos are famous. At Florence particularly the making of mosaics is important. Mosaics are pictures made by fitting together wee bits of stones, enamels, or glasses of bright colors. A pair of cuff buttons or a brooch may bear a spray of flowers, which looks like delicate painting, but is really made by the fitting together of these bits of stone. Cameos are cut from shell or onyx. Many sea shells are composed of layers of different colors of shelly matter. Onyx is a stone which is layered with different colors. A cameo is a piece of carving cut in such materials so that the different colored layers give different parts of the design. The work is beautiful and delicate. Perhaps the finest cameo cutting is done at Naples.

The Italian enjoys games. Several kinds of ball games are favorites with him. He delights in throwing dice and other games of chance. Boys are fond of _morra_. There are two players: at a given signal each extends one hand with a certain number of fingers stretched out; at the same moment each calls how many fingers he thinks both will have out. If either guesses right, he wins. This is a very old game, and was played in the time of Rome’s imperial grandeur.

The gayest time of the year for young and old is the Carnival. Every one is on the streets. They wear masks and are hideously dressed—like clowns, deformed and distorted beings, devils, animals. They make a great din and play all kinds of pranks. They throw flowers and paper cut to bits on one another and sprinkle passers-by with water. Men, women, and children all take part in this wild fun. The more ignorant Italians are superstitious. They fear witchcraft and the evil eye, and most of the lower class carry some lucky stone or other object to protect them against such dangers.

VIII.
BASQUES.

On both sides of the Pyrenees Mountains, in France and in Spain, there dwells a people which does not speak an Aryan language, the Basques. Many writers who have studied the Basque language have wondered how it came to exist alone in the midst of so many languages that have no relation to it.

The people who speak this language are called French Basques or Spanish Basques according to which side of the Pyrenees is their home. They differ somewhat. The Spanish Basques are usually short, clear-complexioned, with rather long and narrow heads and brown or black hair. The French Basques are frequently quite tall, have much broader heads, and sometimes light hair. Neither French nor Spanish Basques are pure in blood, being much mixed with their neighbors. Still, it is said that a Basque can generally be known by his face. The upper, forward part of his head is wide and bulging, while his face is long, narrow, and ends in a pointed chin.

The Basques are famous for their good health, their fine forms, and their quick and graceful movements. They are industrious, hard workers. In the uplands the men are shepherds, in the lowlands farmers and herders, and on the coast fishermen and sailors. In the cities they work at the docks, loading and unloading vessels. Women work at this hard work just the same as men. Formerly the men engaged much in piracy. Basque women are much employed as nurses in Spanish families.

They are a gay and happy people. Men play tennis, and women play skittles. Formerly they had many dances; one only of these is still kept. It is danced by men only, and though the steps are difficult, the dance is slow and grave. They delight in poetry and are able to compose rapidly. Verneau says: “One may say that in the land of the Basques every mountaineer is born a poet, but the poetry is made up on the spur of the moment. In the midst of the delights of a feast, some one at the table rises. All noise ceases. Complete silence is made about him. He sings; the stanzas follow one another without effort and without fatigue. His song is grave and measured; both the air and words are made at the moment.”