BOTOCUDO INDIAN WITH LIP PLUG (TYLOR).
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.
FISH-GIRL OF SCHEVENINGEN, HOLLAND (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH).
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.
