Sometimes, when I was first living amongst them, I happened to stoop over a torrent or stream to drink some water but my companions protested vehemently declaring that it might do me a great deal of harm.
They are afraid of poisons in every shape and form as they are also of contagion and would even be frightened if in drinking they were to touch their bamboo bottles and glasses with their lips. They are very clever in pouring the contents down their throats without letting the receptacle come in contact with their mouths, an accomplishment which we should not be able to achieve until after many damp trials.
It might almost be desired that our civilization would imitate this hygienic custom of the savages. How many infections the less! How much fewer the microbes that poison the blood of our poor people!
The Sakais do not drink milk, not only from the difficulty in obtaining it but also from a strange prejudice which I have never succeeded well in understanding.
Once they are weaned they never swallow a single drop of milk.
Neither do they drink alcoholic beverages for the simple reason that they have not got them and do not know what they are.
If they should ever come to taste them and procure them easily will they not crave for them like all other savages?
As soon as the Sakai's frugal meal is finished he fills his mouth with tobacco, or if he has none, with sirih.
