[21] Mons. de Lavayesse, in his interesting work on Venezuela, makes some pertinent remarks on this subject worthy of the consideration and study of learned physiologists. “Why is it,” he says, “that individuals proceeding from a mixture of African and indigenous American blood, have greater strength, finer forms, more intellectual faculties and moral energy, than the Negro or Indian? Why, although the white be, in general, superior in strength of body, mental powers, and in moral force, to the aboriginal American and to the negro—why, I ask, are the individuals born of the union of a white with an Indian woman, (the Mestizos, for instance,) inferior in mental and corporeal qualities to the Zambos? Why are the Mestizos generally distinguished by finer figures, agreeable countenances, and in mildness and docility of their dispositions? Why is the mulatto, son of a white and a negress, superior to the Zambo in intellectual faculties, but his inferior in physical? Why is it, that when those races are mixed, their progeny is remarkable for a more healthy and vigorous constitution, and for more vital energy, than the individuals born in the same climate of indigenous European or African blood, without mixture?”
[22] See Humboldt, Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America.
[23] Since the above first appeared in print, I find this fact corroborated by Sir J. Emerson Tennent, in his interesting “Sketches on the Nat. Hist. of Ceylon,” as practised by the natives of that island.
[24] Rastrero—a native of El Rastro—literally, a mean rogue.
[25] The eyes of crocodiles are green.
[26] Centigrade Thermom. = 97° to 126° Fah.
[27] Wanderings in South America.
[28] Dr. Lindley, speaking of the properties of Aristolochias in general, and more especially of A. serpentaria—a North American species—observes: “As its name implies, it is used as an antidote to serpent bites, a quality in which several other species participate, among which may be mentioned A. trilobata, a Jamaica plant, also employed as a sudden and powerful sudorific; and the Cartagena A. unguicida, concerning which Jaquin writes, that the juice of the root, chewed and introduced into the mouth of a serpent, so stupefies it that it may for a long time be handled with impunity; if the reptile is compelled to swallow a few drops, it perishes in convulsions.”—Vegetable Kingdom.
[29] The Romance of Natural History—Second Series, chap. ix.
[30] Tio Tigre and Tio Conejo—Uncle Tiger and Uncle Rabbit. These are the heroes of endless adventures, the mother’s never-failing source of amusement to her children, supposed to have taken place in the woods of Venezuela.