Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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They go to rest
very regularly at seven in the evening, and rise long before
daylight, at half-past four in the morning.
Every Indian has a fire
near his hammock. The women are so chilly, that I have seen them
shiver at church when the centigrade thermometer was not below 18
degrees. The huts of the Indians are extremely clean. Their
hammocks, their reed mats, their pots for holding cassava and
fermented maize, their bows and arrows, everything is arranged in
the greatest order. Men and women bathe every day; and being almost
constantly unclothed, they are exempted from that uncleanliness, of
which the garments are the principal cause among the lower class of
people in cold countries. Besides a house in the village, they have
generally, in their conucos, near some spring, or at the entrance
of some solitary valley, a small hut, covered with the leaves of
the palm or plantain-tree. Though they live less commodiously in
the conuco, they love to retire thither as often as they can. The
irresistible desire the Indians have to flee from society, and
enter again on a nomad life, causes even young children sometimes
to leave their parents, and wander four or five days in the
forests, living on fruits, palm-cabbage, and roots. When travelling
in the Missions, it is not uncommon to find whole villages almost
deserted, because the inhabitants are in their gardens, or in the
forests (al monte). Among civilized nations, the passion for
hunting arises perhaps in part from the same causes:
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