Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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These Acts Of Cruelty, I Confess, Are Less Frequent Than They Are
Believed To Be; Yet They Occur Even In The Missions, During The Time
When The Indians Leave The Village, To Retire To The Conucos Of The
Neighbouring Forests.
It would be erroneous to attribute these actions
to the state of polygamy in which the uncatechized Indians live.
Polygamy no doubt diminishes the domestic happiness and internal union
of families; but this practice, sanctioned by Ismaelism, does not
prevent the people of the east from loving their children with
tenderness. Among the Indians of the Orinoco, the father returns home
only to eat, or to sleep in his hammock; he lavishes no caresses on
his infants, or on his wives, whose office it is to serve him.
Parental affection begins to display itself only when the son has
become strong enough to take a part in hunting, fishing, and the
agricultural labours of the plantations.
While our boat was unloading, we examined closely, wherever the shore
could be approached, the terrific spectacle of a great river narrowed
and reduced as it were to foam. I shall endeavour to paint, not the
sensations we felt, but the aspect of a spot so celebrated among the
scenes of the New World. The more imposing and majestic the objects we
describe, the more essential it becomes to seize them in their
smallest details, to fix the outline of the picture we would present
to the imagination of the reader, and to describe with simplicity what
characterises the great and imperishable monuments of nature.
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