In this act the idea
of a future state is more distinctly seen than ever it has been seen
amongst the Lenguas, who burn all a man's possessions at his death.
The ceremony finished, the grave was covered in, logs and twigs being
carelessly thrown on the top, apparently simply to indicate the
existence of a grave. The thing which struck me most was the intense
spirit of vengeance shown."
Notwithstanding such terrible savagery, however, the Indian has ideas
of right and wrong that put Christian civilization to shame. The
people are perfectly honest and truthful. I believe they cannot
lie, and stealing is entirely unknown among them.
Many are the experiences I have had in the Chaco. Some of them haunt
me still like ghostly shadows. The evening camp-fire, the glare of
which lit up and made more hideous still my savage followers,
gorging themselves until covered with filth and gore. The times when,
from sheer hunger, I have, like them, torn up bird or beast and eaten
it raw. The draughts of water from the Indian hole containing the
putrefying remains of some dead animal; my shirt dropping off in rags
and no wash for three weeks. The journeys through miles of malarial
swamps and pathless wilderness. The revolting food, and the want of
food. Ah! the memory is a bad dream from which I must awake.
