The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-08

open. On all occasions the women remain
al work in the houses and plantations"
Mr.. Benson has full dress of a Jivaro
warrior, given to him by young doctor
doomed to death by his people for allow
ing three patients to die.
The Jivaros run extensively to earrings
in their costumes. The earrings are sus-
pended from bit of cane passed through
the ear They consist of four long pend
ants of beetles wings of glistening green,
gold and purple, strung so as to form
pretty tassel The brilliant scarlet and
orange feathers of the Respondent toucan
are used for fringe. The arrangement OF
colors shows remarkably good taste.
1.-THE women are not so deliberately pro-
vided with earrings" says MI Behsoh
Their sole ornament is a stick passed
through the lower lip.
One of the most interesting things saw
them at was killing monkeys. You see,
1t takes 5000 monkey teeth to make
necklace. The savages move along noise
lessiy like snakes in the grass, and at
sight of a monkey through the foliage
they blow a tiny poisoned arrow through
a pipe at them. Poor monkey is struck
every time. He is dead in three minutes.
II the air be calm it is dangerous to be
within 100 yards of a Jivaro armed with
these miniature weapons for he can blow
a poisoned arrow and kill at that dis
lance.
Poison Is used also in catching fish.
The Jivaro is not bound by game laws or
fish commissioners so he takes large guam
titles of poison from the yarvasco plant
and throws it into the river. Then for
fully twenty miles down the stream fish
are gathered in canoes from the surface
of the water. They are only stupeied by
the narcotic The Jivaro cares nothing
for sport so long as he can get the food.
Yet you never meet him without his lance
poised and ready for it's mark. He car
ries it above his shoulder swaying back
and forth with every step he takes. Even
when standing he keeps his right arm
moving, always ready to strike. The il
varo warrior is like a sentinel in war
time. He is taught when a child that
he must be ever on the alert to defend
himself, and so you see him prodding
his lance at your face without any rea-
son. / was going to shoot on my first
experience of this kind, but my guides eX
planned and smiled at my ineXperience. l
laughed. but l laughed alone; in all my
experience with the savages l don't re-
member having heard one of them laugh.
'"They have no religion. They worship
nothing, though they believe in dreams
When well supplied with chicha, an in
toxicating liquor, they dream of killing
their enemies. Their doctors are the ac-
tors, medicine men and kakirs of the saw
ages along the Upper Amazon. Their ex-
istence Is like the butterflys, pleasant and
sunny at first. Free chicha and conquests
in love affairs are among their perquisites,
When anybody is sick the family gets u
| great quantity of chicha and calls in the
| doctor. He at once proceeds to decrease
the supply of liquor. When almost DRUNK
he sings, dances and goes through a hid
eous gamut of incantations. Then he
looks at his patient and sucks the affected
place industriously, splitting out a spider.
" How do you feel? he asks.
Z" No better
''EIe sucks again and spits out gravel
or a thorn. The same question is re-
peated and each time the doctor brings
forth scorpion or lizard or monkeys
tooth, until the patient imagines there II
some Improvement and says so.
IF the patient dies the doctor is sus~
pected of being witch; the second time
he is declared one, and the third time his
own life is in danger, so much so that
his own brother will assist in killing him.
This very thing came under my own OBJ
servation and It was from one of thess
unfortunates that ] got this dress ana
these ornaments. The condemned man
gave them to me shortly before he was
killed.
NEARLY every museum has one Of the
Jivaro preserved heads. They are great
curiositites. The warriors decapitate their
victims in warfare and keep the heads as
ornaments at their girdles How these
heads are preserved is a mystery. The
skull is removed and the skin and flesh
treated with extracts from plants which
contract and tan them. Then the hollow
head is filled with hot pebbles and dried.
The pebbles are removed and a strange
object the size of a mans head remains.
But the dead face is horribly real.
Farther back among the mountains and
at the very headwaters of the river ANA
zon we found another and smaller tribe
of Jivaros. They are exceedingly friendly
and in some respects the best-natureG lot
OF savages ] ever saw in South America.
III ere must have been about 200 of them.
They have short, dumpy figures and fully
one-half of them were going around under