The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-24

rooms, and / saw some being weighed out
to purchasers on a pair of American scales.
1t costs the government, am told, about
60 cents hundredweight to make it, and
it's price at the warehouses is almost
cents a pound. The revenue from this
source amounts to about 100000 a year.
SCHOOLS AND CEMETERIES.
Ecuador has now public school system,
but only about one-tenth of the people, as
have said, can read and write. There are
in the country in the neighborhood of one
thousand primary schools, and also num-
Der Of those of higher grades. The children
in these schools all study out loud, and the
din is as great as that OF the schools of
China. Quito has a university, largely man.
aged by Jesuits, and there is also a college
at the city Of Cuenca- Here at Guayaquil
there are two newspapers, both of which
get short cable dispatches. The papers are
cried by newsboys on the streets. They are
printed on old American presses from type
made in the United States, although their
paper and ink come, / am told, from Ger
many Among tho other institutions of
Ecuador are a hospital here, and a hospital,
a lunatic and a leper asylum at Quito. The
cemetery at Quito is on the pigeon-hole
system. You rent a box in the wall for
your coffin, and it stays there as long as
your relatives or friends pay the rent.
When the pay stops the authorities pull out
the coffin and dump the remains into
great cistern adjoining the cemetery. A
similar custom prevails in the cemetery of
the city of Guanahuato, in Mexico, where
the bones OF the delinquent dead are shov-
eled away into great vault, where they lie
piled up like so much corn in a granary.
THEY TRADE IN HUMAN HEADS.
The bulk of the population of Ecuador is
made up of Indians. There are 10000 In
dams in the republic who have never been
subdued. and some of the savages upon the
Napo river which flows through the east
ern part of Ecuador into the Maronon, are
less known than the people of interior
Africa. Some of these tribes shoot their
enemies with poisoned arrows, using blow
guns made of reeds. They send the arrows
at you with great force, and a scratch
from one Of them is sure death. 1t is in
this same region that dried heads of hui
man beings are cured for sale. AS L write
these words a human head, cut off just be-
low the chin, lies on the table before me.
Whether it is that of a man or q woman I
do not know, but it's hair is as long, as
black and as silky the hair of any bru-
nette belle who reads this letter. When 1
ing it in my hand before the camera, the
black strands hung down almost a yard
below by fist, and the hair was so thick
that I could hardly grasp it all. The
head is one Of the famous dried heads of
the Ecuadorian Indians who live on the
eastern slope of the Andes. They have for
ages adopted this method of picking or
curing the heads Of their enemies, and
have been told that such a demand has
existed among the foreigners for the heads
as curiosities that within recent years the
Indians have been killing their friends and
relatives as well in order to supply it. The
Ecuadorian government has recently passed
a law making it a crime to buy or sell such
heads, and the seyerest penalties are inn
posed on those who engage in the traffic.
Still, I am offered this head for $100 in
gold and 1 could buy several more at the
same price. I don't think 1 shall take it.
1t is, however a wonderful thing. All of
the bones have in some way been taken
out of it, and the f1esh skin and hair of
the head only left. In parting the hair at
the back 1 see stitches, and it is evident
that the skin was cut open here to get out
the skull. The remainder of the skin is as
perfect as it was in life. only the whole
| head is so shrunken that it is not much
larger than a baseball Its color is per-
fectly black The eyes are closed, the fore
head over which the dark hair hangs, is
low, and the nose is almost that of negro
IN shape. The lips, which were once full,
| sensuous and vOluptuous, are sewed to-
gether with long cotton strands, which hang
down like a macreme fringe and the chin
has pronounced dimple in it, which. I
doubt not, once smiled at it's sweetheart and
treachery or in battle no one knows
The method of curing the heads is also a
| mystery. 1t is said that a red-whiskered
German came out to Ecuador some wears
ago determined to learn the process. He
went to Quito and then made his way east
ward to- the Indian country Since then he
has never been seen, but it is said that
about three months after his disapnear-
ance head beautifully cured was brought
in for sale. 1t was of lighter complexion
than the one on my table and the features
were German in cast, while on the chin was
beard of the same brick dust hue as that
OF the German explorer. From native
sources l learn that the Indians cure tho
heads after they have removed the bones
by filling them with hot pebbles and pass
ing them from hand to hand, pressing them
so carefully inward that in shrinking they
do not lose their shape. After this they
are baked in the sand and so treated that
they will last for ages. The skin of the
neck of this head is about one-sixth of an
inch thick Its pretty ears are about the
size Of silver quarter, and as L push back
it's hair and look at it's closed eyes almost
fear that it viii open them and glare at me.
THE INDIANS OF ECUADOR.
The most of the Indians of Ecuador are
semi-civilized. We have, it is estimated.
about 100000 Indians in the United States.
Ecuador has $4,000 Indians in a total pop
ulation of 10000, the remainder of the in
habitants being made up of 100000 whites
and about 100000 people of mixed races or
crosses of the whites and negroes with the
Indians The whites are the ruling class.
They are the government, the wealth. the
brains, the Ecuador that we know in BUSH
ness and in trade. The Indians are the
working population. They are thriftless
and seem to have little spirit or ambition
Their highest idea OF pleasure is plenty of
liquor, and the "Eucadorian smile" is as
common as the drink of America. They
live like dogs and work almost from birth
to death They till the soil. carry the
freight on their backs up and down the
mountains, and are in fact, often treated
more like cattle than the animals them
aIv Az