The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1901-08-22

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queer brown Indians, who paint their
faces red to scare the devil, and in
dulge in a number of other more or
less curious customs and ceremonies.
But they are harmless people, under
chiefs who make their own laws as
occasion requires.
Method of Dispensing Justice.
When n of their number has trans
crossed a council is held around their
tribal fire, the gravity of the crime dis
cussed and the penalty which the guilty
one must pay decided. Usually a fine
is fixed. Being notified of the amount,
the culprit without demur seeks pas
sage tn some port where, finding en-
ployment, he remains till he has accu-
INFLATED sufficient to pay the fine,
whereupon he returns to his people
with Joy and thus rehabilitates him
self. AS the chief means of conveyance
among these people is by their narrow
dugouts, which they paddle up and
down the numerous streams intersect-
ing their interminable forests, they
make admirable canoemen and are Gag
erly employed as such at Belize, Brit
ish Honduras, by the mahogany cut
ters, whose traffic is UP the rapidly
flowing Belize river.
A few clumsy looking ~*'bungoes'
cross the lake and one American-built
steamer, the Victoria, which carries
passengers to and from Granada. 1t is
here that the aspect of the landscape
changes and the great chain of mount
aims forming the backbone of the two
American continents finds it's lowest
depression. The great forests of the
eastern coast have disappeared
and fertile table lands, luxuriant
groves and ~grass-covered p~rairies or
savannahs with rising mountain peaks,
deep ravines and roaring torrents char
a~cterize the scenery as the traveller
journeys onward. And it is here that
the sparse population of the country
is chiefly concentrated. They are broad
ly separated into two distinct classes,
the Ladino and the Indian. Ladino is
a general term meaning the upper or
better class, and is applied alike to
all white natives, creoles and mesti-
zoes, whatever their origin. The pure
blood Indians form the most despised
class. The dark-skinned Ladino will
readily account for his dark complex
ion by claiming negro origin, while
he will sturdily deny that Indian blood
flows in his veins, so deep set is the
stigma which was cast upon the abor-
igines by the early conquerors.
The West Coast Indians.
The Indians of the interior and west
coast differ from those of the eastern
slope in their attributes as greatly as
do the varying aspects of the country
While the Mosquito and other tribes
all more or less related, are a darA
brown, bushy-haired people, who have
made no progress in the arts of civil
ization, those of the tablelands and the
western slope are a yellow race, who
at the time of the conquest possessed
a civilization closely allied to that O
the Aztecs. They are at the present day
an amiable, polite, industrious and in
teresting people, though unprogres
sive. Their industry is of he mos
p"d1nSGdKluS anu III Aduy AAoIdACCo I'll
thinking character. They do things be
cause their forefathers did them AM
consequently waste their time in SLOW
and antiquated methods.
The construction of the canal will
draw thousands of foreigners to Nicar
aqua and the effects of this new AM
heterogeneous element upon its pres
ent population is hard to anticipate
There are vast fields awaiting owner
to develop them and indications o
gold and silver mines to be discovere
and exploited. The immense forests 9
the Mosquito country, with all thei
valuable timber and rubber, are a
vet unexplored and there are prairie
CAPABLE of sustaining millions of cattle
while on the higher elevations the cot
fee tree grows in reckless profusior
In such a country, with its thousand
of square miles of undeveloped, Unir
habited territory, it is not hard to in
agine when the difficulties of trav'
are once removed, the influx of a bus,
striving population from the alread
y crowded centers Of the old worl
,e which shall make of that region,
1T richly favored by nature, a and
blessing to it's civilized inhabitants.
Thomas R. Dawley, Jr.