Arizona republican., 1908-12-06

mOny from members of their own tribe or captured from other tribes, and one Is usually the favorite for a varying length of time. Upon the women. as in all primitive stages of development, falls the burden of the rough daily work in the yucca fields. where there are any, or around the household. The man does the fight ing for the protection of his wives and family, hunts game, and has gen eral direction of his household. There is usually very little jealousy or quar- reling among them.
 Cannibalism.
 About the Putumayo river district there still roam certain tribes who practice cannibalism, not only enjoy ing the flavor of human flesh, but also believing that they partake of the strength. both physical and in telltctual, of their victims. Prisoners of war are almost always disposed of in this manner, amid great festivity, the prisoner being allowed for days previous all the food and delicacies of the village that he can consume, in order that he may become properly fattened. The indifference which these prisoners display toward the fate that awaits them. even when they know the exact time of their doom. is re markable. They eat great quantities of all that is given them, that they may make the better feast for their captors, perform duties as slaves, oft en going unaccompanied for consider able distances from the place of cap tfrsfftr anI Rtrifhn1t mi ing to escape.
 Slavery.
 The average Peruvian would no doubt show resentment at the state ment that slavery exists in Peru, yet such is in reality the case with most of the Indians who come in contact with the whites. For the greater part however, they are not treated harshly, and in their submissive way, with enough to eat and drink, seem to be cOntented and probably as well off as roaming in the woods. Their condition might be termed a system of peonage The Indians enter the employ of some rubber gatherer though not infrequently by force. and immediately become indebted to him for food, etc. According to Peruvian law a person so indebted to another can be held and obliged to work till the debt is paid, and in these in stances the employer sees to it that the employe never receives sufficient wages to extinguish his indebtedness, and he is therefore always practically a slave. By paying off this indebt- edness a person may obtain a ser want, who in this way becomes simi- larly the slave of him who pays the debt. However. the scarcity of labor and the ease with which the Indians can usually escape and live on the natural products of the forest oblige the owners to treat them with some consideration.
 Fast Disappearing.
 Through intermarriage with the whites, disease and wars. the Indians of Peru are rapidly disappearing, and, it is said, statistics compiled for a given period during recent years, show that their numbers are dimin- ishing at the rate of , per cent per annum: in twenty years the wild In dians of the Upper Amazon will have disappeared almost entirely, and it seems only a question of time when the dying tribes of South American Indians must meet the fate of their brothers of North America, and the two in common, once the rulers of two continents, become only scattered remnants of their former greatness. if not entirely engulfed by the wave which seems sweeping over them.