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dark season. Another trait less poetic but in the
same category was their refusal to eat
the Liver of one rabbit. Liver generally
is an esteemed cut, but gluttons as
they were neither Outuniah nor
Myosu (Father & Son) would touch the
morsel while Awahtok gobbled it
up with great glee. They had to
explain to me that some relative having
died, liver of rabbit was a taboo'd
article. Why or in what connection S.
could not then decipher. [*see P.*] I found afterwards that it was a religious penalty [of the angels?]. The uncleansed
intestines coming under no such restriction
were eagerly devoured.

Cunning, duplicity, deceit, all as
matters of course and seemingly without
address concealment or shame when
detected. Constitute my present impres=
sions of the character of these poor creatures.
That these are correct I do not
believe for my opportunities of intimate
relation are few and estimates of character
without study are nearly always
fallacious. The Impression however of
character is itself a trait : as such I
give mine. I have seen and bivouacked
among the Negritos of [Lu???] & the Papuans
the Andamans, the Arafuras, and
some of our most rudimental [of the] North
and South American aborigines, with
none of these man seem to me so inert and
primal nor his life so hard a struggle
against extreme suffering and vicissitude.
Nature yielding spontaneously nothing
they are forced to toil for their lingering
existence, and as the proper resources
of sea and land require, for their
obtainment, energies rather of the
predatory than mental sort, the craft