Pagina 301 di 490

He collected together from all parts of the world the strangest

instruments that could be found, either in the tombs of dead

nations or among the few savage tribes that have survived contact

with Western civilizations, and loved to touch and try them. He

had the mysterious juruparis of the Rio Negro Indians, that women

are not allowed to look at and that even youths may not see till

they have been subjected to fasting and scourging, and the

earthen jars of the Peruvians that have the shrill cries of

birds, and flutes of human bones such as Alfonso de Ovalle heard

in Chile, and the sonorous green jaspers that are found near

Cuzco and give forth a note of singular sweetness.