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Show CENTRAL AMERICAN INDIANS. They Are Not Wliull. I re from (In ! Maya ft Traralcr. It Is a lommon Impression that the Central American Indian Is singularly honest and free from guile ' snld a traveler who cumo up on the last banana boat, but don t you believe a word of that stor) 1 recently mado n mulcback trip to tho Olancha district In northwest Honduras, my particular purpose being to take a look at tho famous old placer diggings on tho Ounyapo river I spent a week or so In tho region and was cspedally Interested In-terested In tho natlvo Indians who llvo along the banks of tho stream and who regard the placers as n sort of family pocketbook, from which they help themselves as thiy please When a household needs anything that cannot can-not bo hunted or fished In other words, that has to be bought at tho store tho women sally out with their 'batens,' or wooden bowls, and proceed to wash ns much gold ns It required for tho purchaso Tho motal they sccuro In that way Is usually In tho form of minute grains, hardl) as largo as tho head ot a pin, but occasionally they find little nuggets and that brings mo to my story. Tho day bcfo'O I left I was at the principal store ot the district dis-trict talking to tho proprietor or 'tlenderos,' when a typical Olancha Indian In-dian shambled In and sat down on tho floor. I attempted to question him about tho diggings, and presently he untied a corner ot his neckcloth and showed me three small fantastically shaped nuggets, which ho aald his wife bad lately found. It ocurred to me tbey would make Interesting souvenirs mounted a senrfptns or bangles, and after some haggling I bought tho lot for f I the weighed altogether something some-thing under a quarter of nn ounco I was so disarmed ! tho apparent simplicity sim-plicity ot the Indian that I never thought to examine the nuggets closely until I reached Port Cortex, and thou II hnidl) medod a second look to see that they woio not gold at all, but evidently evi-dently u sort of brasu alloy. A few days later I learned from nn engineer who rame down from the (Juavapo district dis-trict that in) lndhn friend was boasting boast-ing that ho had stolen some yellow 'composition metal bearing from n stamp mill and melted up a fragment In a home-made cla) crucible. In that way ho produced his handsome nuggets nug-gets If ho had put In the satno amount of labor ut the placers bo could easily havo washed out $20 worth of gold That's what I call a natural appctlto for crookedness ' Now Orleans Time Democrat. |