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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in her development scarcely relevant to this article that I may not examine them here. The agricultural depression and other causes which have given rise to militant populism in the West have received their full share of attention from numerous writers, and it will therefore suffice to say that they do not appear to be in any way associated with the foreign element.

I have only been able in this article to give a rough outline of the effects which the alien has wrought on the civilization of the United States; much of consequence has been left unsaid, many important stages of development omitted. I can at most claim to have drawn attention to some important facts hitherto overlooked, and to have pointed out a direction which future investigation may follow in an endeavor to solve the great immigration problem.

THE CAINGUÁ OF PARAGUAY.

By Dr. MACHON.

THE several tribes of Cainguá Indians are scattered through the immense forest region that extends from the Ygatini to the Monday, and from the central Cordillera of Paraguay to the banks of the upper Parana. In the midst of those grand yerbales (forests containing the maté, or Paraguay tea plant), these children of the forest dispute for their hunting grounds with the "Tupi," or refugee braves from Brazilian hostility. Like the latter, they belong to the Guarani-Brazilian race, and speak the Guarani language. They form numerous groups of population, divided off into small tribes that live isolated from one another, and assemble only occasionally to resist an invader or undertake some expedition. Like the ancient Guaranis, their native docility is so great that we can easily comprehend how the Jesuit missionaries gained an ascendency over them. There is no doubt in my mind that the Cainguá, whom I had an opportunity of studying, were subjected to that influence about two hundred years ago, and have since gradually fallen back, after the decline and ruin of the missions, into their primitive savagery. Of this bare contact with civilization they still retain their belief in a Supreme Being living in the sky, and know something of St. Thomas. But, aside from these rudimentary notions, their religion is null and destitute of every kind of outer worship. A few of the old men recollect some of the Latin hymns with which their ancestors rocked them to sleep, and they have preserved a hierarchical organization from the past.

Every tapui or village has its cacique, who is dependent in time