Judged by some of the pictures in books purporting to give accounts of the South American Indians, the photograph adjoining (Plate VIII.) would represent an Indian chieftain decked in his best to welcome the newly-arrived traveller, instead of what it is—merely a group of my escort and carriers tricked out in the rag, tag, and bobtail array they deemed due to my dignity and their own. Far different is the actual scene when the Indian homestead is approached and one meets these sons of the forest—be they Boro, Witoto, or others—in their native haunts and natural garb, unaffected by “civilised” influences. From the shadow of the interior will stalk the chief, accompanied by his escort of warriors, all naked, but for a strip of bark-cloth about the loins. Round the neck of the chief is a necklace of jaguar teeth, in his hand a broadsword of iron-wood; the men with him are destitute of feathers or ornaments, but each holds poised in his left hand a bunch of throwing javelins.

It is regrettable that returning explorers[61] have deemed it a necessary concession to unscientific prejudice to illustrate the natives of the Amazons in clothing or drapery that is wholly foreign to their custom and to their thought. The hypocrisy was more common before the uncompromising days of photography, but the effect of the old woodcuts and engravings is to give an entirely wrong impression of the appearance of the Indian in his own haunts. Even so accurate an observer as Crevaux discounts much of the value of his illustration by clothing his figures in a manner that could only be possible within the Rubber Belt, or in the case of his personal servants. Since the introduction of photography, non-existent clothing has ceased to appear in pictures of the Amazonian tribes, but still much misconstruction has been occasioned by grouping sets of natives in such a fashion as to make it appear that they are ashamed of their nakedness. As a fact, they are totally unaware of it. Therefore it cannot be too strongly emphasised that the Indians of these tropical regions are no more alive to any idea of indecency in their lack of apparel than are the people of England conscious of immodesty in their conventional attire at a Lord Mayor’s banquet or a function of the Court. It is as impossible to comprehend the true psychology of the Amazonian from the pedestal of the prude as from the pulpit of the priest. Difficult as it may be for either to understand, it is none the less true that to some peoples dress appears to be more indelicate than nudity.[62] He who would see truly must divest the mind of inherited and instilled prejudices in favour of much that to the natives has no meaning or reason for existence. Moreover, he might do well to remember that clothes are not always worn from motives of decency. Then he will understand that the naked Indian in his forest is no more unchaste than is the statue of a Greek god in the galleries of the British Museum.

It may be laid down as a generalisation for the regions under investigation that the women are wholly destitute of clothing, and the men wear little or nothing but what the Witoto call a moh-hen, that is, a strip of beaten bark-cloth carried from front to rear between the legs and tucked in at either end over a string or strap of bark-cloth bound about the waist. As the temperature varies hardly at all with the season of the year, there is no periodical deviation from this rule. Farther south the tribes make blankets, but here, though they were interested in mine, they have nothing of that description, and the native sleeps at night without covering, exactly as he, or she, walks abroad throughout the day.

There is practically no scope for originality, no choice of costume. Even the chief is undistinguished from his tribesmen by the character of his attire, although as a rule he wears a necklace of tiger teeth, which is the outward evidence of his rank. His wife does not wear any special ornaments, but of necessity she possesses the greater number. The only member of the tribe who varies from his fellows is the medicine-man, and he will adopt any idea that appeals to him as an addition to the eccentricity of his appearance. One Andoke medicine-man, whom I photographed, was wearing a turban of bark-cloth dyed a brilliant scarlet; but his taste in this particular was purely individual, and denoted neither professional nor tribal distinction. The large bag shown in the adjoining illustration should be noted, for it was greatly admired by the tribe. It appeared to be made in the same way as the ligatures, with threads of red and undyed palm-fibre. It was not manufactured by the Andoke, but had been obtained by barter; however, it was of indigenous make, and probably came from the north of the Japura. Among the Orahone the medicine-men fashion for themselves vestments of tapir hide, the only instance in these parts of skins being utilised for clothing that came to my knowledge.

The Amazonian boy is first provided with a breech-cloth when he is five years old. His earliest lesson is in its manufacture, for every Indian fashions his own clothing, is his own tailor and cloth manufacturer. He goes to the bush and selects a tree,[63] on which he marks a space 6 feet long by 9 inches in width, and strips from it both the outer and inner barks. He separates the two layers, cuts the strip of inner bark in two, and carries the pieces to the river, where the material is thoroughly soaked. Afterwards this is beaten with a small wooden mallet until it forms a yard length of bark-cloth 9 inches in width. Nothing further is needed, for this makes the breech-cloth, and it is sufficient to pass between the legs and tuck securely over the waist-band in front and behind. There is no variation from the type or method of manufacture,[64] and this simplest form of clothing is common to all tribes inhabiting the wide stretch of country between the rivers Issa and Japura.

The breech-cloth is never discarded by the male Indian, nor, in the sight of man or woman, would he ever remove it. When bathing he wades into a sufficient depth before he interferes with its adjustment. Even when a man dies his breech-cloth is buried with him.

South and west of the Issa, in the country of the Orahone, the men wear, like other Napo tribes, long shirts of bark-fibre, on which are traced circular designs painted in red, while north of the Japura the Karahone wear stiff stays of bark, like strait-waistcoats, above their breech-cloths. These garments are tightly plaited on to the body, and end in a plaited fringe. They must be cut off to permit of removal. The same uncomfortable costume extends northward from the Karahone country into that of the Umaua and the tribes of the Apaporis district.

The Menimehe who, it will be remembered, occupy the left bank of the Japura to the south and east of the Karahone, wear a loin-cloth with an apron, which extends to the knees, of loose palm-fibre suspended over it. This apron is 18 inches long and 6 inches in width, and is taken off in the house. It is worn ceremonially, and always donned for war and for dances. The men of the Opaina, who succeed the Menimehe on the east between the Miriti and Apaporis Rivers, wear aprons after the same fashion as their neighbours. The women wear nothing.

The Makuna, who dwell to the north of the Kuretu on the other side of the Apaporis, affect a small belt of beaten bark, from which depends in front a long apron of bast. The Kuretu group, who inhabit both sides of the Japura to the east of the Menimehe, improve upon the habit of their neighbours. Over the loin-cloth the men wear a bast kilt, or petticoat, which dangles as low as the ankles. When walking, this garment is tucked up between the legs, something after the manner of a Malay sarang. The loin-cloth is retained below.

All the tribes on the right or south bank of the Japura follow the fashion of the Boro; the men wear only breech-cloths, the women go absolutely naked.

Thus it will be observed that the fashion of dress falls into a definite geographical progression,[65] and there is no sudden change in passing from one neighbouring tribe to another, although the tribal distinctions are very marked.

The natives wear no head-covering as a protection. In a heavy rain an Indian on the trail will tear down a palm-leaf and carry it over his head as we should an umbrella, and he will adopt the same rough-and-ready though effective means to shield himself from the sun.

No gloves are worn nor coverings for the feet. Boots of any sort, in fact, would be impossible wear; even Europeans dispense with them. Still, it is not possible for the white man to go through the forest bare-footed. Personally, I used carpet slippers, which were washed every evening after the day’s trek, and dried during the night.[66]

If for ordinary everyday life the attire of the Indian is of the slightest, on the occasion of a festival or a dance the most elaborate sartorial preparations have to be made. Wallace has enumerated no less than “twenty distinct articles forming the feather head-dress,” which is worn by the Menimehe and the Nonuya, as well as by the Uaupes Indians of whom he wrote.[67] Then there are the feather armlets—ruffles of bright-tinted plumage worn on the arm,[68]—wooden combs decorated with tufts of feathers, and curassow down for the women, anklets and strings of rattles hung round the legs, aprons of painted bark or belts of beads, earrings, and necklaces, and, supreme vanity, there are the elaborately-painted designs on the skin that are to the Indian belle what the latest Paris “creation” is to her civilised sister.

According to Sir Everard im Thurn every tribe makes its own feather head-dress after a special colour scheme.[69] I did not find this to be the case with the Issa-Japura tribes. Instead of making them according to rule, rather do they make them according to luck. Whatever they can get in the way of gay plumage, feathers of the parrot, the macaw, or the toucan, especially the macaw, because its feathers are the longest, be the colour what it may, is employed indiscriminately. The effects are very brilliant, but there is nothing made in these districts of such elaborate description as the gorgeous feather-cloaks manufactured by the Napo Indians, which are veritable works of art. The Issa-Japura tribes content themselves with a coronet of the gayest breast-feathers, plumed with tufts of the long feathers from the tail, all tied together with fibre thread.[70] The Boro men on festive occasions also stick these long macaw feathers into their arm-ligatures. The chief’s head-dress is more lavish than those of his warriors. The only boy I ever saw wearing one was the young son of a chief. Women do not wear the feather head-dress, but they attach the white down of the curassow duck by means of some resinous substance—such as rubber latex, or the milky secretion of the cow-tree—for decorative purposes round their legs, between the ligatures. The result of this is to make the calves look enormous. The men do not decorate with down. The Indians are invariably most careful of their feather ornaments. At the end of a dance an old man, so Koch-GrÜnberg noted, will come round and knock the dust off the feathers with a long cane. I have myself observed Indians, when overheated by their violent exertions at a dance, take off their feather ornaments to preserve them from sweat. They will never part with them, as they are communal, not personal, possessions, and I found they objected extremely to any attempt I made to photograph them when wearing their dancing feathers.

Combs for festive occasions are made of palm wood, with spines of the BacÁba palm[71] for teeth, fixed in with pitch, and are ornamented with feathers. These tribes do not bind up their hair with coroÁ string as do some of the Uaupes Indians.[72] As may be judged from the illustrations, hair-dressing fashions are not very varied. They range for the men from quite short, as among the Muenane, to the long hair fancied by some of the Boro. The majority wear their hair slightly shorter than the women’s, as a rule divided down the middle, but occasionally cut straight across the forehead in a shock fringe, reminiscent of the coster’s. The only variation among the women is a band, a strip of beaten bark-cloth, occasionally seen among the Resigero (see Plate XII.).[73] The Makuna wear their hair in pigtails. The Karahone women keep their hair cropped short. In the Boro comb of the illustration the black spines are set between two pieces of cane, bound over with fibre, and finished with basket-work of narrow cane strips, light and dark, plaited into a regular pattern. The spines are 3¼ inches long, and project to within a quarter of an inch of the ends for about 1? inch on either side of the basket-work back. This is 3¾ inches long and about half an inch thick. The spines are neatly pointed at either end, and the whole resembles very nearly—but for the uncommon effect of the basket-work—a European comb of rather large and coarse make.

The Andoke comb is also made with two pieces of cane, slightly decorated with chevron incisions. It is a quarter of an inch shorter than the Boro comb, and has spines on one side only. These are set in pitchy matter between the cane, and project seven-eighths of an inch. From the hardened centre at one end depends a short tuft of fibre string, to which feathers may be attached, and a longer string from the other end is fastened to half a nutshell cut as a cup, very similar to the tobacco pot, and made from the same kind of nut. This is 2? inches long by 1? deep in the centre, and 1½ across. It is black and highly polished. This small cup is used to hold the latex employed for depilatory purposes.

The Witoto comb is of much rougher construction, with a thicker back. As with the Boro, the spines are set right through, but instead of a section of cane, two sticks, round bits of bamboo or reed are employed, and the whole coated with pitch and tied with fibre string. The length of the spines is a quarter of an inch longer than in the Boro comb, but owing to the more clumsy back they project a quarter of an inch less.

Having laid down the rough generalisation that all the women of these tribes wear nothing, one has to begin the list of various exceptions that go to prove this rule. It is true that they are nude to the extent of wearing no garment of any description, but though naked they do not appear to be so; and it is a qualified nakedness after all, qualified with a variety of ornament, and, above all, of paint.

The Indian woman’s ideas on the subject of clothing are well illustrated by the behaviour of those women who were of my own party. I gave them djibbehs, but, unless I happened to be present and they feared my anger, they never would wear them. For this attitude they advanced five excellent reasons. If the sun shone the bright light would damage the garment by causing the colour to fade.[74] If it rained the djibbeh would get wet. If they were out in the bush the thorns caught and tore the material. If they were dancing the useless encumbrance of a dress would hide all their carefully-executed adornments of paint. If they were in the house a covering of any sort would be merely ridiculous. There were obviously, then, few or no opportunities left to wear their new, but cumbersome and useless, finery. Not that the Indian man or woman has no desire for finery, quite the contrary, their ornaments are more important than their dress, in fact their ornaments are their dress.

The women of the Issa-Japura tribes wear a broad girdle for a dance.[75] It is worn on no other occasions, and removed immediately the dance is at an end. These dancing girdles are made by the women of seeds or Brummagem beads if such can be had. These are strung in about two-foot lengths, and so arranged that when two or three dozen strings are fastened into a broad flat band the varying colours make a bold and definite design. Like all these Indian ornaments, they evince a fine artistic sense of colouring and pattern. Beads are passed inwards from the Rubber Belt from tribe to tribe. On account of the isolation of these peoples, they cannot aspire to have fashions direct from Birmingham, and novel patterns hardly seem to occur to them. Designs must be symmetrical, and they are quite content to copy the old-established ones. The colours vary, but dark beads are the most sought after, dark blue being more favoured than red. Black and white ones are the most prized, but red and white is the combination usually seen. Any woman may possess a girdle, and it is an individual, not a tribal, possession, the reverse of the custom as regards the men’s feather head-dresses. These girdles are exceedingly handsome and wonderfully well constructed.

Beads are especially treasured by the Karahone women, and they will wear chain upon chain, amounting in the aggregate to a considerable weight. The number worn by a Boro woman may be judged from the illustration (p. 154), where the white appendage round the woman’s neck is made simply by stringing a few pounds of white beads together. Both men and women wear necklaces. Besides those made only of beads, they are made of tiger—that is to say jaguar—teeth, and pig, tapir, marmoset, and cat provide ivories that may be strung on curÁna thread, besides the necklace of accomplished vengeance, the string of human teeth. With the exception of the latter, the teeth are bored through the fang, and threaded at regular intervals, interspersed with beads, bone, or Brummagem, tiny discs of bone or shell, or brightly-coloured seeds. The pendants on the necklaces seen in the illustrations are mostly coins, depreciated Chilian dollars as a rule.[76] Those shown in the various photographs were either given to the wearers by me or had filtered through from the Rubber Belt; a few may have reached these primitive folk through the medium of intertribal barter. In any case, they are always most rare and cherished possessions. The pendants generally worn are thin, flat, triangular pieces of beaten metal, obtained either from coins or old brass cartridge cases. The rarity of metal in these parts is marked by the small quantity allowed for any one ornament, which is invariably of extreme thinness, and hardly more than a featherweight. They are not grooved, incised, or beaten into any design, but have merely a smoothed surface. The edge is rounded, not sharp. They are hung by a small beaded fibre string to the necklet or more generally to the ear-plug.

The necklaces are matters of importance, for they disclose the status of the wearers. The skill of a warrior as a hunter, his bravery in war, is proved by the character of the teeth that circle his neck: the more successful the hunter the finer the teeth he wears, the more numerous the adornments of his family. Most to be envied in Indian opinion is a string of human teeth, in that it is the witness of revenge; the teeth are from the head of an enemy, for a man wears only the teeth of foes or game that he himself has killed, and at his death they will be buried with him, unless he fall at the hands of a foe, and his string of teeth go to swell the spoils of the victor. Human teeth are never bored, they are carefully bound into the necklace with fine fibre string. The very insignificance of the small, worn, discoloured teeth is in itself a sinister characteristic, presupposes an object other than ornamental, adds a horrible touch to the bizarre effect of all this barbaric bravery.

Necklaces of human teeth are frequently finished, if the teeth are not sufficient in number for the required length, with rounded bits of bone. Other teeth are spaced out with discs, some made of bone, others of shell obtained from river mussels, or even with knots in the fibre thread. The Boro necklace of human teeth in the accompanying illustration is made on cotton twist, an imported article very seldom found among these tribes,[77] though one of the Okaina beaded garlands figured on Plate XIV. is also made on cotton string, not palm-fibre as is customary. The handsome jaguar tooth necklace loses some of its artistic values in a black-and-white reproduction, which inevitably cannot do justice to the creamy ivory, shading to rich browns, of the teeth, making effective show against the red and blue of the beads, the dull colourlessness of the pieces of bone. Some of the teeth have a very primitive criss-cross grooving scratched on the fang end, others have a more elaborate attempt at a carved design. Each design differs, but the same idea of involuted curves is traceable in all.

In cases where Indians are too poor or too isolated to secure a sufficient supply of the Brummagem article, chains are still made of the bright red and black seeds of a bush plant, as they were before beads were obtainable; or bits of bone are employed, short lengths of cane or reed, or even red berries, gay enough when fresh, but dull and crinkled when they wither and fade. Beetles also are utilised for ornament, and the fondness of the Indian for black is shown in his rejection of such beetles as the gaudy-coloured Longicornes and his preference for the shiny breastplate of a fat squat beetle in black armour.[78] These strung on fibre string look like irregularly carved jet beads, but are far lighter, and make a soft and hollow rattle when shaken.

Besides these chains and necklaces the natives are very partial to a tight-fitting necklet of white beads bordering either side of a row of small, flat, diamond-shaped pieces of black wood, or the black shell of a nut, or gourd. These necklets vary a trifle in width: some have the diamond almost squared, they may have one, two, or three white beads between the black points, but there is no greater divergence than this from the stereotyped pattern. The polished bits of wood, like the beetle cases, resemble jet; and the sharp distinction of black and white sets off the native beauty, as a band of black velvet is supposed to put the finishing touch to her fairer sisters.

A favourite ornament among the Boro and Witoto, and also with some of the Napo tribes, is a bracelet of iguana skin. To make these, a circular piece is cut off the creature’s tail, the ring of skin, varying in width from half to three inches wide, is removed and drawn over the hand when fresh and damp. This band dries tightly to the skin of the arm, and will remain there in spite of frequent washings for years. These lizard-skin bracelets can hardly be seen in any of the photographs reproduced in these pages. They are supposed to have certain magical properties, and to endow the wearer with special strength and vigour. For the same purpose children wear a black ring cut from a nut. The diameter of the ring—1½ inch outside and quite a quarter of an inch less within—does not permit it to be worn when the child grows up; the arm always swells round it, and obviously it must eventually be cut off, but I cannot speak with any certainty as to how or when this is done. The women’s bracelets are made of beads when they can be obtained, or of gay-coloured seeds. Those worn by the Resigero woman in the illustration by page 80 are made of threaded seeds, or of beads, wound round and round the forearm with a turn or two of white beads at either end. The central beads are usually dark red.

Rattles and feather ornaments are festooned on the legs for a dance, but only the women wear the tight ligatures that swell out the calf. Both men and women among all these tribes wear ligatures, the men on the upper arm, just below the shoulder, the women on the leg, below the knee and again above the ankle. These ligatures are worn extremely tight, and result not in atrophy of the limb, as might be expected,[79] but in an enormous swelling of the muscles above or below them. The ankle ligatures sometimes reach half-way up the leg. They all vary greatly in breadth, but this I consider to be a matter of personal taste—or possibly personal skill—and not a tribal fashion or distinction, except in so far as that the Witoto knee ligatures are narrower than those of other tribes, and are never so well made. But this confirms the idea of personal skill deciding the pattern, for all Witoto work is cruder than Boro or Okaina. Even the roughest of these ligatures, however, is a marvellously neat piece of workmanship, the more surprising when one discovers that only the fingers are used in its manufacture. A ligature band is made of a very fine fibre thread, and on the reverse side has the appearance of a knitted or crochetted fabric; on the right side it looks rather like a woven tapestry ribbon, with a slightly raised pattern. But so far as I could ever see no implement of any kind is employed in the making of these bands.[80] The fibre string is interworked and knotted with extraordinarily skilled finger-work only. Sometimes the band is decorated by a pattern of coloured lines, diagonals, and diamonds slightly raised. In nearly every one that I saw closely enough to examine the edge was corded, and the end finished with a kind of buttonhole looping. The ligatures shown in the illustration are Witoto and Boro-made ones.[81] The ends are finished with a line of open-work stitches and a buttonholed or twisted edge. Through the open spaces twisted fibre cords are run, and these pull the band together exactly on the principle of a lady’s silk purse. They are tied in two knots. A tuft of cords, or occasionally a bone or wooden disc, finishes off the man’s ligature, which is knotted in front. The women lace their ligatures on, and fasten them very securely. I had to cut those shown in Plate XIV. to get them off the wearer’s legs. The Yahabana and other Kuretu-speaking tribes wear their armlets very tight, and the skin underneath is lighter in shade than it is on the exposed portion of the limb, according to Koch-GrÜnberg. This lighter skin will blister in the sun if unprotected.

The leg rattles are made of polished nutshells, and garters with beaded tassels and nutshells are fastened below the knee. The nutshells vary in size and shape, though all are approximately bell-like when cut and strung, with or without beads, on fibre thread. They give a tinkling sound if shaken, and for this reason, as they play a distinct part in the native dances, they are dealt with in a later chapter among the musical instruments. In addition to these rattles strings of feather-tufted reeds or bits of bone are also worn. The reeds, cane, or bones, are about three inches long, with a small bunch of feathers secured to one end by means of pitch. The other end is pierced, fibre thread strung through, and the intervals between the reeds are kept by means of knots.

Similar little bits of cane are worn in the ears, which are bored by all these tribes at the age of puberty. These ear ornaments are frequently decorated at one end with a tuft of gay feathers. These are very neatly arranged in some cases; a ring of fine blue feathers may surround a red tip. They are fixed to the cane with latex or pitch. Orahone, which simply means Big Ears,[82] is a name given nowadays to many distinctly different tribes who follow the fashion of the Indians on the Uaupes and the Napo and insert large wooden plugs into the lobes of their ears. The Orahone and some Issa-Japura tribes—especially among the Boro-speaking group—use a disc of cabbage wood. The Orahone smear this with a red vegetable colouring matter, the Boro fix an ornamented shell into the wood.

These wooden plugs are extremely light, about two and five-eighth inches long, and three inches across at the widest point, that is the front rim. This end is hollowed like a shallow egg-cup, and the shell set in it is decorated with a fine pattern done in black-and-white. In one earring in my possession the shell, so far as I can judge, is a portion of some hard, dark nutshell. The pattern is grooved, or scratched on the shell, and filled in with a fine white clay. This gives the effect of an elaborate black-and-white inlay. The shell is secured in the hollow with pitch. The back part of the plug that fits behind the ear is not decorated in any manner.

Very effective earrings are made with round discs of a pearl-coated river-shell fastened to a short piece of bamboo with pitch. The mother-of-pearl is of a deep blue colour, and of a good quality. In shape these earrings are not unlike certain kinds of toadstool with a thin stem and an inverted cone head.

With the Boro and other Indians near the Japura the lip also is perforated for the insertion of an ornament, except among the Witoto, who do not use the labret. This, as a rule, is made of metal, if it is in any way possible to secure some. Silver is occasionally seen, and brass is obtained from old cartridge cases, that are beaten flat and rubbed to shape.

Nose-pins are another fashionable adornment of the forest Indians. The Makuna wear a long black pin, a palm-spine, through the cartilage of the nose. The Yakuna also wear a long pin, and the Muenane and Witoto women wear nasal ornaments. The nose-pins of the Kuretu-speaking tribes, Yahabana and others, must be somewhat of an obstruction to the wearer, owing to their exaggerated length, 30 centimetres. In the central Igara Parana district the Boro, especially the women, insert feathers into small holes made in the wing of the nose. Boring the algÆ is peculiar to the Boro-speaking group of tribes, and to the Resigero. The women bore holes in the top of the nostril, into which they insert bits of quill to keep them open till such times as a dance is held, when the quills are removed and small ornaments with feathers are put in their place. No other tribes have this fashion. The Saka, who are of the same language-group as the Karahone, wear the bones of birds instead of a palm nose-pin through the septum. Robuchon confirms my observation that the septum of the nose only is perforated by the Witoto in the upper Igara Parana districts, and that a goose feather is then worn. He also mentions the use of the labret, and the elongation of the lobe of the ear. There are many varieties of ear ornaments, but most of them are big and enlarge the lobes.

Among the Tuyuka the boys at the age of puberty burn scars on their arms, but I have never seen scarification among the Issa-Japura tribes;[83] nor is there much tattooing. The Menimehe, both men and women, tattoo the face and breast. The designs show little artistic skill, and are all done in straight lines. The patterns on the cheeks are simply tribal marks.[84] The breast patterns vary. On the arms of these people I have seen rough representations of a lizard tattooed as here illustrated. The incision is done with the spine of a palm, and the black residue from burnt rubber is rubbed into the puncture. This results in a blue mark. None of these tribes have such a practice as that described by Crevaux of making chevron marks on a woman’s thighs to record the number of her male children.[85] I know nothing of this or any similar custom, but some of the Boro living on the north of the Japura have borrowed the idea of tattooing from the Menimehe, and wear—both men and women—a tribal mark below the cheek-bone, and sometimes a pattern on the breast. These are the only two groups of tribes among whom I ever saw any people tattooed.

But, if very few tattoo, all paint. The Karahone women are as fond of paint as they are of beads, and use more colours than other tribes. Their particular colour is purple. As a rule the colours are red, yellow, black—a bluish black—and white. The latter is secured from certain fruits. A bright red, the commonest paint of all, is made from a prickly burr, or nut, that is full of seeds and red matter.[86] Black paint is obtained by using charcoal, or the juice of a fruit,[87] and a species of Cissus has a fruit from which the Indians get their blue paints. Ochre gives them yellow, but the source of the purple paint I was unable to discover.

Red is a favourite colour with all the tribes, and many women daub their whole faces over with scarlet. This will quite content them, and no further attempt at a design will be made. A blue-black is also very often seen smeared on in the same fashion, the juicy stain apparently being merely squeezed over the skin. Robuchon mentions a custom among some Witoto tribes of covering the body with latex and then sprinkling it with black ashes. Hardenburg also mentions the use of a resinous matter which is daubed on by the Witoto.[88] The reason for the former Robuchon declared he could not divine. It was one of the secrets of the dressing-table of the Kinene girls that he was not prepared to fathom. Sometimes black ashes are so used, and at other times yellow clay. The secret is not so profound as the French traveller seems to have imagined. It is evidently done for protective purposes, as babies in arms are invariably treated in this fashion, women but seldom. Occasionally a black juice is smeared over the face and neck, under the jawbones. This I never thought was meant to be decorative paint, but always concluded it was some manner of skin tonic.

Among the Orahone, and also some of the Issa and Japura Indians, the women cover their teeth and their finger-nails with a black pigment.

The paint is never allowed to work off entirely; fresh designs are superimposed before the original has quite disappeared. The women always paint themselves for a dance, and dances are so frequent that before the coat of paint is worn away another festivity will be in prospect, and fresh decorations have to be considered. They also paint on other occasions than a dance.

With regard to the designs the photographs give a truer notion than any possible description of the variations and tribal fashions. The independent Andoke have no fixed pattern, but their lines appear to be more flowing. A good example is the fourth figure in Plate XXI. The body in this case was coated with a purple paint, leaving only a broad seam down the middle unpainted. This design is not seen elsewhere; it is peculiar to the Andoke. In one dance I saw they painted themselves with what were intended to be representations of their Witoto neighbours. I saw also the Andoke got up for a dance covered with weapons painted in my honour, boots, trousers, and dresses all suggested. Purple paint predominated, and the effect was a rough copy of my own apparel in paint.

The patterns are regular; the most highly finished ones are executed with an eye to the lines of the figure, and some, as for example those shown in the accompanying group of Okaina women, are of complicated if crude design. The Okaina designs are certainly the most elaborate that I met with, but it is to be noted that in no case do the women attempt to hide, disguise, or paint that portion of the body which most peoples are the first to cover, and which even among these tribes is never exposed by the males.[89]

The effect of paint on the legs of women wearing tight ligatures is, as Robuchon very aptly remarked, to give them the semblance of small balcony pillars. Among the less particular—the Witoto especially being the more lax in this as in all other matters—the regular designs are not attempted, and paint is daubed crudely on the body in smears and splotches, with a result that is bizarre in the extreme.

The men are painted by their women before a dance, but never in the intricate patterns and variety of colour used by the ladies of the community themselves.

On one occasion among the Okaina three of the old women of the tribe were sent to me with purple paint, to paint me for the festivity. The Andoke men seem more given to painting themselves than the men of other tribes, and always use purple paint. A common device is a lizard, some nine inches long, painted on the back and in front on the middle of the chest. But painting is not a universal custom among the men as with the women. I do not remember, for instance, to have seen a Witoto man painted.

---