Dress and ornament--Geographical and tribal
differentiations--Festal attire--Feather
ornaments--Hair-dressing--Combs--Dance
girdles--Beads--Necklaces--Bracelets--Leg
rattles--Ligatures--Ear-rings--Use of labret--Nose
pins--Scarification--Tattoo--Tribal marks--Painting.
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.
[Illustration: PLATE IX.
MEDICINE MAN AND HIS WIFE (ANDOKE)]
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.
[Illustration: PLATE X.
BORO TRIBESMEN]
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.
[Illustration: PLATE XI.
WITOTO FEATHER HEAD-DRESSES.
The outer one is made on dark fibre, the inner on cotton yarn, which
would appear to have been obtained extra-tribally.]
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 1⅜ 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 2⅛ inches long by 1⅛ 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.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.]
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.
[Illustration: PLATE XII.
GROUPS OF RESIGERO WOMEN]
[Illustration: PLATE XIII.
CENTRE OF DANCING GROUP--MUENANE
Inset.--Chief’s son wearing feather head-dress]
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.
[Illustration: PLATE XIV.
BORO COMB OF PALM SPINES SET IN PITCH AND FINISHED WITH BASKETWORK OF
SPLIT CANE, FIBRE STRINGS, AND TUFTS OF PARROTS’ FEATHERS]
[Illustration: PLATE XV.
DUKAIYA (OKAINA) BEAD DANCING-GIRDLE
CONDOR CLAWS, USED BY ANDOKE MEDICINE MAN OF THE UPPER JAPURA RIVER]
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.
[Illustration: PLATE XVI.
NECKLACES OF HUMAN AND TIGER TEETH]
[Illustration: PLATE XVII.
1. NECKLACE OF POLISHED NUTSHELLS. 2. LEG RATTLES OF BEADS AND NUTSHELLS.
3, 4, 5, 6. BEAD NECKLACES. THE ‘BLACK BEADS’ ARE BITS OF POLISHED
NUTSHELL, THREADED BETWEEN WHITE BEADS.]
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.
[Illustration: PLATE XVIII.
BORO LIGATURES]
[Illustration: PLATE XIX.
BORO LEG AND ARM LIGATURES
WITOTO LEG LIGATURE]
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.
[Illustration: PLATE XX.
1 & 3. BORO. 2. WITOTO’ LIGATURES.
Note contrast of texture]
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.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.]
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.
[Illustration: PLATE XXI.
ANDOKE GIRLS]
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.