CHAP, ii.] WEST INDIES. 37 



ture, they called in the assistance of art, to make 

 themselves more formidable. They painted their 

 faces and bodies with arnotto so extravagantly, that 

 their natural complexion which was nearly that of a 

 Spanish olive, was not easily to be distinguished un- 

 der the surface of crimson.* However, as this mode 

 of painting themselves was practised by both sexes, 

 perhaps it was at first introduced as a defence against 

 the venomous insects so common in tropical cli- 

 mates, or possibly, they considered the brilliancy of 

 the colour as highly ornamental; but the men had 

 other methods of deforming their persons, which 

 mere perversion of taste alone, would not, I think, 

 have induced them to adopt. They disfigured their 

 cheeks with deep incisions and hideous scars, which 

 they stained with black, and they painted white and 

 black circles round their eyes. Some of them perfo- 

 rated the cartilage that divides the nostrils, and in- 

 serted the bone of some fish, a parrots feather, or a 

 fragment of tortoise-shell,-)* a frightful custom, prac- 

 tised also by the natives of New Holland,^ and they 

 strung together the teeth of such of their enemies as 

 they had slain in battle, and wore them on their legs 

 and arms, as trophies of successful cruelty. 



'* At the first aspect a Southern American appears to be mild and innocent, 

 " but, on a more attentive view, one discovers in his countenance some- 

 " thing wild, distrustful, and sullen."' 



* Rochefort, iib. ii. c. ix. Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 539, 



f Rochefort, liv. ii. c. ix. Purchas, vol. Jv. p. 1157. Du Tertrc, 

 toin. ii. p. 391, 393. 



J Hawkesworth's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 171. 

 Gumilla, torn. i. p. 193. 





