CULTURE OP PEOPLE OP SOUTHEASTERN PANAMA 101 



paint their legs to match the color of their dress and apply the paint 

 in stripes or in the form of birds, animals, and men. 



Finer figures, especially by their greater artists, are imprinted 

 deeper. The first make a rough draft of the figure they design 

 with the brush and paint; then they prick the skin with a sharp 

 thorn till the blood gushes out; then they rub the place with their 

 hands, first dipped in the color they design, and the picture so made 

 becomes indelible. 



The men formerly, when they went to war, painted their faces 

 all over with red, and the shoulders, breast, and the rest of the bodies, 

 here with black and there with yellow, or any other color at pleasure, 

 in large spots, all of which they would wash off at night in the 

 river. 



Rings and pendants. — Nose-rings are worn by women and girls 

 only (pi. 17) ; the Choco prefer them of silver, while the Tule wear 

 brass or gold rings. One of the brass nose-rings, collected by Wil- 

 liam Markham from the Tule of the San Bias coast, is an oval brass 

 ring, " olasu *' (Tule), 3.2 cm. (1.3 in.) in diameter. (Cat. No. 

 326811, U.S.N.M., pi. 28, No. 2), with one small segment re- 

 moved from its circumference, leaving the unjoined ends sepa- 

 rated by a space of a few millimeters. There are two grooved 

 incisions encircling the circumference near the open sector. 

 The material of which this ring is made was probably obtained 

 in trade, as the tribes of Darien did not formerly work metals 

 other than gold and silver, and do not at the present time make metal 

 alloys such as brass. The brass derived in trade was probably cut 

 to length and shaped by the Tule prior to polishing and grooving. 

 Such rings of gold or of brass as worn also by the Cuna women. The 

 wearing of nose-rings is not limited to adults, as girls often quite 

 young wear them. The lower septum of the nose is pierced with 

 a small awl, and the ring inserted with the open end suspended 

 downward. The ring is never removed after it is placed in the 

 nose. 



Formerly men, too, wore nose ornaments. Wafer describes these 

 as plates usually of silver, but also of gold, suspended from the 

 pierced nasal septum. The size and shape of these plates was such 

 as to cover the mouth from end to end ; the gold plates were shaped 

 like a segment from a circle, or like a half-moon. On hunting ex- 

 peditions a smaller plate was employed that was less burdensome. 



Ear pendants are sometimes worn by men (pi. 12, No. 3) but such 

 ornaments are to-day almost exclusively the possession of women 

 and girls. The chief and some few of his leading councilors for- 

 merly wore great heart-shaped disks or gold plates fastened to 

 earrings by means of suspended plates several inches long. The 



