456 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



The expression of the counte- 

 nance of the Chaymas, without 

 being hard or stern, has some- 

 thing sedate and gloomy; the 

 forehead is small, and but little 

 prominent. Thus in several lan- 

 guages of these countries, to 

 express the beauty of a woman, 

 they say " that she is fat, and 

 has a narrow forehead." The 

 eyes of the Chaymas are black, 

 sunk, and very long; but they 

 are neither so obliquely placed, 

 nor so small, as in the people of 

 the Mongul race, of whom Jor- 

 nandes says, that they have rather 

 points, than eyes ; magis puncta 

 qiiam Itimina. The corner of the 

 eye is however sensibly raised up 

 tovA'ard the temples ; the eyebrows 

 are black, or dark brown, slender, 

 and little arched ; the eyelids are 

 furnished with very long eyelashes, 

 and the habit of casting them 

 down, as if they were lowered by 

 lassitude, softens the look of the 

 women, and makes the eye thus 

 veiled appear less than it really 

 is. If the Chaymas, and in ge- 

 neral all the natives of South 

 America and New Spain, resemble 

 the Mongul race, by the form of 

 tJie eye, their high cheek bones, 

 tlieir straight and flat hair, and 

 tlie almost entire want of beard; 

 they essentially differ from them 

 in the form of the nose, which is 

 pretty long, prominent throughout 

 its whole length, and thick toward 

 the nostrils, the openings of which 

 are directed downward, as with all 

 the nations of the Caucasian race. 

 Their wide mouth, with lips but 

 little protuberant, though broad, 

 has often an expression of good- 

 ness. The passage from the nose 

 tp the mouth is marked in both 

 sexes by two furrows, .which run 

 § 



diverging from the nostrils toward 

 the corners of the mouth. The 

 chin is extremely short and round; 

 and the jaws are remarkable for 

 their strength and width. 



Though the Chaymas have fine 

 white teeth, like all people who 

 lead a very simple life, they are 

 however not so strong as those 

 "of the Negroes. The habit of 

 blackening the teeth, from the 

 age of fifteen, by the juices of 

 certain herbs * and caustic lime, 

 had engaged the attention of the 

 earliest travellers ; but it is at 

 present quite unknown. Such 

 have been the migrations of the 

 different tribes in these countries, 

 particularly since the incursions 

 of the Spaniards, who carried on 

 the slave trade, it may be ad- 

 mitted, that the inhabitants of 

 Paria, visited by Christopher Co- 

 lumbus, and by Ojeda, were not 

 of the same race as the Chaymas. 

 I doubt much, whether the cus- 

 tom of blackening the teeth were 

 originally connected, as Gomara 

 affirmed,! with extravagant ideas 

 of beauty, or were practised with 

 the view of preventing the tooth- 

 ach. This disorder is almost un- 

 known to the Indians ; the whites 



* The first historians of the con- 

 quest attribute this etfect to the 

 leaves of a tree, that the natives call 

 hay, which resembled the myrtle. 

 Among nations very distant from 

 each other, the pimento bears a 

 similar name ; among the liaytians 

 (of the island of St. Domingo) aji or 

 uhi; among the Maypures of the 

 Oroonoko a-i. Some stimulant and 

 aromatic plants, which do not all 

 belong to the genus capsicum, were 

 desiy;naled by the same name. 



f 'Cap. 78, p. 101. The nations, 

 that were seen by the Spaniards on 

 the coast of Paria, had probably the 



even 



