MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



459 



To this physical sketch of the 

 ' Cbaymas we shall add a few 

 summary remarks on their manner 

 I of living, and on their morals. 

 Unacquainted with the language 

 of the people, I do not pretend to 

 have penetrated their character 

 during my short abode in the 

 Missions. Whenever I speak of 

 the Indians, I shall add what we 

 lieard from the missionaries to 

 the little we observed ourselves. 



The Chaymas, like all savage 

 people, who dwell in regions 

 excessively hot, have an insupe- 

 rable aversion to clothing. The 

 writers of the middle age inform 

 us, that in the north of Europe 

 the shirts and drawers, distributed 

 by the missionaries, greatly con- 

 tributed to tile conversion of the 

 Pagan. Under the torrid zone, 

 on the contrary, the natives are 

 ashamed as they say to be clothed ; 

 and flee to the woods, when they 

 are too soon compelled to give 

 up their nakedness. Among the 

 Chaymas, in spite of the remon- 

 strances of the monks, men and 

 women remain naked witliin their 

 houses. When they traverse the 

 village, tliey wear a kind of tunic 

 of cotton, which scarcely reaches 

 to the knees. It is furnislied with 

 sleeves for the men ; but the 

 women, and the young boys to 

 the age of ten or twelve, have the 

 arms, shoulders, and upper part 

 of the breast naked. The tunic 

 is so cut, that the fore part is 

 joined to the back by two narrow 

 bands, which cross the shoulders. 

 When we met the natives, with- 

 out the Mission, we saw them, 

 especially in rainy weather, 

 stripped of their clothes, and 

 holding their shirts rolled up 

 under their arms. They preferred 



receiving the rain on their body 

 quite naked, to wetting their 

 clothes. The oldest women hid 

 themselves behind trees, and 

 laughed aloud when they saw 

 us pass. The missionaries com- 

 plain in general, that the senti- 

 ments of decency are scarcely 

 more felt by young girls than by 

 the men. Ferdinand Columbus* 

 relates, that in l^QS his father 

 found the women entirely naked 

 in the island of Trinidad ; while 

 the men wore the guayuco, which 

 is rather a narrow bandage than 

 an apron. At the same period, 

 on the coast of Paria, the girls 

 distinguished themselves from the 

 married women, either, as cardinal 

 Bembo asserts,t by being quite 

 naked, or, according to Gomara,^ 

 by the colour of the guayuco. 

 This bandage, which is still in 

 use among the Chaymas, and all 

 the naked nations of the Oroo- 



* Life of the Admiral, cap. 71, 

 (Churchill's Collection, 1723, vol. ii, 

 p. 686). This Life, written after the 

 year 1337, from original notes in the 

 hand-writing of Christopher Colum- 

 bus, is the most valuable record of 

 the history of his discoveries. It 

 exists only in the Italian and Spanish 

 translations of Alphonso de Ulloa 

 and Gonzales Barcia; for the ori- 

 ginal, carried to Venice in 1571 by 

 the learned Fornari, has neither been 

 published nor found since. Napione 

 dcllaPatriadi Colombo, 1804, p. 109, 

 and 295. Cancellieri sopra Chris. 

 Colombo, 1809, p. 129. 



f See the eloquent description of 

 America, in the History of Venice, 

 (Book 12). " Feminae virum passae 

 nullam partem, prater muliebria; 

 virgines ne illam quidem tegebant." 



X Las donzellas se conocen en el 

 color y tamano del cordel, y traerlo 

 asi, es senal cerlissima de virginidad. 

 (Gomara, cap, 73, p. 96). 



noko, 



