462 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



Nations attach the idea of beauty 

 to every thing, which particularly 

 characterizes their own physical 

 conformation, their natural phy- 

 siognomy.* Thence it results, 

 that, if Nature have bestowed 

 very little beard, a narrow fore- 

 head, or a brownish-red skin, 

 every individual thinks himself 

 beautiful, in proportion as his 

 body is destitute of hairs, his 

 head flattened, his skin more 

 covered with annotto, or chica, 

 or some other coppery or red- 

 colour. 



The Chaymas lead a life of the 

 greatest uniformity. They go to 

 rest very regularly at seven in the 

 evening; and rise long before 

 day-light, at half after four in 

 the morning. Every Indian has 

 a fire near his hammock. The 

 women are so chilly, that I have 

 seen them shiver at church when 

 the centigrade thermometer was 

 not below 18°. The inside of the 

 huts of the Indians is extremely 

 clean. Their hammocks, their 

 mat of reeds, their pots to hold 

 cassava and fermented maize, 

 their bows and arrows, every 

 thing is arranged in the greatest 

 order. Men and women bathe 

 every day, and being almost con- 

 stantly naked, they are exempted 

 from that want of cleanliness, of 

 which the garments are the prin- 

 cipal cause among the lower 

 people in cold countries. Beside 

 a house in tiie village, they have 

 generally in their conucos, near 



* Thus, in their finest statues, tlie 

 Greeks exaggerated the form of the 

 forehead, by elevating beyond pro- 

 portion the facial line. (Cuv., Anat. 

 Comp. T. ii, p. 6. Humb., Monum. 

 Americ, T. i. p. 158). 



some spring, or at the entrance 

 of some solitary valley, a small 

 hut, covered with the leaves of the 

 palm or plaintain-tree. Though 

 they live less commodiously in 

 the conuco, they love to retire 

 thither as often as they can. We 

 have already spoken of that 

 irresistible desire of fleeing from 

 society, and of entering again on 

 a savage life. The youngest 

 children sometimes leave their 

 parents, and wander four or five 

 days in the forests, living on fruits, 

 palm- cabbage, and roots. When 

 travelling in the Missions, it is 

 not uncommon, to find the villages 

 almost deserted, because the in- 

 habitants are in their gardens, or 

 in the forests, al nioiite. Among 

 civilized nations, the passion for 

 hunting is owing perhaps in part 

 to the same sentiments, to the 

 charm of solitude, to" the innate 

 desire of independence, to the 

 deep impression made by Nature, 

 whenever man finds himself in 

 contact with her alone. 



The condition of the women 

 among the Chaymas, like that in 

 all semibarbarous nations, is a 

 state of privation and suffering. 

 The hardest labour is their share. 

 When we saw the Chaymas return 

 in the evening from their gardens, 

 the man carried nothing but the 

 knife (machette), with which he 

 clears his way among the under- 

 wood. The woman however bent 

 under a great load of plantains; 

 she held a child in her arms ; and 

 sometimes two other children 

 were placed upon the load. 

 Notwithstanding this inequahty 

 of condition, the wives of the 

 Indians of South America appear 

 to be in general happier than 

 those of the savages of the North. 



Between 



t 



