GUAJIRA PENINSULA — CRIST 349 



similar to the loose-flowing robes of the Bedouins. Indeed when 

 traveling on their donkeys, with a billowing cape or paiiuelo over 

 their large straw hats flapping in the vigorous trade winds, they re- 

 semble the Old World Bedouin women. (PI. 9, fig. 2.) The manta 

 and its forerunner, the tunic, betray the "civilizing" influence of the 

 missionaries. 



The men wear a very brief guayuco, or breechclout, so curtailed as 

 to make a bikini bathing short seem like a full-dress uniform. The 

 guayuco is secured, front and back, by a broad, bright-colored, finely 

 crocheted belt, which is wrapped around the waist and from which 

 the gaily tasseled, crocheted money bag hangs down at the side. (PI. 

 2, fig. 1.) Bag and belt, worked in intricate patterns and vivid color 

 combinations, are made by each Guajiro woman for her husband. At 

 the present time, especially for wear in town, most of the men have 

 adopted the shirt, and they often cover their legs with a short draped 

 skirt of yard goods or with trousers, but at home or traveling across 

 the desert many still wear only the guayuco. Men, as well as women, 

 are bedecked with beads and jewelry. 



The most humble hut may be the center of a household industry, 

 or craft, or of many industries. There is, to be sure, a certain amount 

 of specialization in each home; frequently, however, a number of 

 activities are engaged in simultaneously in the same house. One person 

 will be laboriously seeding by hand cotton bolls picked from bushes 

 in a tiny plot nearby (pi. 5, fig. 1) ; another will be spinning thread 

 with a primitive hand whorl or spindle (pi. 5, fig. 2), or weaving a 

 hammock on a hand loom from spools of thread already spun, while 

 still another may be making or polishing clay pots before firing them. 

 In the kitchen, at the same time, bitter yuca may be in process of 

 being ground for the manufacture of food or starch. Bitter yuca 

 is used for food here as it is in so many parts of tropical America, 

 and the juice, which is poisonous unless processed, is made into a 

 pleasant, refreshing beverage which is drunk like chicha, the fer- 

 mented liquor made from corn. 



Water containers, one of the basic necessities, particularly in a 

 desert area, are of several kinds, natural and manmade. The hard- 

 shelled fruits of the totumo tree furnish small containers of varying 

 sizes and shapes ; coconut shells are fashioned into simple spoons and 

 cups, and a vine similar to a squash or pumpkin vine produces the 

 amuro, a huge green pear-shaped fruit with a hard shell, which, when 

 cleaned of its pith and seeds, will hold a gallon and a half to 2 gallons 

 of water. In shape it is very much like the jars of clay, which are 

 made here and there as a household industry. The process of making 

 these earthen jars is complicated and time consuming and it is carried 

 on under extremely primitive conditions. (PI. 6, fig. 2.) Clay is 



