298 A NATURALIST IN THE GUIANAS 



pronounce certain words correctly. To this must be 

 added the difficulty attending the rendering of names 

 from a language entirely different in structure to any 

 European one, without taking into account the careless- 

 ness with which names and words are very often jotted 

 down by travellers. 



The Waiomgomos at Mura, who come in frequent 

 contact with Venezuelans, have added something in the 

 way of dress to what they were accustomed at the head- 

 waters of the Merevari. The women are very fond of 

 bright coloured cloth, a piece of which they wear tied 

 over one shoulder so that it hangs down and covers the 

 breasts. The men, while working, wear nothing but a, 

 strip of blue cloth passed between the legs and fastened 

 to a string tied round the waist. To receive us they 

 always dressed, if the wrapping of a piece of cloth around 

 the body can be called dressing. A long strip of the 

 same cloth is sometimes passed over the shoulders and 

 under the arms in manj^ folds. Both men and women 

 paint their faces and bodies a brick red, using anatto, and 

 the effect produced when they are well painted is pleasing. 

 The Indians of the distant village on the Merevari do not 

 use anatto, but a pigment obtained from a creeper unknown 

 on the Lower Caura. The colour of this pigment is a 

 bright scarlet, much brighter than that of the anatto. In 

 many other matters the Indians of the small settlement 

 of Mura have been forced by circumstances, not the least 

 of which is their frequent intercourse with Venezuelans, 

 to alter their mode of life, and to make changes in their 

 implements and ornaments. Not being able, for instance, 

 to obtain on the Lower Caura the reeds from which blow- 

 pipes are made, they have been obliged to abandon 

 the use of these deadly weapons. Yet the blow-pipe is 



