OHIO IN OF PAINTING THE SKIN. 205 



stfiiure gains with difficulty enough by the labour of a forfc* 

 night, to procure in exchange the chica necessary to paint 

 himself red. Thus as we say, in temperate climates, of a 

 poor man, "he has not enough to clothe himself," you hear 

 the Indians of the Orinoco say, " that man is so poor, that 

 he has not enough to paint half his body." The little trade 

 in chica is carried on chiefly with the tribes of the Lower 

 Orinoco, whose country does not produce the plant which 

 furnishes this much-valued substance. The Caribs and the 

 Ottomacs paint only the head and the hair with chica, but 

 the Salives possess this pigment in sufficient abundance to 

 cover their whole bodies. When the missionaries send on 

 their own account small cargoes of cacao, tobacco, and 

 chiquichiqui* from the Rio Negro to Angostura, they always 

 add some cakes of chica, as being articles of merchandise 

 in great request. 



The custom of painting is not equally ancient among all 

 the tribes of the Orinoco. It has increased since the time 

 when the powerful nation of the Caribs made frequent in- 

 cursions into those countries. The victors and the van- 

 quished were alike naked ; and to please the conqueror it 

 was necessary to paint like him, and to assume his colour. 

 The influence of the Caribs has now ceased, and they 

 remain circumscribed between the rivers Carony, Cuyuni, 

 and Paraguamuzi ; but the Caribbean fashion of painting 

 the whole body is still preserved. The custom has sur- 

 vived the conquest. 



Does the use of the anato and chica derive its origin 

 from the desire of pleasing, and the taste for ornament, so 

 common among the most savage nations ? or must we sup- 

 pose it to be founded on the observation, that these colour- 

 ing and oily matters with which the skin is plastered, 

 preserve it from the sting of the mosquitos ? I have often 

 heard this question discussed in Europe ; but in the Mis- 

 sions of the Orinoco, and wherever, within the tropics, 

 the air is filled with venomous insects, the inquiry would 

 appear absurd. The Carib and the Salive, who are painted 

 red, are not less cruelly tormented by the mosquitoa 

 and the zancudos, than the Indians whose bodies are 

 plastered with no colour. The sting of the insect causei 



* Ropes made with the petioles of a palm-ti \? ? ith pinnate leaves. 



