i85i.] ORNAMENTS. zoj 



it so highly, and only in the greatest necessity will part with 

 it. 



Attached to the comb on the top of the head is a fine broad 

 plume of the tail-coverts of the white egret, or more rarely of 

 the under tail-coverts of the great harpy eagle. These are 

 large, snowy white, loose and downy, and are almost equal in 

 beauty to a plume of white ostrich feathers. The Indians 

 keep these noble birds in great open houses or cages, feeding 

 them with fowls (of which they will consume two a day), solely 

 for the sake of these feathers ; but as the birds are rare, and 

 the young with difficulty secured, the ornament is one that 

 few possess. From the ends of the comb cords of monkeys' 

 hair, decorated with small feathers, hang down the back, and 

 in the ears are the little downy plumes, forming altogether a 

 most imposing and elegant head-dress. All these dancers had 

 also the cylindrical stone of large size, the necklace of white 

 beads, the girdle of oncas' teeth, the garters, and ankle-rattles. 

 A very few had besides a most curious ornament, the nature 

 of which completely puzzled me : it was either a necklace or a 

 circlet round the forehead, according to the quantity pos- 

 sessed, and consisted of small curiously curved pieces of a 

 white colour with a delicate rosy tinge, and appearing like shell 

 or enamel. They say they procure them from the Indians of 

 the Japura" and other rivers, and that they are very expensive, 

 three or four pieces only costing an axe. They appear to me 

 more like portions of the lip of a large shell cut into perfectly 

 regular pieces than anything else, but so regular in size and 

 shape, as to make me doubt again that they can be shell, or 

 that Indians can form them. 



In their hands each held a lance, or bundle of arrows, or 

 the painted calabash-rattle. The dance consisted simply of a 

 regular sideway step, carrying the performers round and round 

 in a circle ; the simultaneous stamping of the feet, the rattle 

 and clash of the leg ornaments and calabashes, and a chant of 

 a few words repeated in a deep tone, producing a very martial 

 and animated effect. At certain intervals the young women 

 joined in, each one taking her place between two men, whom 

 she clasped with each arm round the waist, her head bending 

 forward beneath the outstretched arm above, which, as the 

 women were all of low stature, did not much interfere with 

 their movements. They kept their places for one or two 



