THE CAINGUA OF PARAGUAY. 403 



tate the various cries of birds. The flesh is bored for this at about 

 four years of age with a sharpened bamboo stick; then, to pre- 

 vent cicatrization, the orifice is kept open by drawing through it 

 occasionally a leaf of dry grass. The higher caciques, we are told, 

 alone have the right to wear in it, as a mark of their dignity, a plug 

 of hardened yellow and transparent resin in the shape of a T. 



The women are small in stature; their forms are slighter than 

 those of the men. Their hands are very fine, and their hair is seldom 

 combed. Their dress consists of a sort of small skirt folded around 

 the form and descending to above the knees. Like the men, 

 they go out barefooted, with the chest covered with several strings 

 of beads, to which they sometimes attach a few bones for amu- 

 lets. They also wear bracelets of hair, and eardrops composed 

 of a string of red and white pearls, ending in a small triangle of 

 nacre from one of the shells of the country. When young, they are 

 quite attractive, although disfigured by the painting with which they 

 mark their faces, consisting of a series of horizontal and vertical 

 lines traced with charcoal dust, or a layer of beeswax which they 

 put upon their skin. To be fresh, it has to be renewed every day. 

 The young men also employ it to make themselves pleasing to their 

 sweethearts, but married men put on no colors. 



The children wear a miniature breeches or small petticoat; only 

 the babies are naked. The feeling of modesty is so well developed 

 among these Indians that it was a hard task to get one of these 

 children's costumes, and still harder for the young fellow to exchange 

 his breeches for the handkerchief we gave him. 



The life of the Caingua is divided between hunting and fishing. 

 His arms, which he is never without, consist of a bow and a bundle 

 of four arrows. The bow is about six feet long, and the arrows are 

 nearly five feet. They are of guaiacum wood and the strings are of 

 caragudto (a vegetable fiber). In exchange for working in the 

 " yerbales, the Caingua obtains from the whites machetes, knives, 

 cooking utensils, and farming implements. 



His fishing canoe is hollowed very patiently in a cedar log. The 

 hooks come from abroad, and the line is made of fibers of the 

 caragudto, or some other textile plant. They shoot their arrows 

 aiming them directly at the object or firing them first into the air; 

 for this purpose they throw the bust back, an exercise which develops 

 the muscular system in a remarkable way. They never lay them- 

 selves on the back to shoot, as most of the Brazilian Indians do. 

 Their skill is very great, but their game bags are often very scantily 

 filled. The game is generally composed of various species of birds, 

 which they stun by means of an arrow ending in a wooden knob. 

 Two other arrows, ending in points barbed in various ways, and of 



