756 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ments in the Museu Nacional at Rio de Janeiro. Many of the 

 examples in the collection are beautifully finished specimens of 

 jade, beryl, serpentine, and quartz, while others are but rudely 

 shaped ones of burned clay and wood. 



However strange and in a certain sense fascinating such cus- 

 toms may be, these ornaments, when seen in the ghastly wounds 

 of the dusky, stolid faces of savages, are inexpressibly hideous. 

 They are rendered still more so by the fact that the South Amer- 

 ican Indians, so far at least as my observations go, lose their front 

 teeth early, and especially the lower ones, and the pulling down of 

 the lower lip almost invariably exposes the toothless gums or the 

 broken, decaying, discolored, and filthy teeth. Hunger is the 

 curse of savage life, and the savage is therefore always on the 

 alert for something to eat. For this reason the discharge of saliva 

 is much more marked with a savage than with a civilized man. 

 The effect of this free discharge of saliva on the personal appear- 

 ance of a man or woman, 

 whose lower lip is all the 

 time drawn so low that it 

 can not be retained, may be 

 imagined more readily than 

 described. 



The stopper-shaped lip 

 ornaments are now made 

 of some light kind of 

 wood. They are usually 

 about three quarters of an 

 inch thick and two inches 

 in diameter, though some- 

 times they are much larger. 

 Prince Maximilian meas- 

 ured one four inches across. 

 Around the outside of the 

 plug a little groove is cut, 

 and when it is inserted the 

 flesh band of the lip fits in 

 this groove and thus holds 

 the plug in place. With 



age the flesh bands relax considerably, and the plugs of old per- 

 sons are for this reason generally larger than those of younger 

 ones. When the ornament is removed the lip dangles in a most 

 ungraceful manner. In the accidents of savage life these open- 

 ings in the lips are often broken, but this does not prevent 

 the wearing of the customary ornament, for the broken ends 

 of the band are united by a string made of a. bit of bark, and 

 the plug thus held in place. One of the accompanying illus- 



Fio. 4. BOTOCUDU WOMAN. The ear ornament has 

 been lost and the distended lobe is looped above 

 the ear. 



