16 A STUDY OF CHIRIQUIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



Pinart * has every reason to believe that the Guaymis are the descendants of 

 the race that constructed the ancient huacals from which our Chiriquian an- 

 tiquities came. They have a tradition to the effect that before the arrival of the 

 Spaniards and even for a certain period after that event, they manufactured pot- 

 tery, but by reason of the greater durability of the iron pots and the ease with 

 which they could be procured, the art of pottery making was lost by degrees. 

 They were also metal workers in gold, copper and their alloys. On the occasion 

 of Pinart's visit the natives still possessed a number of gold ornaments which they 

 claimed to have inherited from their ancestors and which differed in no respect 

 from those found in the graves. In this connection it is of inferest to recall a 

 similar condition of affairs among the Tiribis of Costa Rica, as related by Gabb : 8 

 " The chiefs on great occasions wear gold ornaments, similar to those now found 

 in the Huacas of Chiriqui. Whether these have been recovered from some of 

 these graves, or whether they have been handed down from time immemorial, is 

 not known." Of the four or five seen by Gabb, two belonged to the reigning 

 chief and three represented birds, one of which was double, no doubt similar to 

 those in the Keith collection, recently found at Mercedes, Costa Rica. 



Pinart describes the Guaymis as living in separate houses, the walls of which 

 are of bamboo or reeds, and the roofs, of palm leaves. The interior is divided 

 into small rooms by bamboo partitions, each member of the family having his 

 own room. The furnishings are simple - - a few rude hammocks and wooden 

 blocks for seats (see fig. 22). Kitchen utensils include metal pots of European 

 origin, a flat stone serving as a species of metate on which to grind cocoa and 

 maize, calabash plates and saucers, gourds for conserving water, a wooden mortar 

 and pestle for decorticating rice and other grains. Their arms consist of bows and 

 arrows, lances with points of hard wood, also a lance with several points for 

 fishing, and the inevitable machete. Formerly they used a small shield made of 

 tapir skin. 



Their costume is simple. They paint the body. The male wears a simple 

 loin cloth made of bark (tiumf) ; the female, a band somewhat larger that descends 

 to the knees. When it rains, both sexes wear a large sleeveless mantle of bark 

 reaching below the knees. Ornaments include necklaces and bracelets of animal 

 teeth or of glass. During the grand ceremonies the chiefs wear diadems com- 

 posed of showy feathers, those of the quetzal being the most esteemed. Each com- 

 munity recognizes a hereditary chief. 



According to Pinart, the Guaymis are of small stature with a tendency to cor- 

 pulence, and of a robust constitution ; color, yellowish brown to dark brown ; hair 

 black, stiff and glossy ; the head large in proportion to the body, long oval ; the 

 face particularly flat and broad between the zygomatic arches ; nose prominent, 

 often thick at the base ; mouth large and lips thick ; beard almost wanting and 

 the body devoid of hair. The same author speaks of artificial deformations of 

 the teeth, the canines being faceted so as to resemble saw-teeth ; also the ab- 



1 A. L. Pinart. Bocas del Toro, Valle Miranda (avec carte dans le texte). Bull. Soc. de 

 geogr. de Paris, 7= ser., VI, 433, 1885. 



2 Op. cit., 519. 



