CHAP. XIII ANATTO 



245 



French name. The Caribs painted their faces and their The Caribs. 

 naked bodies with the roucou until their appearance became 

 most fierce and hideous. Bryan Edwards alludes to this 

 custom in his work on the West Indies, and he thus trans- 

 lates the reference to the subject in the work of Rochfort, a 

 French writer on the Antilles, who published his book in 

 1658 : — " But, not satisfied with the workmanship of Nature, How the 

 they called in the assistance of art, to make themselves more Uie^dj^e"^^^ 

 formidable. They painted their faces and bodies with arnotta 

 so extravagantly, that their natural complexion which was 

 nearly that of a Spanish olive, was not easily to 

 be distinguished under the surface of crimson." Bryan 

 Edwards goes on to say that " as this mode of painting 

 themselves was practised by both sexes, perhaps it was at 

 first introduced as a defence against the venomous insects 

 so common in tropical climates." A number of the pure The Caribs 

 blooded descendants of these once cannibal Caribs now dwell of i^ominica. 

 in Dominica on lands specially reserved for their use by the 

 Government ; but, although brave still, they are now gentle 

 and retiring in disposition, and they no longer use the roucou 

 as a pigment to paint their bodies. 



At the present time anatto is used extensively as a colour- Modern uses 

 ing for butter and some kinds of cheese, and as a dye for °^ ^^^ *^'y^- 

 calico, silk, wool, skins, feathers, ivory, bone and such like. 

 The dye produces a fast colour of a fine tint, and it is some- The dye pro- 

 times used to give a deeper shade to simple yellow dyes. A red coiou^rsl^^ 

 colour, as well as a yellow one, can be obtained from anatto. 



Soil and Climate.— Anatto is a hardy plant, and it will a hardy 

 grow, in suitable climates, on almost any soil except those ^'^"^' 

 soils that are swampy. Although it will grow and yield crops 

 in places where the soil is poor, it will give much larger 

 returns when cultivated on rich lands such as the banks of 

 rivers and alluvial well drained flats. The plant grows from The best 

 the sea level to elevations of 2,000 feet ; and, in Ceylon, it ^°'^^- 

 thrives up to 3,000 feet above the sea. The best ciimatCj Climate. 



