16 BUREAU. OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 64 



which is slung over the back and held up by a band passing round 

 the forehead, while the latter can work for hours at a time grinding 

 corn on the metate without apparent fatigue. Many of the younger 

 women would be considered very good looking, measured by the 

 most exacting standard, though they reach maturity at an early age, 

 and deteriorate in appearance very rapidly after marriage, the face 

 becoming wrinkled and the figure squat and shapeless. In walking 

 the men bend the body forward from the hips, keep the eyes fixed upon 

 the ground, and turn the toes in, habits acquired from carrying the 

 macapal on all occasions. So accustomed have they become to this 

 contrivance that many of them, when starting on a journey of even 

 a couple of miles, rather than go unloaded, prefer to weight the 

 macapal with a few stones as a counterpoise to the habitual forward 

 inclination of their bodies above the hips. Children begin carry- 

 ing small macapals at a very early age, and it is probably to 

 this habit and not, as Landa suggests, to the custom among the 

 women of carrying their children astride the hip that the prevalence 

 of bowlegs (Jculba die) among the Indians is due. These people have 

 a peculiar and indescribable odor, rather pleasant than otherwise; 

 it is not affected by washing or exercise, is much stronger in some 

 individuals than in others, and is perceptible in both sexes and at 

 all ages. The women are, on the whole, both physically and mentally 

 superior to the men, and when dressed in gala costume for a "baile" 

 with spotlessly clean, beautifully embroidered garments, all the gold 

 ornaments they possess or can borrow, and often a coronet of fire 

 beetles, looking like small electric lamps in their hair, they present a 

 very attractive picture. They are polite and hospitable, though 

 rather shy with strangers; indeed in the remoter villages they often 

 rush into the bush and hide themselves at the approach of anyone 

 not known to them, especially if the men are away working in the 

 milpas. They are very fond of gossip and readily appreciate a joke, 

 especially one of a practical nature, though till one gets to know 

 them fairly well they appear dull and phlegmatic. When quarreling 

 among themselves both women and girls use the most disgusting and 

 obscene language, imi^rovising as they go along, with remarkable 

 quick-wittedness, not binding themselves down to any conventional 

 oaths or forms of invective, but pouring out a stream of vituperation 

 and obscenity to meet each case, which strikes with unerring fidelity 

 the weak points in the habits, morals, ancestry, and personal appear- 

 ance of their opponents. The young girls are as bad as, if not worse 

 than, the older women, for whom they seem to have no respect. 

 They are extremely clean in their persons, and wash frequently, 

 though with regard to their homes they are not nearly so particular, 

 as hens, dogs, pigs, and children roll about together promiscuously 

 on the floor, and fleas, lice, and jiggers abound only too frequently. 



