FEWKES] CULTURE AREAS I]S7 THE WEST INDIES 231 



arm. They carry necklaces of different kinds of stones, such as crj's- 

 tal, amber, greenstone, and beads. I have seen tliem with over six 

 pounds hung at the neck. In their assemblies they wear belts of 

 plaited cotton and chains of white beads. They hang to the different 

 I^arts of this belt little bundles of six or seven chains of beads of a 

 finger's length, and a large number of little bells, so as to make 

 more noise in dancing. All the women and girls, excepting the slaves, 

 wear from their earliest youth a certain half stocking which grasjis 

 the leg from the ankle to the calf of the leg, and another between the 

 calf of the leg and the knee. At the top of the cotton stocking there is 

 attached a kind of enlargement larger than a plate, plaited from 

 reed and cotton, and a smaller one at the bottom than at the top, so 

 that these two enlargements press on the calf of the leg in such a 

 manner and press out the calf that it looks like a Holland cheese 

 between two plates. 



" The caracolis worn by the savages are made in the shape of cres- 

 cents, according to the part of the body where worn. Ordinarily 

 they are worn one at each ear. From one end of the horn to the 

 other is about 24 inches. A little chain with a hook is held attached 

 to the ear. Where they have no chains (for all do not have them) 

 they are held by a cotton thread which is passed around the center 

 of the crescent, of which the weight is like that of a piece of 15 sols 

 (halfpennies). They wear another of the same size at the space 

 lietween the nose, which strikes on their mouth. The lower part of 

 the underlip is pierced, where they attach a fourth caracoli which 

 is a third larger than the preceding ones. Finally, they have a fifth 

 one, which has an opening of 6 or 7 inches, which is incased in a little 

 black wooden board centering in the crescent, falling on their breast, 

 being attached at the neck by a cord. I leave it to be imagined 

 what resplendence this gives to a man's head, and if it does not 

 resemble a mule with his plates. 



" AATien they are not wearing these caracolis they are careful to fill 

 the holes in their ears, in the nose, and in the lips with little sticks to 

 prevent them closing up. At such times they resemble hogs that have 

 had pins to prevent them rooting up the ground. Sometimes they 

 wear greenstones in the ears and in the lip, and when they have neither 

 greenstones nor little sticks, nor caracolis, they put in them the 

 feathers of parrots or red. blue, or yellow ("aras") paroquettes. 

 which give them mustaches 10 or a dozen inches long on both sides of 

 the mouth, both above and below, without counting that which they 

 have in their ears, which gives them the most pleasant countenance in 

 the world." ^^ 



The Porto Ricans wore strings of gilded beads (fig. 60). crescentic 

 stones, and earrings of shell or bone. The Heye collection, how- 



»= Op. cit., V. II, p. 85. 



