84 MASKS AND LABRETS. 



zilian coast near St. Sebastian, traveled much through the interior. He 

 tells of the "Petivares": 



The\ inhabit from Baya to Eio Grande, their bodies are carved with flue workes; 

 in tbcir lips is a bole made with a roebuck's home, which at man's estate they cut 

 bigger with a cane, and weare therein a greene stone; otherwise they esteeme a man 

 no Gallant bur a lVsant. » * * They travel with great store of Tobacco and ha v<- 

 continually a leaf thereof along the mouth between the lip and teeth the rheume 

 runnin" nut at the lip-hole. • • * The Maraquites are between Pernambuc and 

 Baya ; other Indians call them Tapoyes (or wild men). They have holes in their lips 

 but carve not their bodies. The Topinaques have their dwelling at Saint Vincent's. 

 and wear great stones in their lips. * * * The Pories dwell an hundred miles 

 inland. 1 



"Those eanibals who are called Pories have three great holes in their face, one in 

 the under lip and one on either side of the mouth and in every hole stands a fair green 

 stone." (Bulwer, 1. c, p. 178.) 



"In Peru 5 they make holes in their cheeks in which they put turquoises and 

 emeralds." 



Iii Eeiss and Stiibel's "Necropolis of Ancon in Peru," Plate 90, fig. 

 1, represents a face painted on an earthen jar with two disks or circles 

 on the cheeks which recall the Inuuit labrets. They may, however, be 

 intended to represent ear ornaments, though much misplaced. I have 

 seen no undoubted labrets from Peru, but specimen tablet No. 17509, 

 collected by J. V. Norton in Peru, contain s three small carved articles, 

 of which one has some resemblance to a labret, though very possibly 

 not intended for one. 



In Darien 3 "the women wear rings in their eares and nose*, with 

 quaint ornaments in their lips." v 



In Dominica the women have their lips bored as an especial note of bravery. 

 (Purchas, 1. e.) The women of Surucusis have chrystall of a skie color hanging at 

 their lips. (Purchas, 1. c ) 



The "fair green stones," "emeralds," and "bastard emeralds" were, 

 without doubt, in most cases, the green turquois-like mineral called 

 chalchihuitV by ethnologists, and which was extensively used for jewels 

 and ornaments from Mexico to Peru by the natives at the time of their 

 discovery. 



The natives of the islands off the Mosquito coast of Central America 

 " have a fashion to cut holes in the lips of the boys when they are young, 

 elose to their chin, which they keep open with little pegs till they are 

 fourteen or fifteen years old ; then they wear beards in them made of 

 turtle or tortoise shell, in the form you see in the margin." The figure 

 represents a flat plate with the form of a balloon upside down, with the 

 pointed end suddenly widened to a stud-like projection, which, extend- 

 ing inside the mouth, prevents the labret from falling out. The author 

 goes on to say : " The little notch at the upper end they put in through 

 the lips, where it remains between the teeth and the lip ; the under part 

 hangs down over their chin. This they commonly wear all day, and 



•PURCHAS, America, Book IX, chap. 4, pp. 909-911, edition of 1626. 

 - MaGINUS, 1. c, p. 207 his. Linschoten, lib. 2. Both quoted by Bulwer, 1. c, p. 

 164. I have verified the first reference. 

 3 Purchas, 1. c, book IX, chap. 1, p. 872, edition of 1626. 



