MCGEE] DESIGNS AND VARIATIONS 165* 



The paintefl designs vary among different individuals, but are fairly- 

 persistent for each. The prevailing design at Costa Rica in 1893 was 

 that of the aged matron known as Juana Maria (plate xviii), with 

 variations in detail such as that exhibited by her unmarried daughter 

 Candelaria (the Seri belle shown in plate xxiv); nest in frequency 

 were the designs, in white and red, exhibited by the matrons portrayed 

 in plates xx and xxii. Other designs observed are indicated in plate 

 sxvi. The variations in individual designs are apparently due either 

 to varying care in the application of the paint or to the degree of oblit- 

 eration by wear— e. g., the withered Juana Maria sometimes put on her 

 design askew and was negligent of details, while the blooming Can- 

 delaria greatly elaborated the details of the pattern and carefully per- 

 fected the symmetry of the whole when j^reparing for her full-dress 

 sitting before the camera (plate xxiv), so that her design was then 

 gorgeous by contrast with the nearly obliterated blur of a half-hour 

 before. The designs are renewed every few days, especially for cere- 

 monious occasions, and hence are practically permanent. 



When grouped in relation to their wearers, the designs are found to 

 exhibit family connection. Thus, Juana Maria's design is repeated, 

 witli greater elaboration of detail and with a pair of supplementary 

 marks, in that of her daughter Candelaria; the winged symbol of the 

 Seri matron portrayed in plate xx is repeated with minor variations iu 

 that other daughter, the Seri maiden pictured in plate xxv; while the 

 symbols of the mother and infant daughter depicted in plate xv are 

 essentially alike. It is noticeable, too, that iu the nearly spontaneous 

 arrangement of individuals in the group shown iu plate xiii there is a 

 tendency toward subgrouping by symbols; and it was coustautly 

 observed that the family groups gathered about particular jacales 

 (such as that shown in plate xiv) displayed corresponding designs, 

 though there were frequent visitors from neighboring jacales bearing 

 other designs. Briefly, all the observed facts, as well as the supple- 

 mentary information gained by inquiry, indicate that the designs are 

 hereditary iu the female line, but are susceptible of slight modification 

 both in elaborateness of detail and in the addition of minor supple- 

 mentary features. 



The principal apparatus and materials used in the face-painting are 

 illustrated in plate xxvii. The chief pigments are ocher, gypsum, and 

 the rare mineral dumortierite; the ocher yields various shades of red, 

 ranging from iiink to brown ; the gypsum affords the white used in most 

 of the designs; while the dumortierite is the source of the slightly vary- 

 ing tints of blue. So far as was observed, the pigments are not blended 

 by mixing, though there is some blending due to overlapping in appli- 

 cation. The ocher is commonly extracted and transported as lumps of 

 ocherous clay or ocherous gypsum (plate xxvii, figures 1 and o), though 

 it is sometimes reduced to powder and transported in bits of skin or 

 rag, or iu cylinders of cane (plate xxvii, figures 3 and 4); and it is 



