EXTRA-CORPOREAL DECORATION 



IIV 



erty even transcending the poor apparel, flimsy habitations, and gen- 

 erally ill-developed artifacts of tbe lowly tribe. 



The most prominent personal possession is tbe pelican-skin robe; it 

 is usually made of six skins, sligiitly dressed and in full plumage, sewed 

 together with sinew in a conventional pattern of such sort as to give 

 the greatest possible expanse consistent witli the irregular outlines of 

 tbe individual skins, and at the same time to disjjlay a conventional 

 color pattern on tbe feathered side, tbe colors ranging from the dorsal 

 slate to the ventral white of the fowl (as indicated in plate xxiii); 

 sometimes there are only four skins and rarely there are eight, but the 

 conventional arrangement is maintained. Before the beginning of a 



Fig. ts— L)ried flower necklace. 



fairly regular barter at Rancho de Costa Rica, and hence before the intro- 

 duction of manta and other stutts, the pelican-skin robes were supple- 

 mented by kilts made of mesquite root or other fibers, spun and twisted 

 in the fingers and woven probably on some primitive device no longer 

 in use; but .so far as Is known these native fabrics were devoid of deco- 

 rative patterns in color or weave. Less habitually a short wanimus or 

 shirt, with long sleeves, made of a material sinnlar to that of the kilt, 

 was worn; but it, too, was without ornamentation, ,so far as can be 

 ascertained. The remaining article of utilitarian apparel is the belt, 

 usually consisting of a strip of skin (of deer, rabbit, peccary, etc), 

 slightly dressed with the hair on; frequently this is replaced by a cord 

 or braided baud of human hair, while the favorite belt of some of the 



