BOURKE. ] LABRETS. 497 
“This is to be noted, that how many men these Savages [Brazilians] 
doe kill, so many holes they will havein their visage, beginning first in 
their nether lippe, then in their cheekes, thirdly, in both their eye-browes, 
and lastly in their eares.” ! 
Cabeza de Vaca speaks of the Indians near Malhado Island, “They 
likewise have the nether lippe bored, and within the same they carrie < 
piece of thin Cane about halfe a finger thicke.”*? Herrera relates very 
nearly the same of the men of “Florida”: “Traian una tetilla oradada, 
metido por el agujero un pedacgo de Cana, i el labio baxero tambien 
agujereado, con otra cana en él.”* But Herrera probably obtained his 
data from the narrative of Vaca. 
In looking into this matter of labrets as connected or suspected as 
being in some way connected with the drinking reed, we should not 
expect to find the labret adhering very closely to the primitive form, 
because the labret, coming to be regarded more and more as an orna- 
ment, would allow greater and greater play to the fancy of the wearer 
or manufacturer, much the same as the crosses now worn by ladies, 
purely as matter of decoration, have become so thoroughly examples of 
dexterity in filagree work as to have lost the original form and signifi- 
cance as a declaration of faith. But it is a subject of surprise to find 
that the earlier writers persistently allude to the labrets in the lips of 
the Mexican deities, which probably were most tenacious of primitive 
forms, as being shaped like little reeds—* canutillos.” 
Herrera says of Tescatlipoca: “Que era el Dios de la Penitencia, i 
de los Jubileos . . . Tenia Carcillo de Oro, i Plata en el labio baxo, 
con un canutillo cristalino, de un geme de largo.”* The high priest, 
he says, was called topilgin, and in sacrificing human victims he wore 
“ debaxo del labio, junto al medio dela barba, una piega como canutillo, 
de una piedra acul.”* 
Father Acosta also speaks of the tube (canon) of erystal worn by 
Tezeatlipoca in the lower lip: ‘‘ En la leure d’embas un petit canon de 
erystal, de la longueur @un xeme ou demy pied.” ° 
Speaking of Quetzalcoatl Clavigero says: “From the under lip 
hung a crystal tube.”* From Diego Duran’s account of this “ bezote” 
or labret if must have been hollow, as he says it contained a feather: 
“En el labio bajo tenia un bezote de un veril cristalino y en el estaba 
metida una pluma verde y otras veces azul.”® 
In the Popul Vuh is to be found a myth whieh gives an account of 
the origin of labrets. It relates that two night watchers over the flowers 
1Peter Carder, an Englishman captive among the Brazilians. 1578-1586, in Purchas, vol. 4. lib. 6, 
cap. 5, p. 1189. 
2 Purchas, vol. 4, lib. 8, cap. 1, sec. 2, p. 1508. 
3 Dec. 4, lib. 4, p. 69. 
4Dec. 3, lib. 2, p. 67. 
5Tbid., p. 70. 
6 Histoire Naturelle des Indes, Paris, 1600, lib. 5, cap, 9, p. 224. 
7 History of Mexico, Philadelphia, 1817, vol. 2, p. 6. 
8 Duran, op. cit., vol. 3, cap. 4, p. 211. 
9 ETH——32 
