242 TIMEHRI. 
narrow paths which, foot-worn, through the grass and 
fern, the abundant bright red Amaryllis lilies and 
the pine-apples, break through the low surrounding 
scrub into the little field of bare white sand, in which 
stood the two or three houses of the settlement 
where we had taken up our temporary quarters. At 
the head of the line was probably the father of 
the family. His lithe and beautifully supple body was 
trammelled only by a narrow waist cloth of deep indigo- 
blue, by a glistening white necklace of perfe&tly even wild- 
hog’s teeth which hung from his shoulders well down over 
his chest, and by a broad and even band of white beads 
on each wrist and ankle; while his coal-black hair, cut 
straight round his neck and across his forehead, was 
crowned by a great tiara of artistically blended jewel-like 
parrot's feathers, from the back of which rose ereét three 
hugely long crimson feathers from the tail of a macaw. 
His cinnamon-coloured skin, as' bright as extraordinarily 
frequent washing could make it, was adorned just 
where such touches were most effe€@tive—for instance, 
just at the highest point of the arch of the forehead— 
with a pigment of a deep red which both contrasted and 
harmonized with the natural colour of the skin. His 
only burdens were a bow andarrow. One by one behind 
him came the rest of his party, a younger brother perhaps 
and a son or two, and a wife—or two, one old and one © 
young—and a daughter or two. The men and boys came 
first,’ according to ages, each as little and as artistically 
dressed as the leader, except that they probably could 
not boast so many and such beautiful ornaments. Each, 
too, was as lightly burdened as the leader, except 
that—one and another of them, especially the younger 
