LITTLE-KNOWN PARTS OF PANAMA 



659 



Dugouts drawn up on the beach and 

 a narrow trail breaking the reed wall 

 at the edge of the bank are the only visi- 

 ble signs of human presence, except at 

 the morning hours and near sunset, 

 when a crowd of women and children 

 will be seen playing in the water, and 

 the men, armed with their bows and 

 long harpooned arrows, scrutinizing 

 the deeper places for fish or looking for 

 iguanas and crabs hidden in the holes of 

 the banks. 



Physically the Chocoes are a fine and 

 healthy race. They are tall, as com- 

 pared with the Cuna-Cuna, well pro- 

 portioned, ana with a graceful bearing. 

 The men have wiry limbs and faces that 

 are at once kind and energetic, while as 

 a rule the girls are plump, fat, and full 

 of mischief. The grown women pre- 

 serve their good looks and attractive- 

 ness much longer than is generally the 

 case in primitive peoples, in which their 

 sex bears the heaviest share of every 

 day's work (see photos, pp. 652, 653). 



Both males and females have unusually 

 fine white teeth, which they sometimes 

 dye black by chewing the shoots of one 

 of the numerous wild peppers (Piper 

 sp.) growing in the forests. The skin 

 is of a rich olive-brown color and, as 

 usual, a little lighter in women and chil- 

 dren. Though all go almost naked, they 

 look fairer than the San Bias Cunas, 

 and some of the women would compare 

 advantageously in this respect with cer- 

 tain Mediterranean types of the white 

 race. 



The hair is left by all to grow to its 

 natural length, except in a few cases, in 

 which the men have it cropped at the 

 neck. It is coarse and not jet black, as 

 reported of most Indians, but with a 

 reddish hue, which is better noticed 

 Avhen the sun is playing through the 

 thick mass. 



In young children it decidedly turns 

 at times to a blond color, the only differ- 

 ence from the Caucasian hair being the 

 pronounced coarseness of the former. 

 As there are no white people living 

 within a radius of 50 miles, but only ne- 

 groes, mulattoes, and zambos, this pecu- 

 liarity cannot be explained by miscege- 



nation and may therefore be considered 

 as a racial feature of the Choco tribe. 



In men the every-day dress consists 

 of a scanty clout, made of a strip of red 

 calico about one foot broad and five feet 

 long. This clout is passed in front and 

 back of the body over a string tied 

 around the hips, the forward extremity 

 being left longer and flowing like an 

 apron. On feast days the string is re- 

 placed by a broad band of white beads. 

 Around the neck and chest they wear 

 thick cords of the same beads and on 

 their wrists broad silver cuffs (see photo, 

 page 658). Hats are not used; the hair 

 is usually tied with a red ribbon and 

 often adorned with the bright flowers of 

 the forest. 



The female outfit is not less simple, 

 consisting of a piece of calico less than 

 three feet wide and about nine feet long, 

 wrapped around the lower part of the 

 body and reaching a little below the 

 knees. This is all, except that the neck 

 is more or less loaded with beads or sil- 

 ver coins. But for this the women dis- 

 play less coquetry than the men, which 

 may be because they feel suiffciently 

 adorned with their mere natural charms. 

 Fondness for cheap rings is, however, 

 common to both sexes, and little chil- 

 dren often wear earrings or pendants. 



The scantiness of the clothing is 

 remedied very effectually by face and 

 body painting, in which black and red 

 colors are used, the first exclusively for 

 daily wear. At times men and women 

 are painted black from the waist down ; 

 at other times it is the whole body or 

 only the hands and feet, etc., all accord- 

 ing to the day's fashion, as was ex- 

 plained by one of our guides. For feast 

 days the paintings are an elaborate and 

 artistic affair, consisting of elegantly 

 drawn lines and patterns — red and black 

 or simply black — which clothe the body 

 as effectively as any costly dress. 



From the above one might conclude 

 that cleanliness and modesty are not the 

 rule among the Chocoes. As a matter 

 of fact, the first thing they do in the 

 morning is to jump into the near-by 

 river, and these ablutions are repeated 

 several times in the course of the day. 



