are trusted to the earth, invocations in 

 the. form of recitals are sung by the 

 men, and possibly offerings made, to 

 propitiate the evil genius and call the 

 blessing of the kindly God. I succeeded 

 in obtaining a part of the invocation re- 

 ferring to the cacao crop. It seems to 

 consist of an enumeration made to the 

 lele of the several varieties of the cacao- 

 pods, and of an appeal to a being per- 

 sonified by the ever-travehng sun. 



The San Bias Indians are of small 

 stature, with the body unusually long 

 and broad-chested and the limbs short. 

 The head is round and large and cheek 

 bones very high, the nose long and often 

 aquiline. The skin is dark reddish 

 brown in the men, a few shades lighter 

 in women. The hair is jet-black and as 

 a rule cropped short, though a few of 

 the girls wear it rather long, and the 

 men have sometimes the Avhole mass of 

 it cut straight, or bobbed, at the neck. 

 Most women have remarkably fine white 

 teeth. 



Polygamy is allowed, but seldom prac- 

 ticed nowadays. 



As a result of their frequent inter- 

 course with the outside world, the San 

 Bias men have adopted the ordinary 

 garb of civilized people, reducing it to 

 the simplicity required by the warm cli- 

 mate. Their native hats are peculiar in 

 having the. form much smaller than the 

 head of the wearer, so that they are 

 kept in place only by the stiff, short hairs 

 acting as a sort of clinching spring. 



Many men wear hanging from their 

 ears large gold disks, often of the size 

 and thickness of a $20 gold-piece. They 

 are reticent as to the origin of the metal. 

 In old times they probably obtained it by 

 washing the sand of the rivers, several 

 of which are said to be auriferous, but 

 at present they very likely use for their 

 personal adornment American and Eng- 

 lish treasure, having it modified to suit 

 their taste by the native gold and silver- 

 smiths established in almost every vil- 

 lage (see page 647). 



The custom of face-painting is rapidly 

 disappearing. At one of the villages 

 some boys were seen wearing a single 

 blue line along the ridge of their noses. 



^l£S^2£»!^ .ui>». -^ 



Photo by H. Pittier 

 A CHOCO INDIAN MAN OF THF, SAMBU 

 VALLEY IN LVERY-DAY DRIvSS 



and the Iclc, or medicine man, of Shia- 

 tinaka had evidently rouge (anatto dye) 

 on his cheeks. These were the only in- 

 stances of this Ivind of ornamentation, 

 formerly of much more general vogue. 

 The Chucunaque and Bayano Indians, 

 who, their scant clouts excepted, dis- 

 pense with clothes, are reported to paint 

 their whole body jet black before start- 

 ing on their hunting or fishing expedi- 

 tions. 



655 



