Gabb.] 51 [^ug 20, 



mastate was worn ; simply a strip with a hole in the middle for the head, 

 and tied under each arm with a piece of string. Now many of the men 

 have discarded the breech-cloth, and wear cotton shirts and pantaloons, 

 buying the stuff from the traders and sewing them themselves. Othei's, 

 not so far advanced, wear a shirt and' a breech-cloth. Formerly the hair 

 was worn as long as it would grow, sometimes rolled up and tied behind 

 in a knot. Some of the conservatives still stick to the old style and follow 

 this custom yet ; others of the men wear their hair in two plaits, but the 

 majority cut it to a moderate length, and either confine it by a bright - 

 colored handkerchief tied round the head in a roll, or wear a hat. 



The dress of the women originally consisted of a simple petticoat (b.ina) 

 of mastate. Very few now use this material, preferring the softer cotton 

 cloth of the traders. The favorite color is a dark indigo-blue, with figures 

 five or six inches across, in white. The bana is a simple strip of cloth 

 wrapped round the hips, with the ends overlapping about six inches in 

 front. It is suspended at the waist by a belt, and reaches more or less to 

 the knees. When on a journey in rainy or muddy weather, I have seen 

 a simple substitute. It was made of a couple of plantain leaves, stripped 

 to a coarse fringe and wound round the waist by the midribs. AVith 

 nothing above nor below it, it is the nearest a]oproach to a fig leaf one 

 can imagine. Only of late have the women begun to wear anything 

 above the waist, and even now it is considered hardly necessary. 

 Some of the women wear a sort of loose little jacket, or chemise, very low 

 in the neck and ■ short in the sleeves, that barely reaches the waist and 

 only partially conceals the bosom. I have frequently seen a woman, in 

 the habit of wearing one of these, either take it off entirely, or fan 

 herself with it, if warm, in the i>resence of a number of men, and evi- 

 dently innocent of improper intentions, and unaware that she was 

 doing anything remarkable. With this scanty dress, I must do these 

 people the justice of saying that they are remarkably mo.iest, both 

 men and women. In a year and a half of life in their country, travel- 

 ing constantly with a body of them, bathing, fording rivers, living in 

 their houses, and seeing more than strangers generally do of the inti- 

 mate domestic life of the people they are among, I can only recall a 

 single instance of carelessness, and not one of a wanton exposure of 

 those parts of the person, that their ideas of modesty required to be 

 kept covered. 



The dress just described is that of the Bri-bris and Cabecars. The 

 Tiribi men, where they do not wear pantaloons, always use the native 

 cotton breech-cloth, never the mastate. The women wear a long strip 

 of cotton cloth, made with a hole in the middle, like a poncho, and 

 reaching before and behind, nearly to the groand. It is gathered up at 

 the waist by a belt, and the edges are caused to overlap at the same 

 time, so that the whole person is securely covered. I was also told that 

 under this they wear a species of breech-cloth or drawers. They are 

 much more retiring in their manner than their Bri-bri sisters ; never speak 



