NATIVE TRIBES. 009 



feasted on their enemies taken in battle, whose flesh they tore 

 and devoured with the avidity of wolves. The men were 

 put to death, while the women and children were preserved 

 to be sold into slavery. 



Scattered tribes still exist in different parts of the interior. 

 The dress of the women is merely a narrow strip of blue 

 cloth ; and their naked bodies are smeared with arnatto, which 

 gives them the appearance of bleeding from every pore. Some 

 dot their bodies and limbs over with blue spots. They wear 

 round the leg, just below the knee, a tight strap of cotton, 

 and another above each ankle. These are bound on when a 

 girl is young, and hinder the growth of the parts by their 

 compression, while the calf, which is unconfined, appears in 

 consequence unnaturally large. Through the lower lip, which 

 they perforate, they wear two or three pins with the points 

 outwards. Should they wish to use one of them, they take 

 it out, and afterwards replace it. The men secure a cloth 

 round the loins, often of sufficient length to form a kind of 

 scarf; and to prevent it trailing on the ground, throw it in a 

 graceful way over the shoulder, so that part of it falls on the 

 bosom, while the end hangs down the back. It is often 

 ornamented with cotton tassels, and is the most decent and 

 serviceable, as well as the most picturesque, covering worn by 

 any of the native tribes. Sometimes a coronal of flowers sur- 

 rounds the head, which is usually adorned by a large daub of 

 arnatto on the hair above the brow ; while the forehead and 

 cheeks are painted in various patterns with the same vermi- 

 lion colour, which adds extreme ferocity to their appearance. 

 Some of the men also smear their bodies with arnatto, as do 

 the women. They are generally well-proportioned, and more 

 elegant in figure than the other races The women are noted 



