NATIVES. 709 



up at the back and fastened by a large comb. They also 

 wear massive gold chains round the neck, large ear-rings, and 

 numerous rings. Their great amusement, next to smoking, is 

 sipping the yerba or native tea. 



" Yerba," says Masterman, " is the dried and powdered leaf 

 Ilex Paraguay ensis, — a tree in size and foliage resembling the 

 orange, with small white, clustered flowers. It belongs to 

 the holly family, but contains a bitter principle similar to, if 

 not identical with, theine, or the alkaloid found in tea and 

 coffee. 



It is taken in a somewhat singular way. The mate, a gourd 

 stained black, holding three or four ounces of water, is nearly 

 filled with the coarsely-powdered yerba. The bombilla, a 

 silver tube with a bulbous end pierced full of fine holes, is 

 then inserted. The gourd is filled with boiling water, and the 

 infusion is immediately sucked through the tube, scalding hot. 



The bombilla is for the purpose of straining the infusion — 

 which is of a greenish-brown — as the powder would otherwise 

 get into the mouth. Like tea, it is slightly stimulating and 

 astringent. 



The natives spin the indigenous cotton of the country, and 

 weave it in a curious way, producing the most intricate lace 

 and needlework. The thread they manufacture is remark- 

 ably fine and strong. Weavers travel about the country 

 carrying their simple looms on their shoulders, and may be 

 seen under an orange-tree by the roadside, the warp-roller 

 suspended from a bough and balanced beneath by stones, the 

 workman seated on a horse's skull, and producing a fabric as 

 beautiful as it is durable. 



They also manufacture woollen ponchos and saddle-cloths, 

 in patterns of black and white, or of a fine blue obtained from 



