116 CHAYMAS: 
during six years subsequently to 1730, the popula- 
tion was diminished by the ravages of the smal!-pox. 
The Chaymas are generally of low stature, their 
ordinary height being about five feet two inches ; 
but their figures are broad and muscular. The 
~ eolour of the skin is a dull brown inclining to red. 
The expression of the countenance is sedate and 
somewhat gloomy; the forehead is small and re- 
tiring ; the eyes sunk, very long and black, but not 
~.___so small or oblique as in the Mongolian race; the 
eyebrows slender, nearly straight, and black or dark- 
brown, and the eyelids furnished with very long 
lashes ; the cheekbones are usually high ; the hair 
straight; the beard almost entirely wanting, as in the 
same people, from whom, however, they differ es- 
sentially in having the nose pretty long. The mouth 
is wide, the lips broad but not prominent, the chin 
extremely short and round, and the jaws remarkable 
for their strength. The teeth are white and sound, 
the toothach being a disease with which they are 
seldom afflicted. The hands are small and slender, © 
while the feet are large and the toes possessed of 
an extraordinary mobility. They have so strong a 
family look, that on entering a hut it is often diffi- 
~~cult, among grown up persons, to distinguish. the 
father from the son. This is attributable to the cir- 
cumstance of their only marrying in their own tribe, 
as well as to their inferior degree of intellectual im- 
provement ; the differences between uncivilized and 
cultivated man being similar to those between wild 
and domesticated animals of the same species. 
As they live in a very warm country they 
are excessively averse to clothing. In spite of the 
remonstrances of the monks, men and women re- 
