224 



SAN JOSE DE LOS YAGUAS. 



think we are all culpable. The peons were culpable for not going back ; 

 I was culpable for taking them further ; and Arebalo was culpable for 

 permitting it ; and thus it is that the population of Sarayacu diminishes, 

 and the friars are cheated out of the hard-earned fruits of their labor. 



November 15. — Ijurra and I went with the padre to visit his mission 

 of San Jose of the Yaguas. This is a settlement of Yaguas Indians, 

 of two hundred and sixty inhabitants, about ten miles in a N". E. direc- 

 tion from Ambiyacu, or (as I find by a letter received from Ijurra since 

 my return home) from Eehenique. 



San Jose is reached by a path through the woods over a rather 

 broken country. There were two or three rivulets to pass on the road, 

 which have pebbly beds, with black slate rock cropping out of the sides 

 of the ravine — the first stones I have seen since leaving the Pongo of 

 Chasuta. The soil is dark clay, and deeper than I have seen it else- 

 where on the river. Birds of a brilliant plumage occasionally flitted 

 across our path, and the woods were fragrant with aromatic odors. 



The Yaguas received their priest in procession, with ringing of the 

 church bell and music of drums. They conducted him, under little 

 arches of palm branches stuck in the path, to the convento, and politely 

 left us to rest after the fatigue of the walk. These are the most 

 thorough-looking savages in their general appearance and costume, 

 though without anything savage in the expression of their counte- 

 nances, which is vacant and stupid. Their ordinary dress consists of 

 a girdle of bark around the loins, with a bunch of fibres of another kind 

 of bark, looking like a swab or mop, about a foot in length, hanging 

 down from the girdle in front and rear. Similar, but smaller bunches, 

 are hung around the neck and arms by a collar and bracelets of small 

 beads. This is the every-day costume. On festivals they stain all their 

 bodies a light brown, and on this ground they execute fantastic devices 

 in red and blue. Long tail-feathers of the macaw are stuck in the 

 armlets, reaching above the shoulders, and a chaplet, made of white 

 feathers from the wings of a smaller bird, is worn around the head. 

 This generally completes the costume, though I did see one dandy who 

 had stuck short white feathers all over his face, leaving only the eyes, 

 nose, and mouth exposed. 



The curaca, and some one or two of the Yarayos, wore frocks and 

 trousers; but I was told they had the national costume underneath 

 these. The dress of the women is a yard or two of cotton cloth rolled 

 around the hips. They are strong people for drinking and dancing, and 

 hate work. 



