Ch. III. SOUTH AMERIC A. 121 



ficult to determine which fee the firft example. The 

 fame leififhnefs and parfimony reigns equally among 

 the women, lome Spanifh ladies excepted, who have 

 accompanied their hvifbands, appointed auditors, or to 

 fome other employments ; thefe ftill retaining the 

 qualities they imbibed from education. 



The women of Panama begin to imitate the drefs 

 of thofe of Peru, which, when they go abroad, confifts 

 only of a gown and petticoat, nearly refembling thofe 

 worn in Spain but at home, on vifits, and fome par- 

 ticular ceremonies, their fhift is their only cloathing, 

 from the waifl upwards. The fleeves are very long 

 and broad, and quite open in the lower part or near 

 the hand; and thefe, like the bofom, are decorated 

 with very fine lace, the chief pride of the ladies of 

 Panama. They v^/ear girdles, and five or fix chaplets 

 or rows of beads about their n'ecks, fome fet in gold, 

 fome of coral mixed with fmall pieces of gold, and 

 others lefs coftly, but all of different fizes, in order to 

 make the greater fhow, and befides thefe, one, tv/o, 

 or more gold chains, having fome relicks appendent 

 from them. Round their arms they wear bracelets of" 

 gold and tombac ; alfo firings of pearls, corals, and 

 bugles. Their petticoat reaches only from their waift 

 to the calf of their legs and from thence to a little 

 above their ancle hangs, from their under petticoat, a 

 broad lace. The Meftiza, or Negro women, or the 

 coloured women as they are called here, are diftin- 

 guifhed in their drefs from thofe of Spain, only by the 

 gown and petticoat ; the particular privilege of the 

 latter, and which alfo gives them the title of Signora ; 

 though many of them have little to boaft of, either 

 with regard to rank or wealth 



If I omitted in Carthagena the following obferva- 

 tion, it was in order to relerve it for this place ; name- 



Thefe cuftoms are general throughout all the northern parts 

 of South America. A. 



