SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 153 



usually covered with hair, have nothing but a thin down, 

 which they pick out as often as it grows. The women have 

 agreeable features, and slender, well proportioned limbs, and 

 when young, many of them are very beautiful, but when 

 old, their large bellies and long flaccid breasts make them 

 very disagreeable. The men wear a string round the waist, 

 to which is attached, both before and behind, a piece of cloth, 

 which passes between the thighs. The women wear a little 

 apron, about six or eight inches square, woven from cot- 

 ton, on which are strung small glass beads of different co- 

 lours ; this apron is suspended before by strings of beads 

 passed round the waist. A cotton garter is knit round each 

 ankle. On festival days, they wear caps of feathers and 

 strings of beads round their wrists, arms, ankles, and legs. 

 Their language is distinct, soft, and harmonious. The pro- 

 minent features of their character are vivacity, friendliness, 

 and timidity. Their arms are large sharp clubs, made of iron 

 wood, and bows and arrows. Beside the arrows which they 

 shoot with bows, they use poisoned arrows, which are blown 

 through hollow reeds with the mouth. The art of blowing 

 these arrows from the reed is practiced from childhood, by 

 which means they acquire such dexterity in their manage- 

 ment, that they will hit an object at the distance of thirty or 

 forty yards. These arrows are chiefly used for killing mon- 

 keys, which, when wounded by them, fall from the tree sense- 

 less. The Arrowauks do not constantly reside in one spot, 



X 



