225 



tention of the earliest travellers; but it is at pre- 

 sent quite unknown. Such have been the mi- 

 grations of the different tribes in these coun- 

 tries, particularly since the incursions of the Spa- 

 niards, who carried on the slave trade, it may 

 be admitted, that the inhabitants of Paria, vi- 

 sited by Christopher Columbus, and by Ojeda, 

 were not of the same race as the Chaymas. I 

 doubt much, whether the custom of blackening 

 the teeth were originally connected, as Gomara 

 affirmed *, with extravagant ideas of beauty, 



« 



to the leaves of a tree, that the natives called hay, which 

 resembled the myrtle. Among nations very distant from 

 each other, the pimento bears a similar name ; among the 

 Haytians (of the island of St. Domingo) ajiov ahi; among 

 the Maypures of the Oroonoko a-i. Some stimulant and 

 aromatic plants, which do not all belong to the genus capsi- 

 cum, were designated by the same name. 



* Cap. 78, p. 101. The nations, that were seen by the 

 Spaniards on the coast of Paria, had probably the custom 

 of stimulating the organs of taste by caustic lime, as others 

 employed tobacco, the chimo, the leaves of the cocca, or 

 betel. This practice is found even in our days, but more 

 toward the west, among the Guajiroes, at the mouth of the 

 Rio la Hacha. These Indians, still savage, carry small 

 shells, calcined and powdered, in the shell of a fruit, that 

 serves them as a vessel for various purposes, suspended to 

 their girdle. The powder of the Guajiroes is an article 

 of commerce, as was anciently, according to Gomara, that 

 of the Indians of Paria. In Europe the immoderate habit 

 of smoking also makes the teeth yellow and blackens them : 

 but would it be just to conclude from this fact, that they 

 VOL. III. Q 



