237 



ture have bestowed very little beard, a narrow 

 forehead, or a brownish-red skin, every indi- 

 vidual thinks himself beautiful, in proportion 

 as his body is destitute of hairs, his head flat- 

 tened, his skin more covered with annotto, or 

 chica, or some other coppery red colour. 



The Chaymas lead a life of the greatest 

 uniformity. They go to rest very regularly at 

 seven in the evening ; and rise long before day- 

 light, at half after four in the morning. Every 

 Indian has a fire near his hammock. The wo- 

 men are so chilly, that I have seen them shiver at 

 church when the centigrade thermometer was 

 not below 18°. The inside of the huts of the In- 

 dians is extremely clean. Their hammocks, their 

 mat of reeds, their pots to hold cassava and fer- 

 mented maize, their bows and arrows, every 

 thing is arranged in the greatest order. Men 

 and women bathe every day, and being almost 

 constantly naked, they are exempted from that 

 want of cleanliness, of which the garments are 

 the principal cause, among the lower people in 

 cold countries. Beside a house in the village, 

 they have generally in their conucos, near some 

 spring, or at the entrance of some solitary val- 

 ley, a small hut, covered with the leaves of the 



form of the forehead, by elevating beyond proportion the 

 facial line. (Cuv., Anat. Comp. T. ii, p. 6. Humb., Monura- 

 Americ., T. i, p. 158). 



