512 



pidly fixed for .whole hours on the beverage they 

 are preparing, far from being the primitive typp 

 of our species, are a degenerate race, the feeble 

 remains of nations, who, after having been long 

 dispersed in the forests, are replunged into bar- 

 barism. 



Red paint being in some sort the only cloth- 

 ing of the Indians, two kinds may be distin- 

 guished among them, according as they are 

 more or less affluent. Tiie common decoration 

 of the Caribbees, the Otomacks, and the Jaruroes, 

 is onoto called by the Spaniards achote, and 

 by the planters of Cayenne rocou. It is the co- 

 louring matter extracted from the pulp of the 

 bixa orellana *f~. The Indian women prepare the 

 onoto by throwing the seeds of the plant into a 

 tub filled with water. They beat this water for 

 an hour, and then leave it to deposit tranquilly 

 the colouring fecula, which is of an intense brick- 

 red. After having separated the water, they 

 take out the fecula, dry it between their hands, 

 knead it with oil of turtles' eggs, and form it 



* Properly anoto. This word belongs to the Tamanack 

 Indians. The Maypures call it majepa. The Spanish mis* 

 sionaries say onotarse, to rub the skin with anotto, to onoto, 

 oneself. 



t Even the word bixa, adopted by botanists, is derived 

 from the ancient language of H aiti, or of the island of St. 

 Domingo. Rocoit, the term commonly used by the French^ 

 is derived from the Brazilian word, vrwcu. 



