521 



racteristic marks of an American. We were 

 surprised at not finding in the Chayma missions, 

 in the encampments of Uruana and of Pararuma, 

 I might almost say on all the shores of the 

 Oroonoko and the Cassiquiare, those fine plumes, 

 those feathered aprons, which are so often brought 

 by travellers from Cayenne and Demerary. 

 These tribes for the most part, even those whose 

 intellectual faculties are the most expanded, who 

 cultivate alimentary plants, and know how to 

 weave cotton, are altogether as naked*, as poor, 

 and as destitute of ornaments, as the natives of 

 New Holland. The excessive heat of the air, 

 the profuse perspiration in which the body is 

 bathed at every hour of the day and a great part 

 of the night, render the use of clothes insupport- 

 able. Their objects of ornament, and particu- 

 larly their plumes of feathers, are reserved for 

 dances and solemn festivals. The plumes worn 

 by the Guaypunaves -j- are the most celebrated 

 for their choice of the fine feathers of manakins 

 and parrots. 



The Indians are not always satisfied with one 

 colour uniformly spread : they sometimes imitate 

 in the most whimsical manner, in painting their 



* For instance, the Macoes and the Piraoas. The Carib- 

 bees must be excepted, whose perizoma is a cotton cloth, so 

 broad, that it might cover the shoulders. 



't These came originally from the banks of the Inirida, one 

 of the rivers that fall into the Guaviare. 



t 



