THE CARIT? EAHGHAOE. 
75 
Wib Women are less robust and good-looking than the men. 
devolves almost the whole burden of domestic 
°rk, as well as much of the out-door labour. They asked 
® eagerly for pins, which they stuck under their lower lip, 
aking the head of the pin penetrate deeply into the skin. 
® young girls are painted red, and are almost naked. 
th^'°H“ different nations of the old and the new worlds, 
_ ® of nudity is altogether relative. A woman in some 
® of Asia is not permitted to show the tips of her fingers; 
Indian of the Carib race is far from considering 
in nnclothed if she wear round her waist a guajuco two 
^ ones broad. Even this hand is regarded as less essential 
hiu^^ pigment which covers the skin. To go out of the 
r .,,1 '''™out being painted, would he to transgress aU the 
"^6? of Carib decency. 
Ou^'^f of the missions of Piritu especially attracted 
attention, because they belong to a nation which, by its 
ring, its warlike enterprises, and its mercantile spirit, has 
f great influence over the vast country extending 
ontl oqnator towards the northern coast. Everywhere 
of P™°co we beheld traces of the hostile incursions 
the : incursions which heretofore extended from 
b„ of the Carony and the Erevato as far as the 
The r Ventuari, the Atacavi, and the Eio Negro. 
Part language is consequently the most general in this 
tPg j world ; it has even passed (like the language of 
koo.i~®^^'I'®°*ipes, or Algonkins, and the Natchez or Mus- 
trhl Alleghany mountains) to tribes 
® have not a common origin. 
Nortk ^ '^0 survey that multitude of nations spread over 
the South America, eastward of the Cordilleras of 
we fix our attention particularly on those who, 
an dominion over their neighbours, have acted 
sines on the stage of the world. It is the bu- 
to as* the historian to group facts, to distinguish masses, 
Ponul common sources of many migrations and. 
tion ^°^®™®iits. Great empires, the regular organiza- 
oro'in'- f • ®^®®^^dotal hierarchy, and the culture which that 
orilv favours in the first ages of society, have existed 
We ' ^ ^’^h mountains ot the western world. In Mexico 
*•^2 a vast luonarchv enclosing small republics ; at Cun- 
