INDIAN PIGMENTS. 
203 
poets in every language have drawn such enchanting 
pictures. The savage of the Orinoco appeared to us to ha 
as hideous as the savage of the Mississippi, described by 
that philosophical traveller Yolney, who so well knew how 
to paint man in different climates. We are eager to persuade 
ourselves that these natives, crouching before the fire, or 
seated on large turtle-shells, their bodies covered with earth 
and grease, their eyes stupidly fixed for whole hours on the 
beverage they are preparing, far from being the primitive 
type of our species, are a degenerate race, the feeble remains 
of nations who, after having been long dispersed in the 
forests, are replunged into barbarism. 
Bed paint being in some sort the only clothing of the 
Indians, two kinds may he distinguished among them, 
according as they are more or less affluent. The common 
decoration of the Caribs, the Ottomacs, and the Jaruros, 
18 onoto* called by the Spaniards achote, and by the planters 
of Cayenne, roccm. It is the colouring matter extracted 
from the pulp of the Bixa orellana.t The Indian women 
prepare the anaio by throwing the seeds of the plant into a 
fnh filled with water. They beat tnis water for an hour, 
a nd then leave it to deposit the colouring fecula, which is o! 
a n intense brick-red. After having separated the water, 
they take out the fecula, dry it between their hands, knead 
fr with oil of turtles’ eggs, and form it into round cakes o*' 
three or four ounces weight. When turtle oil is wanting. 
8 °tne tribes mix with the anato the fat of the crocodile. 
Another pigment, much more valuable, is extracted from 
a plant of the family of the bignonke, which M. Bonpland 
has made known by the name of Bignonia chica. It climbs 
FP and clings to the tallest trees by the aid of tendrils. Its 
mlabiate flowers are an inch long, of a fine violet colour, 
ail d disposed by twos or threes. The bipinnate leaves 
become reddish in drying. The fruit is a pod, filled with 
^ n gcd seeds, and is two feet long. This plant grows 
... " Properly anoto . This word belongs to the Tamanac Indians. The 
* 'Wpures call it majepa. The Spanish missionaries say onotarse, ‘ to 
""l^e skin with anato.’ 
i ' The word bixa, adopted by botanists, is derived from the ancies*. 
® n guag e of Hayti (the island of St. Domingo). Rocou, the term com- 
° n v used by the French, is derived from the Brazilian word, t j rucu. 
