802 
l'ACIAL COXl'O RMATI05 . 
temple; the eyebrows are black, or dark brown, thin, and 
but little arched; the eyelids arc edged with very long eye- 
lashes, and the habit of casting them down, as if from lassi- 
tude, gives a soft expression to the women, and makes the 
eye thus veiled appear less than it really is. Though the 
Chaymas, and in general all the natives ‘of South America 
and New Spain, resemble the Mongol race in the form of 
the eye, in their high cheek-bones, their straight and smootli 
hair, and the almost total absence of beard ; yet they essen- 
tially differ from them in the form of the nose. In the 
South Americans this feature is rather long, prominent 
through its whole length, and broad at the nostrils, the 
openings of which are directed downward, as with all the 
nations of the Caucasian race. Their wide mouths, with 
lips but little protuberant though broad, have generally an 
expression of good nature. The passage from the nose to 
the mouth is marked in both sexes by two furrows, which 
run diverging from the nostrils towards the corners of the 
mouth. The chin is extremely short and round ; and the 
jaws are remarkable for strength and width. 
Though the Chaymas have fine white teeth, like all people 
who lead a very simple life, they arc, however, not so strong 
as those of the Negroes. The habit of blackening the teeth” 
from the ago of fifteen, by the juices of certain herbs* and 
caustic lime, attracted the attention of the earliest travellers ; 
but the practice has now fallen quite into disuse. Such have 
been the migrations of the different tribes in these countries, 
particularly since the incursions of the Spaniards, who car- 
ried on the Blave-trade, that it may be inferred the inhabit- 
ants of Paria visited by Christopher Columbus and by 
Ojeda, were not of the same race as the Chaymas. I doubt 
much whether the custom of blackening the teeth was ori- 
ginally suggested, us Gomara supposed, by absurd notions 
of beauty, or was practised with the view of preventing the 
* The early historians of the conquest state that the blackening of the 
teeth was effected by the leaves of a tree which the natives called hay, 
and which resembled the myrtle. Among nations very distant from each 
other, the pimento bears a similar name; among the Haytians aji or a hi , 
among the Maypures of the Orinoco, ai. Some stimulant and aromatic 
plants, which mostly belonging to the genus capsicum, were designated 
by tire same name. 
