300 
lJfDlAN DRESSES. 
women hid themselves behind trees, and burst into loud fits 
of laughter when they saw us pass. The missionaries com- 
plain that in general the young girls are uot more alive to 
feelings of decency than tlie men. Ferdinand Columbus* 
relates that, in 1498, his father found the women in the island 
of Trinidad without any clothing; while the men wore the 
yuayuco, which is rather a narrow bandage than au apron. 
At the same period, on the coast of Faria, young girls were 
distinguished from married women, either, as Cardinal Bembo 
states, by being quite unclothed, or, according to Gomara, by 
the colour of the auayuco. This bandage, which is still iii 
use among the Chaymas, and all the naked nations of the 
Orinoco, is only two or three inches hroad, and is tied on 
both sides to a string which encircles the waist. Girls are 
often married at the age of twelve; and until they are nine 
years old, the missionaries allow them to go to church un- 
clothed, that is to say, without a tunic. Among the Chaymas, 
as well as in all the Spanish Missions and the Indian 
villages, a pair of drawers a pair of shoes, or a hat, arc 
objects of luxury unknown to the natives. An Indian 
servant, who had been with us during our journey to Carino 
and the Orinoco, and whom I brought to France, was so 
much struck, on landing, when ho saw the ground tilled bv 
a peasant with his hat on, that he thought himself in a 
miserable country, where even the nobles (los mismos Cabal- 
leros) followed the plough. The Chayma women are not 
handsome, according to the ideas we annex to beauty ; yet 
the young girls have a look of softness and melancholy, 
contrasting agreeably with the expression of the mouth, 
which is somewhat harsh and wild. They wear their 
kair plaited in two long tresses; they do not paint their 
skin; and wear no other ornaments than necklaces ami 
bracelets made of shells, birds’ bones, and seeds. Both 
men and women arc very muscular, but at the same time 
fleshy and plump. I saw no person who had any natural 
* Life of the Adelantado: Churchill’s Collection, 1723. This Life, 
written after the year 153/, from original notes in the handwriting of 
Christopher Columbus himself, is the most valuable record of the history 
of his discoveries. It exists only in ilie Italian and Spanish translations 
of Alphonso de L lloa and Gonzales llama; for the original, carried to 
Venice in 1571 by the learned Fornari, has not been published, and is 
supposed to be lost. 1 Napione della Patria di Colombo,’— 1801. * Cau- 
ccliieri sopra Christ. Colombo,’ — 180!). 
