The Savannah morning news., 1903-10-25

-~V~~~-~-~-~-e~$-so
/ faces and bodies in gaudy coIors with
vegetables dyes. and it is in this they
show their dandyism most forcibly.
/ When they are not working or hunt
ing, they spend all their time painting
: themselves and arranging their hair.
! On one canoe voyage, we had with
us two old "bogas," who were the
greatest dandies of this primping peo-
pie. Every fifteen or twenty minutes
they would stop the canoe, jump out,
and wash themselves thoroughly.
Then they would renew their paint
and go ahead. When they arrived at
the end of the days Journey tired
and hungry, instead of hurting to
light fire. cook dinner. and make
themselves comfortable for the night,
they would first spend an hour paint
ing themselves and doing up their hair.
The Yaris paint the foot, up to the
calf of the leg, with some red vegeta-
BILE dye which protects them from in
sect bites. On this foundation they
create fine decorative scheme in blue
and black. The body and face are
also painted.
What Pleased the Yaris Most.
OF all our trade goods, what pleased
the Yaris most was an article never
intended for them. We took with us
some blue ink in tablet form, intend
ing to melt 1t to write our diaries with.
One of the Indians took up a tablet.
dipped 1t in the water, and drew some
lines on his body with 1t. He was
overjoyed when he found that these
lines did not wash readily, like his
own vegetables dyes. After that these
tablets were our most valuable coin.
The women of the tribe have very
delicate noses and fine hair. Like the
oil Al In, Iafr
persons and their habits, and attentive
to their toilet. They go naked, but
are modest and virtuous. Through
their upper lip they thrust two thorns,
each being an inch and a half or two
inches long They do not adorn them
selves so much as the men, or waste
so much time in dandyism. Both men
and women have remarkably small feet
and hands.
The chief wears a necklace of tigers
teeth, to Indicate his rank, and also
three gaily-colored feathers in a cor
onet made OF the plumage of birds.
Unlike most savage chiefs, he is not
a fat, lazy, dissipated brute. He is
the cleverest and hardest working man
in the tribe. His children wear neck
laces of monkeys teeth, and his chief
assistants, or bodyguard, also wear a
few monkeys teeth.
During six months of the year. when
/ the river is high, the entire tribe lives
( In the big house, and during that time
the men and women do not cohabit.
When the rivers fall and leave great
sandbanks exposed, each family builds
a little hut of sticks and leaves on one
of the sandbanks, and the husband and
wife then live together. AS natural
consequence, nearly all the children of
the tribe are born about the same time.
A childless woman is regarded as
very unfortunate person. She is dosed
with a mixture made chiefly of the
scraped claws of the giant armadillo,
which is supposed to remedy her mis-
fortune.
I Perfect cleanliness and order pre-
vail in the big house. One day we
were smoking cigars there, and care
lessly dropped some ash on the floor .
Immediately one of the women came
along and carefully swept up every
particle into a palm leaf. The tribe
has good ideas of sanitation, and, in
consequence, their health is always
excellent. In the evening the house
is lighted by oil procured from tur-
ties eggs.
During our stay the Yaris behaved
splenddly. They could not do enough
for us. We could only communicate
( by signs, but they showed great in
| telligence in comprehending our
| wishes. When they understood that
we wanted butterflies, they went out
into the jungle and brought us basket
fuls, but, unfortunately, all were
crushed and useless.
Our "bosas," on the return journey.
were man and his wife and child.
The family love then displayed was
pretty and touching.
Attacked BY a Band of Indians.
On our way back to Cali we were
attacked by about forty Indians. who
had evidently not heard of our friend
ship with the tribes. They fired scores
of poisoned arrows at US from their
blowpipes, but, fortunately, they were
on the bank and our canoe was in
midstream. Some of the arrows stuck
in the canoe, but we were not hit.
We padded out of danger without
returning their fire.
Cali was safely reached last June,
after many exciting adventures, and
from that place / came up to New
York. The doctor went to England,
where he is now making preparations
for another journey into the unex-
olored interior Of Central South
AmerIeu.