The Washington herald., 1913-05-25

matched hut Of his fathers and erected
a two-storied bungalow of sawed boards
The carpentry was, undoubtedly. crude
and the red and yellow house paint had
been laid on in truly barber pole fashion.
but II was one of the two show places
of Nargana- The other had been built
by a more conscientious architect
Father Jarceau- His church was an i'm
mense barnlike structure, but the founda-
tons were deep and the beams and
rafters heavy. With immense labor
large sheets of corrugated iron had been
brought from the old French workings
on the canal-nearly q hundred miles by
small boats-to form the walls of the
church.
The iron walls were made necessary by
the unpleasant tactics of hostile island
ers, who in making an attack on a set
Element fire the huts, and the closely
built walls of palm leaves and rushes.
dry as finder. go up in the flames like
gunpowder The especial treasure and
pride OF the church was a marble bap-
tismal font from Spain. really an excel
lent piece Of craftsmanship. But the
real treasure Of the church was the
heart and brain of its priest At that
time he was spending long days in teach
Ing the bright-eyed young San Bias that
"a knife will cut wood and one cogged
wheel will turn another"
Land Coveted for Wealth.
The land in the San Bias country has
long been coveted for its wealth. Fabu-
lous tales are told of the gold to be
found in the Darien Mountains. and
many an oserbold prospector has disap-
peared for good and all into the interior.
The inland tribes are more savage and
warlike than their kin of the coast The
gold stories undoubtedly originate from
the display of gold ornaments by the
coast Indians.
At San Jose and the other settlements
every woman, from the five-year-old baby
| in arms to the hundred-year-old grand
mother grooming over the fishing nets on
the yellow sands, wore, the distinctive
mark of gold nose ring. In the case
OF adults this ring Is About an inch in
diameter and three-sixteenths Of an inch
| thick, wrought OF solid gold. In addi-
ton, earrings Of gold beaten to fine disks
| three and four inches IN diameter, were
worn by some Of the -women
The San Bias woman is famed from
one end Of the Caribbean to the other
not for any great personal attractiveness,
but because OF the Jealous, and on occa-
sion deadly watch which her men folk
place over her. There are no half-breeds
| on the San Bias coast, nor are there any
! such to be found IN the riffrar of ma
! tionalties at Colon and Panama, where
| every human breed washed up from the
Seven Seas seems to have been crossed
| and countercrossed.
Colon town is rife with tales of the
swift and deadly fate falling upon
those with temerity enough to go Moo
| ing woman Of the San Bias In an
pearance these women follow the gem
eral American Indian type. though here
and there an individual, such as the
CHIEFS wife at Nargana, has exceptional
grace and beauty.
Types of Beauty.
Their dress consists of calico print
cloth wrapped about the Ioins and fall
ing to the ankle, and a waist upon
which the San Bias woman expendSher
ingenuity in devising patterns of skill
full and intricate needlework design.
Another dictate of fashion among the
San Bias is the binding Of the limbs
Of the women above the ankles and
wrists with strings of coral beads.
Small legs and arms are a cardinal
point of beauty in the islands, but the
binding operation. which is commenced
when the girls are very young. is ex-
ceedingly painful and often INJURIOUS
to the health.
San Bias social laws are severely
puritanicai, and offense against them
results in swift and condign punishment
at the hands Of the patriarchical gov
eminent. A curious feature of the mar
rage institution Is that a widower Is
only permitted by the tribal laws to
marry a widow. and vice versa. Only
an unmarried man can mate with an
unmarried girl. All other marriages are
illegal
As;d. fro,,, e.. ~ tiv. e,x,,so ,-.S~ -
the Mulatas is limited to one or two
small schooners and a dozen sIoops traf-
ticking chiefly in ivory nuts and such
small quantities of gold as they can
wheedle out of the natives. It is most
probable that what gold the islanders
possess is obtained. by them from the
tribes of the mainland.