The dress or costume of the indians at first appeared very singular to me. In the men it consisted of a flannel shirt, and a pair of loose drawers of the same material, generally white, reaching below the calves of the legs; a coarse species of rug about two yards wide and two and a half long, with a slit in the middle through which the head was passed: this garment, if so I may style it, hanging over the shoulders and reaching below the knees, is called a _poncho_. The common ones seemed to be made from a brownish sort of wool, but some were very fancifully woven in stripes of different colours and devices, such as animals, birds, flowers, &c. Of the poncho I shall have occasion to speak again, as it is universally worn in all the provinces of South America which I visited; but I must say here, that I considered it as an excellent riding dress; for hanging loosely and covering the whole body, it leaves the arms quite at liberty to manage the whip and reins. The hat commonly worn is in the form of a cone, without any skirts; for shoes they substitute a piece of raw bull's hide cut to the shape of the sole of the foot, and tied on with slender thongs of leather. The females wear a long white flannel tunic, without sleeves, and an upper garment of black flannel, extending below their knees, the sides closed up to the waist, and the corners from the back brought over the shoulders and fastened to the corners of the piece in front with two large thorns, procured from a species of cactus, or with large silver brooches: it is afterwards closed round the waist with a girdle about three inches broad, generally woven in devices of different colours; very often, however, nothing but the white tunic is worn, with the girdle, and a small mantle or cloak called _ichella_. The favourite colour among the indians appeared to be a bluish green, though I saw few of their garments of this colour at Tucapel, but remarked afterwards, at the town of Arauco, that all those who came to sell or barter their fruit, &c. wore it. The females generally have nothing on their heads or feet, but have a profusion of silver rings on their fingers, and on their arms and necks an abundance of glass bead bracelets and necklaces.