Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 3Humboldt, Alexander von
History
Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 3
Humboldt, Alexander von
Natural history -- South America; Scientific expeditions; South America -- Description and travel
Their noses are smaller, and less flattened; the cheek-bones
are not so high; and their physiognomy has less of the Mongol
character. Their eyes, which are darker than those of the other hordes
of Guiana, denote intelligence, and it may even be said, the habit of
reflection. The Caribs have a gravity of manner, and a certain look of
sadness which is observable among most of the primitive inhabitants of
the New World. The expression of severity in their features is
heightened by the practice of dyeing their eyebrows with the juice of
caruto: they also lengthen their eyebrows, thereby giving them the
appearance of being joined together; and they often mark their faces
all over with black spots to give themselves a more fierce appearance.
The Carib women are less robust and good-looking than the men, On them
devolves almost the whole burden of domestic work, as well as much of
the out-door labour. They asked us eagerly for pins, which they stuck
under their lower lip, making the head of the pin penetrate deeply
into the skin. The young girls are painted red, and are almost naked.
Among the different nations of the old and the new worlds, the idea of
nudity is altogether relative. A woman in some parts of Asia is not
permitted to show the tips of her fingers; while an Indian of the
Carib race is far from considering herself unclothed if she wear round
her waist a guajuco two inches broad. Even this band is regarded as
less essential than the pigment which covers the skin. To go out of
the hut without being painted, would be to transgress all the rules of
Carib decency.
The Indians of the missions of Piritu especially attracted our
attention, because they belong to a nation which, by its daring, its
warlike enterprises, and its mercantile spirit has exercised great
influence over the vast country extending from the equator towards the
northern coast. Everywhere on the Orinoco we beheld traces of the
hostile incursions of the Caribs: incursions which heretofore extended
from the sources of the Carony and the Erevato as far as the banks of
the Ventuari, the Atacavi, and the Rio Negro. The Carib language is
consequently the most general in this part of the world; it has even
passed (like the language of the Lenni-Lenapes, or Algonkins, and the
Natchez or Muskoghees, on the west of the Allegheny mountains) to
tribes which have not a common origin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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