Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Napione Della Patria Di Colombo 1804.
Cancellieri Sopra Christ.
Colombo 1809.
); While the men wore the
guayuco, which is rather a narrow bandage than an apron. At the
same period, on the coast of Paria, 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
guayuco. This bandage, which is still in use among the Chaymas, and
all the naked nations of the Orinoco, is only two or three inches
broad, 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
unclothed, 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, are objects of luxury
unknown to the natives. An Indian servant, who had been with us
during our journey to Caripe and the Orinoco, and whom I brought to
France, was so much struck, on landing, when he saw the ground
tilled by a peasant with his hat on, that he thought himself in a
miserable country, where even the nobles (los mismos caballeros)
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.
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