They Are All Of A Tawny Hue, And
Paint Their Faces Of Divers Colours.
They are stout and well-made, but
very fearful, so that none of them would come on board our ships, or
even enter our boats.
The general reported that he had seen some of
their priests all over cloathed, but quite close to their bodies, as if
sewed on; having their faces painted green, black, and yellow, and horns
on their heads turned backwards, painted of the same colours, together
with a tail hanging down behind from their buttocks, altogether as we
see the devil sometimes painted in Europe. Demanding why they went in
that strange attire, he was told that the devil sometimes appeared to
them in such form in their sacrifices, and therefore his servants the
priests were so cloathed. There grew many trees in this island,
sufficiently tall, thick, and straight to make main-masts for the
largest ship in all our fleet, and this island is full of such.
[Footnote 108: So called, because on the north end of the largest island
of the cluster there is a hill resembling the top of an umbrella - ASTL.
I. 267. a.]
Upon the sands of this island of Sombrero we found a small twig growing
up like a young tree, and on offering to pluck it up, it shrinks down to
the ground, and sinks, unless held very hard. On being plucked up, a
great worm is found to be its root, and as the tree groweth in
greatness, so doth the worm diminish; and as soon as the worm is
entirely turned into tree, it rooteth in the earth, and so becomes
great.
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