(a) A Guatemalan huipili decorated with Highly Conventionalized Animals in Embroidery.
(b) Pouches of the Valiente Indians of the Chiriqui Lagoon, Panama.
In southern Mexico there are many towns of Indians where the women still wear the finely embroidered huipili. This old-time garment varies considerably in different towns but as a rule it is a simple sack-like gown cut square at the neck and with short sleeves. Sometimes it is shortened to a blouse, and is worn with a skirt; at other times a short huipili is worn over a longer one. An easily visited town where the natives still wear the old-time dress is Amatlan, within an hour’s walk of Cordova. The women of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec have a gorgeous costume of which the most remarkable feature is a wide ruff worn around the neck or on the back of the head. The Mayan women of Yucatan wear white huipili with needlework in color around the bottom. On the highlands of Guatemala the huipili is usually a blouse. The skirt sometimes consists of a strip of cloth wrapped several times around the body.
An interesting ceremony which survives in some parts of Mexico and Guatemala has as its principal feature a lofty pole with a swivel arrangement at the top to which long ropes are attached. These ropes are wound round the swivel and performers, who may be dressed like birds, attach themselves to the rope ends. During the process of unwinding the performers whirl dizzily around the pole descending lower and lower and swing in a wider and wider circle till they reach the ground.
The Lacandone Indians live in the marshy jungles that border the winding Usumacinta. They speak the same tongue as the Maya Indians of Yucatan but in the matter of culture they have acquired little from the Spaniards. They still weave simple garments and make pottery vessels. In hunting they use the bow and arrow, the latter usually tipped with a point of stone. In their religious practices they use incense burners which are comparable to those of the sixteenth century.
[Plate V.]
(a) Zapotecan Girl from the State of Oaxaca, wearing a Turban-Like Headdress made of Yarn.
