The women universally wore a skirt formed by winding a wide piece of cotton cloth round the body and fastening it at the waist. This garment reached from the waist to the knee, as worn by the plebeian women, but those of a higher class covered with it their legs as low as the ankles. In some parts of Nicaragua, especially on the islands, Herrera says that except this skirt, which was so scanty as hardly to merit a better name than breech-clout, the women were naked; but elsewhere they were always particular to cover their breasts from sight. This they accomplished in some cases by a piece of cloth round the neck, and fastened under the arms; but they also often wore a kind of chemise, or loose sack, with holes for the head and arms, and sometimes with short sleeves. The latter garment was always worn on feast-days by those who had it to wear. Andagoya mentions a sort of cape worn in Nicaragua, which had a hole for the head, and covered the breasts and half of the arms. Herrera speaks of a sack open at both ends, and tightened at the waist, worn in Nicaragua; and Landa mentions the same garment in Yucatan. The women, like the men, used a square mantle to sleep under, and carried it with them on journeys. Children were allowed to remain naked in Yucatan till they were four or five years old, and in Guatemala to the age of eight or nine years; but in Yucatan, Landa tells us, that a boy at the age of three years, had a white ornament tied in his hair, and a girl at the same age had a shell fastened by a string in such a manner as to cover certain parts of her person.[1075]
It is very difficult to form any definite idea of the Maya methods of dressing the hair, save that all allowed it to grow long, and most persons separated it into tresses, winding some of them about the head and allowing others to hang down the back. Landa informs us that the Yucatecs burned the hair on the crown, allowing it to remain short there, but permitted the rest to grow as long as it would, binding it round the head except a queue behind. In Nicaragua, the forehead was shaved, and sometimes the whole head except a tuft at the crown. The women everywhere and men generally took great pains with the hair; the former often mixed feathers with their raven locks, which were dressed differently according as the owners were married or single, and particular care was devoted to the coiffure of a bride. All the authorities agree that the priests in Yucatan wore the hair long, uncombed, and often saturated with sacrificial blood. Plumes of feathers seem to have been their usual head-dress. Palacio and Herrera mention a colored head-dress, mitre, or diadem with hanging plumes worn by a priest in Salvador. Over the hair a piece of cloth was usually worn by females, in which the Abbé Brasseur finds a resemblance to the Egyptian calantica. A tuft of hair hanging over the face of children often made them cross-eyed; indeed, mothers are said to have arranged it with a view to this very effect, deemed by them a desirable thing, or to have attached to the forehead a small hanging plaster for the same purpose. The number of 'bizcos' treated by Dr Cabot, who accompanied Mr Stephens in his excursion through Yucatan, shows that though squinting eyes are still common in the country, the defect has at least lost its charm to the Maya mothers.[1076]
No beard was worn, and the few hairs that made their appearance on the face were immediately extracted. According to Landa, mothers are said to have burned the faces of young children with hot cloths to prevent the growth of a beard in later years. After the Conquest many of the natives grew beards, which, though sometimes long, were always thin and coarse. Something like a beard is also to be seen on some of the sculptured faces among the Maya ruins. Oviedo met in Nicaragua a man about seventy years of age, who had a long flowing white beard.[1077]
The Mayas, when they covered the feet at all, wore a kind of sandal of coarse cloth, or more frequently of dry deer-skin. These sandals were simply pieces of skin, often double, covering and fitting somewhat the sole, and fastened by cotton strings from the ankle to the toes and perhaps also to the heel. I find no account of hand-coverings except in the Popol Vuh, where gloves are spoken of as being used in the game of ball.[1078]
DISFIGUREMENT OF THE PHYSIQUE.
Having provided for their comfort by the use of the articles of dress already described, the Mayas, like most other American aborigines, deemed it essential to modify and improve their physique by artificial means. This they accomplished by head-flattening, teeth-filing, perforation of the ears, nose, and lips, tattooing, and painting; yet it is not probable that all these methods of disfigurement were practiced by all the natives. In Nicaragua, the heads of infants were flattened; the people believed that the custom had been originally introduced by the gods; that the compressed forehead was the sign of noble blood and the highest type of beauty; and besides that the head was thus better adapted to the carrying of burdens. In Yucatan, according to Landa, the same custom obtained. Four or five days after birth the child was laid with the face down on a bed and the head was compressed between two pieces of wood, one on the forehead and the other on the back of the head, the boards being kept in place for several days until the desired cranial conformation was effected. So great was the pressure that the child's skull was sometimes broken. I find no account of forehead-flattening in Guatemala and Chiapas, though Mr Squier, following Fuentes' unpublished history, says that among the Quichés, Cakchiquels, and Zutugils the back of the head was flattened by the practice of carrying infants tied closely to a straight board. Yet from the frequent occurrence of this cranial type in the sculptured profiles in Chiapas, Honduras, and Yucatan, there can be no doubt that in the most ancient times a flattened forehead was the ideal of manly beauty, and I think we have sufficient reason to believe that the artificial shaping of the skull was even more universally practiced in ancient than in modern times. The origin of the custom is a most interesting topic for study and speculation.[1079]
The practice of filing the teeth prevailed to a certain extent among the women of Yucatan, whose ideal of dental charms rendered a saw-teeth arrangement desirable. The operation was performed by certain old women, professors of the art, by means of sharp gritty stones and water.[1080] The piercing of ears, nose, and lips was practiced among all the nations by both men and women apparently, except in Guatemala, where, Ximenez tells us, it was confined to the kings, who perforated the nose and ears as a mark of rank and power. We have no authority for supposing that persons of any class in Yucatan and Nicaragua were restrained from this mutilation of their faces, or from wearing in the perforated features any ornaments they could afford to purchase. Such ornaments were small sticks, bones, shells, and rings of amber or gold. Other ornaments besides those inserted in the ears, nose, and lips, were bracelets, rings, gold beads, and medals, shell necklaces, metallic and wooden wands, gilded masks, feathers and plumes, and pearls. Besides this piercing for ornamental purposes, it should be noted that perforation of cheeks and tongues, and scarifyings of other parts of body and limbs, were common in connection with religious rites and duties.[1081]
TATTOOING AND PAINTING.
Tattooing was effected in Yucatan and Nicaragua by lacerating the body with stone lancets, and rubbing the wounds with powdered coal or black earths, which left indelible marks. Stripes, serpents, and birds seem to have been favorite devices for this kind of decoration. The process was a slow and painful one, and to submit to it was deemed a sign of bravery. The tattooing was done by professors who made this art a specialty. Cogolludo says the Itzas had the whole body tattooed, but Landa and Herrera tell us that neither in Yucatan nor in Nicaragua were the breasts of the women subjected to this decorative mutilation.[1082] Painting the face and body was universal, but little can be said respecting the details of the custom, save that red and black were apparently the favorite colors, and colored earths the most common material of the paints. Bixa was, however, much used for red, and cacao tinted with bixa to a blood-red hue was daubed in great profusion on the faces of the Nicaraguans. In Yucatan young men generally restricted themselves to black until they were married, indulging afterwards in varied and bright-colored figures. Black was also a favorite color for war-paint. Odoriferous gums were often mixed with the paints, especially by the women, which rendered the decoration durable, sticky, and most disagreeable to foreign olfactories. It appears that in Guatemala, and probably elsewhere, a coat of paint was employed, not only for ornamental purposes, but as a protection against heat and cold. At certain Nicaraguan feasts and dances the naked bodies were painted in imitation of the ordinary garments, cotton-fibre being mixed with the paint.[1083]
PERSONAL HABITS.