The uncivilized races of men in all countries of the world; vol. 2 of 2 / Being a comprehensive account of their manners and customs, and of their physical, social, mental, moral and religious characteristics

by J. G. Wood

The reader may remember that, in many portions of the uncivilized world, aprons are made of thongs depending from the waist. This principle is carried out by many of the African tribes, who use thongs or strips of leather, as well as in several of the islands of Polynesia, where vegetable materials are used. We have at [fig. 4], on page 1249, an example of the same principle carried out in Tropical America, feathers being employed instead of skin, grass, or bark. The length of this apron is one foot nine inches, and its depth one foot three inches. It is made of feathers, blue at the base and tip, and scarlet in the middle. As may be seen by the smaller figure at the side, the feathers are fastened on the string that binds the apron on the waist by doubling over the quill, and tying the doubled end over the string.

It is on such occasions as the Arawâk and Warau dances, of which a description was given in the last chapter, that the women produce their best apparel. Generally, as long as none but their own people are in sight, they are not particular about wearing clothes of any kind, but since they have mixed with the white people they have learned to be more fastidious. When a white stranger comes to a native settlement, the men and women are mostly independent of clothing, but the latter, as soon as they distinguish the color of their visitor, run off to their homes to put on their dresses.

Those settlements that are tolerably near civilization usually employ the “kimisa,” i. e. a sort of petticoat passing round the waist, and suspended by a string over one shoulder. These dresses are considered merely a concession to the peculiar notions of the white man, and, though worn while he is present, are taken off as soon as he departs, and carefully put away until the next white visitor comes.

The native dress of ceremony is, however, the little apron called the queyu, or keu. At the present time it is made of beads, but before beads were procurable it was simply of cotton, decorated with shells, beetles’ wings, and similar ornaments. Several of these odd little aprons are in my collection. The best and most elaborate of them is that which is represented at [fig. 5], on page 1249, and was presented to me by H. Bernau, Esq.

This beautiful specimen of native art is eight inches in length and four in depth, including the large beads that serve as a fringe. It is made entirely of “seed” beads, threaded on silk grass in such a manner that the thread is scarcely visible. The principle on which the maker has gone is, that she has woven a sort of framework of perpendicular threads or strings, set exactly wide enough apart to allow two beads to be placed between them. By this plan she has regulated the arrangement of the beads requisite to form the pattern, while the beads themselves are strung upon fine silk-grass threads that run at right angles to the others.

The colors are blue, yellow, green, and carmine, in transparent beads, and chalk-white and vermilion in opaque beads, not counting the larger beads used to form the fringe. The principle of the pattern is that of the square standing on an angle, or the “diamond,” as it is more familiarly termed. First, three diamonds have been worked in yellow beads, a line of green beads running down the centre of the yellow, and a rather broad line of carmine beads passing along the inner and outer edge of each diamond.

The dark pattern in the centre of each diamond is made of blue beads, and the square patterns in each angle of the diamond are made of chalk-white beads with a centre of vermilion. The entire apron is edged with the chalk-white beads. The fringe at the bottom is made of a treble row of much larger beads, one of which is represented of the full size, and at either end of each bead is a small scarlet cylinder, like coral.

On looking at the form of the apron, the reader will notice that it is much wider at the bottom than at the top. This is intentional. The thick perpendicular strings only extend as far as the upper corners, the others being thin threads. The consequence of this structure is, that when the apron is held up by two loops, the middle of it is nearly flat, while the two ends fall into heavy folds.

There is a positively startling boldness about the coloring of this apron; such, for example, as the placing green beads next to the yellow. Still, the whole arrangement of the colors is so admirable, that in spite of the brilliant hues of the beads, which are of the brightest possible blue, yellow, carmine, and vermilion, they are so well harmonized, that in no case does one hue seem to predominate over another, or to interfere with another.

Some few years ago, I was discussing the coloring of this very apron with Mr. T. Baines, the celebrated traveller, and asking if he had any theory by which he could account for the artistic harmony of color which is invariably displayed in the aprons. He said that he had long thought that the natives unconsciously imitated the coloring on the wings of the gorgeous butterflies which are so plentiful in that land, and, from specimens in his collection, showed that the very collocation of hues which produced harmony of coloring in the bead apron was also to be found in the wings of Guianan butterflies. Perhaps the splendid plumage of many Guianan birds may also afford hints for the native artist.