There is great individuality in the faces of the Amazonian Indians. A tribe is no herd of sheep, differentiated only to the experienced eye of the shepherd; the dissimilarities of countenance are immediately apparent, and even to the most casual observer Indians show marked variety of face and colour and feature. Like all savages the Indians admire most the lightest coloured skins. The divergence of colour is both tribal and racial; and as a rule it will be found that the higher the type the better the physical development, and the greater the mental capacity, the lighter will be the skin. On account of the saturation of the atmosphere the Indians mostly have skins of a good texture. I never found rough skins on Indians in these districts.[423] Of all the tribes the Menimehe have the lightest complexions, and they are invariably fatter and in better condition than the surrounding tribal groups.
PLATE LII.
COMBS—1. ANDOKE COMB WITH NUTSHELL CUP FOR RUBBER LATEX
2. WITOTO COMB
3. BORO COMB
I have mentioned the custom of covering a new-born infant with rubber milk either for warmth or to protect the skin; the women daub themselves with gum and a yellow clay because it is supposed to preserve the skin; but none of these peoples use any oil for lubricating purposes, and they are free from any noxious-smelling secretion. The smell of a negro they consider most offensive, but do not extend this dislike to the white man. The Indian owes his immunity from this unpleasant trait in part because he does not perspire at all freely, perhaps to difference of glandular secretion, and in part to frequent ablutions. Yet, though even a dirty people like the Witoto will bathe at least three times a day and most tribes far more often, these Indians, as has already been noted, are by no means free of body parasites. Head lice may be said to be universal, and in addition jiggers and the red tick that drops off leaves in the forest and burrows under the human skin, there is another burrowing parasite that invades the human body to lay its eggs, which is extremely common among these people. One is apt to be infested with these pests merely from touching an Indian, certainly by lying in an Indian hammock. The parasite causes considerable irritation, and the local remedy is to apply babasco juice.
Except in the case of a medicine-man, who never depilates, hair is looked upon as dirt; therefore it is always removed, only the hair of the head being permitted to grow. Depilation is usually done just before a dance. The method of removal adopted is to cover the hirsute parts with rubber latex. This is allowed to dry, so that a grip can be obtained and the hair removed simply with the forefinger and thumb or by means of two small pieces of cane. Two persons will, as far as facial hairs are concerned, depilate one another. It is universally considered a sign of cleanliness to remove all the body hairs, and even to pull out the eyebrows and eyelashes.[424] That the eyebrows are not removed for æsthetic purposes is proved by the fact that the effect is promptly reproduced with paint. It is not easy to get information with regard to the removal of body hair,[425] but I was able to obtain a little from a Karahone slave boy who was with an Andoke tribe I met. He told me that the Karahone did not depilate the hair of the face. This is the one exception among these tribes.
On the authority of Schomburgh, im Thurn states that occasionally when there is great demonstration of grief at a burial “the survivors crop their hair.” So far as my experience went none of the Indians of the Upper Amazons ever “crop” the hair close, except that of young girls when danger threatens. Should there be any reason to suppose that some man is inclined to steal a girl, her hair might be closely cut as a preventive measure to save the child from being kidnapped, for a hairless woman is looked upon as a social outcast among the tribes. The young Indians have long hair that often reaches to below the small of the back, but this length does not continue, and it is a varying quantity among the adults.