1. GROUP OF WITOTO
2. GROUP OF SOME OF MY CARRIERS
CHAPTER V
Dress and ornament—Geographical and tribal differentiations—Festal attire—Feather ornaments—Hair-dressing—Combs—Dance girdles—Beads—Necklaces—Bracelets—Leg rattles—Ligatures—Ear-rings—Use of labret—Nose pins—Scarification—Tattoo—Tribal marks—Painting.
Judged by some of the pictures in books purporting to give accounts of the South American Indians, the photograph adjoining ([Plate VIII.]) would represent an Indian chieftain decked in his best to welcome the newly-arrived traveller, instead of what it is—merely a group of my escort and carriers tricked out in the rag, tag, and bobtail array they deemed due to my dignity and their own. Far different is the actual scene when the Indian homestead is approached and one meets these sons of the forest—be they Boro, Witoto, or others—in their native haunts and natural garb, unaffected by “civilised” influences. From the shadow of the interior will stalk the chief, accompanied by his escort of warriors, all naked, but for a strip of bark-cloth about the loins. Round the neck of the chief is a necklace of jaguar teeth, in his hand a broadsword of iron-wood; the men with him are destitute of feathers or ornaments, but each holds poised in his left hand a bunch of throwing javelins.
It is regrettable that returning explorers[61] have deemed it a necessary concession to unscientific prejudice to illustrate the natives of the Amazons in clothing or drapery that is wholly foreign to their custom and to their thought. The hypocrisy was more common before the uncompromising days of photography, but the effect of the old woodcuts and engravings is to give an entirely wrong impression of the appearance of the Indian in his own haunts. Even so accurate an observer as Crevaux discounts much of the value of his illustration by clothing his figures in a manner that could only be possible within the Rubber Belt, or in the case of his personal servants. Since the introduction of photography, non-existent clothing has ceased to appear in pictures of the Amazonian tribes, but still much misconstruction has been occasioned by grouping sets of natives in such a fashion as to make it appear that they are ashamed of their nakedness. As a fact, they are totally unaware of it. Therefore it cannot be too strongly emphasised that the Indians of these tropical regions are no more alive to any idea of indecency in their lack of apparel than are the people of England conscious of immodesty in their conventional attire at a Lord Mayor’s banquet or a function of the Court. It is as impossible to comprehend the true psychology of the Amazonian from the pedestal of the prude as from the pulpit of the priest. Difficult as it may be for either to understand, it is none the less true that to some peoples dress appears to be more indelicate than nudity.[62] He who would see truly must divest the mind of inherited and instilled prejudices in favour of much that to the natives has no meaning or reason for existence. Moreover, he might do well to remember that clothes are not always worn from motives of decency. Then he will understand that the naked Indian in his forest is no more unchaste than is the statue of a Greek god in the galleries of the British Museum.
PLATE IX.