PLATE XV.
DUKAIYA (OKAINA) BEAD DANCING-GIRDLE
CONDOR CLAWS, USED BY ANDOKE MEDICINE MAN OF THE UPPER JAPURA RIVER
The necklaces are matters of importance, for they disclose the status of the wearers. The skill of a warrior as a hunter, his bravery in war, is proved by the character of the teeth that circle his neck: the more successful the hunter the finer the teeth he wears, the more numerous the adornments of his family. Most to be envied in Indian opinion is a string of human teeth, in that it is the witness of revenge; the teeth are from the head of an enemy, for a man wears only the teeth of foes or game that he himself has killed, and at his death they will be buried with him, unless he fall at the hands of a foe, and his string of teeth go to swell the spoils of the victor. Human teeth are never bored, they are carefully bound into the necklace with fine fibre string. The very insignificance of the small, worn, discoloured teeth is in itself a sinister characteristic, presupposes an object other than ornamental, adds a horrible touch to the bizarre effect of all this barbaric bravery.
Necklaces of human teeth are frequently finished, if the teeth are not sufficient in number for the required length, with rounded bits of bone. Other teeth are spaced out with discs, some made of bone, others of shell obtained from river mussels, or even with knots in the fibre thread. The Boro necklace of human teeth in the accompanying illustration is made on cotton twist, an imported article very seldom found among these tribes,[77] though one of the Okaina beaded garlands figured on [Plate XIV.] is also made on cotton string, not palm-fibre as is customary. The handsome jaguar tooth necklace loses some of its artistic values in a black-and-white reproduction, which inevitably cannot do justice to the creamy ivory, shading to rich browns, of the teeth, making effective show against the red and blue of the beads, the dull colourlessness of the pieces of bone. Some of the teeth have a very primitive criss-cross grooving scratched on the fang end, others have a more elaborate attempt at a carved design. Each design differs, but the same idea of involuted curves is traceable in all.
In cases where Indians are too poor or too isolated to secure a sufficient supply of the Brummagem article, chains are still made of the bright red and black seeds of a bush plant, as they were before beads were obtainable; or bits of bone are employed, short lengths of cane or reed, or even red berries, gay enough when fresh, but dull and crinkled when they wither and fade. Beetles also are utilised for ornament, and the fondness of the Indian for black is shown in his rejection of such beetles as the gaudy-coloured Longicornes and his preference for the shiny breastplate of a fat squat beetle in black armour.[78] These strung on fibre string look like irregularly carved jet beads, but are far lighter, and make a soft and hollow rattle when shaken.
Besides these chains and necklaces the natives are very partial to a tight-fitting necklet of white beads bordering either side of a row of small, flat, diamond-shaped pieces of black wood, or the black shell of a nut, or gourd. These necklets vary a trifle in width: some have the diamond almost squared, they may have one, two, or three white beads between the black points, but there is no greater divergence than this from the stereotyped pattern. The polished bits of wood, like the beetle cases, resemble jet; and the sharp distinction of black and white sets off the native beauty, as a band of black velvet is supposed to put the finishing touch to her fairer sisters.
PLATE XVI.