the nostrils, after the manner of the Persians, Arabians, and inhabitants of the coast of Malabar; and wear a variety of pendants of gold and silver. They adorn the arms and neck with bracelets and collars, made of the teeth of men who have perished in the war, or of those of animals. Over the shoulder they throw the quiver, and in the hands they bear the bow and the arrow. The women likewise cut the hair in front, leaving it to fall to the brows; but are particularly careful of the hinder hair, which flows loosely and copiously over the shoulders: they ornament their ears with the choicest trinkets. Both males and females stain the teeth and lips of a black hue, and the body of various colours. In painting the face, they have recourse to red, the colour which, among the Romans, served as a distinctive mark to Jupiter on the days of the public festivals, and which likewise decorated the countenance of the heroes, when they made their public entry into Rome[1]. If the god Cupid were to throw off his bandage, he and his mother Venus might serve to depict these nations. But the resemblance in this respect, does not produce in them an identity of customs, as happens to the inhabitants of the Maldivian Isles, in whom an analogous stile of dress, or rather the absence of all covering, has obliterated even the idea of shame.
- ↑ Quod ruhens color deorum sit, unde et triuntphantes facie miniata.—Serv. in Virg. Eclog. VI. A passion for beauty, according to the ideas they entertain of it, is not the only reason why the Indians who dwell on the mountains paint themselves: they likewise do this to guard against the punctures of the insects, whose feeble sting cannot penetrate the coat of paint which they spread over the surface of the body.
