Race-mixtures in certain localities have almost obliterated aboriginal types, which are portrayed as of medium stature, regular form, and varying in color from light brown to dark coppery. The people about cape Gracias á Dios are represented by the first voyagers to have been nearly as dark as negroes. The face is rather flat and oval, the head smaller than among Europeans; forehead high and cheek-bones not very prominent; hair long, straight, coarse, and black; beard scanty; nose very small, thin, and usually aquiline among the coast people, but larger and broader toward the interior. The iris of the eye is generally black, but often verges toward brown; mouth broad, with thin lips and regular teeth. The women present a full bust and abdomen; they are called pretty, but early marriages soon make them old. It is suspected that infant murder has something to do with the rarity of deformed people. The Towkas and Ramas present the finest pure-blooded type, the former being very fair, while the latter are large, athletic, and stern-looking. The Poyas are copper-colored, short, but muscular, broad-faced, with large forehead, bent nose, and small, mild eyes. The Toonglas are duskier; the Smoos approach the fair Towkas in hue, though they have a flatter head, accompanied by a stolid look. The darkest of all are the Woolwas, whose color seems a mixture of yellow ochre and India ink. Proceeding to Honduras, we meet the Caribs, whose varied admixture of negro blood separates them into yellow and black Caribs. The former are distinguished by a somewhat ruddy hue, with a hooked nose; while his duskier brother is taller, hardier, and longer-lived; with a nose inclining to aquiline. Children are prettier as they approach the negro type. The hair varies in curl and gloss according to purity of blood. The Mosquitos proper are more uniform in appearance, and buccaneers have no doubt assisted in bringing out many of the characteristics that have obtained for the Sambo race the leading position on the coast. They are all well-built, raw-boned, nimble, and of a dull, dark, copper color. The face is oval, with a coarse, lustful expression, the hair rough, wavy, and black, eyes bright and remarkably strong; women pretty, with large eyes, and small feet and ankles.981
MOSQUITO PHYSIQUE AND DRESS.
A piece of cloth fastened at the waist in a twist or by a cord, and reaching to the knee, constitutes the native male costume in these parts, that of the women being somewhat shorter. This cloth is either of cotton, sometimes woven with down, or of fibres from the inner bark of the caoutchouc tree, beaten on stones till they become soft, and is often large enough to serve for a covering at night. Some are quite fanciful in color and design, and formerly they were painted. Those of the Woolwas are usually six feet long by three broad, striped blue and yellow; they are passed between the legs and fastened at the waist by a thong. The Xicaques, on the contrary, wear the cloth serape-fashion, by passing the head through a slit in the centre, and tying the folds round the waist. Even this scanty covering is often reduced to the smallest apron, and is dispensed with altogether in some parts, for modern travelers speak of natives in a naked state. Women occasionally wear a small square cloth, having an opening for the head, one part of which covers the breast, the other the back. In some parts chiefs are distinguished by a cotton cap, and a long sleeveless robe, open in front and often nicely ornamented; in other places men of rank wear turbans decorated with plumes and feathers, and dress in skins of eagles, tigers, and other animals; these are also used by the common people on festive occasions. The Smoos' head-dress is especially pretty, with its embroidery and feather-work. Ordinarily the long loose hair is deemed sufficient to protect the head, and is kept sleek and shining by palm-oil, which they say furthers its growth. The women have longer hair than the men, and often dress it in ringlets, seldom in a knot or wreath. The people of northern Honduras wear a lock hanging over the forehead; some highland chieftains, on the contrary, shave the front of the head, but allow the back hair to grow long, while the Poyas part theirs in the middle, keeping it in position with a band. That of the religious men reaches to the waist, and generally falls in braids behind. In mourning, both sides of the head are shaved, a bushy comb being left along the middle. Formerly all hair except that on the head, even eyebrows and lashes, was pulled out, because it was thought fit for animals only to have hair on the body. All go barefooted, and it is only where the native has to travel over a rough road that he puts on alparagats, or sandals of bark, wood, or skin, which are fastened by thongs round the foot. Whatever is wanting in actual dress, however, is made up by paint and ornaments, of which both sexes are equally fond. The face and upper part of the body are either uniformly daubed over or tattooed with rays, fanciful lines, and designs representing animals and the like, chiefly in red and black. Taste is not wanting in this adornment, for the tint is often delicate, and the black circles round the eyes indicate that they understand effect, increasing as they do the lustre of the orbs. Esquemelin states that when visitors were expected, the men combed the hair, and smeared the face with an ointment of oil and black powder, the women using a red admixture. Tattooing figures on the body by cauterization, as seen by Columbus on the Mosquito Coast, is still practiced in certain parts of the interior. Aboriginal Mosquitos also perforated ears, lips, and cheeks, to hold pendants of fish-bones and green stones; the holes in the ears being as large as eggs. The natives of Corn island not only carried large pieces of wood in the ears, but gradually enlarged the hole in the lower lip; at fifteen years of age the wood was removed and a tortoise-shell inserted. Women wore a tight bandage round the ankle to increase the size of their calves. Strings of tastefully arranged beads, bones, shells, and stones, and gaily colored bandages, were worn round the neck and wrist; the women adorning the legs and ankles in a similar manner, and also using feathers and flowers. Certain interior tribes, as the Smoos, esteem a round MOSQUITO HEAD-FLATTENING. forehead as a reproach, and hence the head is flattened, the effect of which would be more noticeable, were it not for the thick bushy hair. This head-flattening fashion here appears for the first time since we left the Columbian group; we shall see it once again further south, and that is all. The process here is essentially similar to that of the Columbians. When the infant is a month old, it is tied to a board, and a flat piece of wood, kept firm by bands, is placed upon the forehead. The child remains in this painful position for several months, the pressure increasing as the head grows.982
Towns there are none, except in certain parts; seldom do more than four or five houses stand in a group; the locality being changed at intervals for sanitary or superstitious purposes. A few upright posts planted in parallel lines, or in a circle, and occasionally interwoven with cane or leaves, support what may be called the hut proper, which is a sharply sloping, well-thatched palm-leaf roof with projecting eaves, reaching to within three