The next morning we turned out early, and got our first real
"look-see." Campote is completely surrounded by mountains, the
hogback dropping off into the valley below us. About four or five
hundred people had assembled, men, women, and children. As a rule,
they were small and well built, but not so well built as the tribes
farther north. The men were fully armed with spears, bows and arrows,
shields, and head-knives; gee-strings apart, they were naked. Some of
them wore on the head the scarlet beak of the hornbill; these had taken
heads. Quite a number, both men and women, had a small cross-like
pattern tattooed on the forehead; the significance of this I did
not learn. The shield is in one piece, in longitudinal cross-section
like a very wide flat V open toward the bearer, the top terminating
in a piece rising between two scoops, one on each side of the median
line. The women had on short skirts and little jackets (like what,
I am told, we call bolero jackets), the bosom being bare. Around
the waist they wore bands of brass wire or of bamboo stained red and
wound around with fine brass wire. These bamboo bands were pretty and
artistic. You saw the children as they happened to be; the only thing
to note about them being that they were quite bright-looking. What
the men lacked in clothes they made up in their hair, for they wore
it long and some of them had it done up in the most absolute Psyche
knots. Such earrings as we saw were worn in the upper cartilage of
the ear. It may be remarked, too, that the women had a contented and
satisfied air, as though sure of their power and position; we found
this to be the case generally throughout the Mountain Country.

The purpose of the visit being to cultivate pleasant relations with and
receive the confidence of these shy people, the real business of the
day was soon opened. Mr. Worcester took his place in the shade of his
shack, and proceeded to the distribution of red calico, beads, combs,