and give liberty to the arms: This, which they call the _Tebuta_, is
gathered round the waist, and confined with a girdle or sash of thinner
cloth, which is long enough, to go many times round them, and exactly
resembles the garment worn by the inhabitants of Peru and Chili, which
the Spaniards call _Poncho_. The dress of the men is the same, except
that, instead of suffering the cloth that is wound about the hips to
hang down like a petticoat, they bring it between their legs so as to
have some resemblance to breeches, and it is then called _Maro_. This is
the dress of all ranks of people, and being universally the same as to
form, the gentlemen and ladies distinguish themselves from the lower
people by the quantity; some of them will wrap round them several pieces
of cloth, eight or ten yards long, and two or three broad; and some
throw a large piece loosely over their shoulders, in the manner of a
cloke, or perhaps two pieces, if they are very great personages, and are
desirous to appear in state. The inferior sort, who have only a small
allowance of cloth from the tribes or families to which they belong, are
obliged to be more thinly clad. In the heat of the day they appear
almost naked, the women having only a scanty petticoat, and the men
nothing but the sash that is passed between their legs and fastened
round the waist. As finery is always troublesome, and particularly in a
hot country, where it consists in putting one covering upon another, the
women of rank always uncover themselves as low as the waist in the
evening, throwing off all that they wear on the upper part of the body,
with the same negligence and ease as our ladies would lay by a cardinal
or double handkerchief. And the chiefs, even when they visited us,
though they had as much cloth round their middle as would clothe a dozen
people, had frequently the rest of the body quite naked.

Upon their legs and feet they wear no covering; but they shade their
faces from the sun with little bonnets, either of matting or of