very simply clad, in a coolie robe leaving arms and ankles bare,
and clinging about the figure in gracious folds; her color is a
clear bright brown-new bronze; her face a fine oval, and
charmingly aquiline. I perceive a little silver ring, in the form
of a twisted snake, upon the slender second toe of each bare
foot; upon each arm she has at least ten heavy silver rings;
there are also large silver rings about her ankles; a gold flower
is fixed by a little hook in one nostril, and two immense silver
circles, shaped like new moons, shimmer in her ears. The smith
mutters something to her in his Indian tongue. She rises, and
seating herself on the bench beside me, in an attitude of perfect
grace, holds out one beautiful brown arm to me that I may choose
a ring.

The arm is much more worthy of attention than the rings: it has
the tint, the smoothness, the symmetry, of a fine statuary's work
in metal;--the upper arm, tattooed with a bluish circle of
arabesques, is otherwise unadorned; all the bracelets are on the
fore-arm. Very clumsy and coarse they prove to be on closer
examination: it was the fine dark skin which by color contrast
made them look so pretty. I choose the outer one, a round ring
with terminations shaped like viper heads;--the smith inserts a
pair of tongs between these ends, presses outward slowly and
strongly, and the ring is off. It has a faint musky odor, not
unpleasant, the perfume of the tropical flesh it clung to. I
would have taken it thus; but the smith snatches it from me,
heats it red in his little charcoal furnace, hammers it into a
nearly perfect circle again, slakes it, and burnishes it.

Then I ask for children's _béras_, or bracelets; and the young