Dominica - The Traveller's Tree: A Journey Through the Caribbean Islands - page 68

made their heads appear strangely high and elongated. They anointed their long black hair with palm oil,
and tied it in a clump on the crown of the head. Their only clothing was a cord round their loins, from
the side of which hung a sheathless knife, while from the front suspended a length of cloth six inches
broad, which reached the ground. From an alloy of silver and gold and bronze they hammered out their
personal ornaments, the karakoli , or large crescents, which they suspended on chains from the lobes of
their ears, and from between the nostrils and from the lower lip. A fifth, six or seven inches long, hung
round their neck embedded in a slab of wood. These head decorations were sometimes removed, and the
holes in nose, ears and lip were refilled by plugs of wood or blue stones or, more strangely, red, blue and
green feathers from the tails of parrots, which had the appearance of multi-coloured whiskers and beards.
The women were also painted, and their hair was caught behind with cotton. An exiguous apron, prettily
beaded and fringed, was their only serious garment, but they wore, between the middle of their calves
and their upper ankles, strange buskins or greaves of embroided cotton. Blue stones embellished their
ears, and six or seven necklaces of enamel and different coloured shells, and five or six rows of bracelets
on either arm completed their attire. The general effect was charming, especially as the women, though
reserved and modest, were gay, smiling creatures with beautiful hair and eyes and perfect teeth; while the
faces of the men had, when it was possible to see them, a melancholy cast. The children wore circular
head-dresses of bright parrot feathers.
The women lived as an inferior caste. Five or six of them, often sisters, were the wives of the same
man. They would pound and prepare the cassava, which the men ate out of gourds in silence. The men
would then squat for hours in front of the fire, gazing into the flames, whistling softly through their teeth,
or blowing primitive and monotonous tunes down a reed pipe. Sometimes they would lie in their ham-
mocks, smoking or gazing abstractedly at the plaited roof. Basketwork, [4] mending their bows, whittling
arrows or carving clubs filled some of their time; but they would drop them the moment they were bored,
and disappear without a word to hunt or fish for a few days, returning in equal silence. Or they would just
sit or lie for further periods of cogitation. Their gift for impassivity seems to have been limitless. The only
things that could disturb it were jealousy, revenge or drink. When several Caribs were squatting together,
they would never interrupt each other. One of them would talk, and his words were invariably received
with a deep hum of approval and a ponderous nodding of the head without a word being articulated. The
following speaker, even if he flatly contradicted his predecessor, would be greeted by the same odd note
of approbation. They never quarrelled. If one of them had any resentment against another, he would only
remember it during one of their terrific drinking parties, and, rising, would walk round the outside of the
ring till he was behind his rival, split his skull in two with a mace-blow, and then resume his place. If the
friends or relations of the victim were in a minority, the party would continue without comment, but an
unending feud would begin that in a few years' time might have annihilated the families of both sides.
Three languages were spoken. The men talked Carib among themselves, and the women Arawak: a
survival of the ancient conquest when all the wives of the new owners were drawn from the defeated
race. Arawak developed, as time passed, into a squaws' language of which, although they understood
it perfectly from their childhood, the men never deigned to utter a syllable. The third language was a
secret tongue of the elders, which was only used for palavers that involved weighty resolutions. As per-
fect equality reigned amongst them, this was a difficult achievement. Nobody was in a position to com-
mand, and obedience was a thing that had never occurred to anyone. Decisions, usually involving warlike
expeditions, would only be made under the impulse of gregarious drunkenness, and the dead-lock was
usually resolved by one of the old women. She would burst into their indetermination, flourishing the