On grand occasions, they cast over their ordinary dress an upper
garment, called a tiputa, the cloth of which they manufacture
themselves from the bark of the bread and cocoa trees. The bark,
while still tender, is beaten between two stones, until it is as
thin as paper; it is then coloured yellow and brown.
One Sunday I went into the meeting-house to see the people assembled
there. {73} Before entering they all laid aside their flowers, with
which they again ornamented themselves at their departure. Some of
the women had black satin blouses on, and European bonnets of an
exceedingly ancient date. It would not be easy to find a more ugly
sight than that of their plump, heavy heads and faces in these old-
fashioned bonnets.
During the singing of the psalms there was some degree of attention,
and many of the congregation joined in very becomingly; but while
the clergyman was performing the service, I could not remark the
slightest degree of devotion in any of them; the children played,
joked, and ate, while the adults gossiped or slept; and although I
was assured that many could read and even write, I saw only two old
men who made any use of their Bibles.
The men are a remarkably strong and vigorous race, six feet being by
no means an uncommon height amongst them.
