which leaves the arms at liberty, and can be
thrown back at pleasure, is so convenient for riding, and so excellent a
protection from wind and rain, that it is now commonly adopted by the
Spanish inhabitants of Chili, Peru, and Paraguay. The shirt, vest, and
breeches, are always of a greenish blue, or turquois colour, which is
the uniform of the nation. Among persons of ordinary rank, the _poncho_,
or native cloak, is also of the same national colour; but those of the
higher classes have it of different colours, as white, red, or blue,
with stripes a span broad, on which figures of flowers and animals are
wrought in different colours with much ingenuity, and the borders are
ornamented with handsome fringes. Some of these _ponchos_ are of so fine
a texture and richly ornamented as to sell for 100 or even 150 dollars.
Their only head-dress is a fillet or bandage of embroidered wool, which
they ornament in time of war with a number of beautiful feathers. Round
the waist they wear a long sash or girdle of woollen, handsomely
wrought; and persons of rank have leather sandals, and woollen boots,
but the common people are always bare-footed.

The dress of the women is entirely of wool, and the national greenish
blue colour, consisting of a tunic or gown without sleeves reaching to
the feet, fastened at the shoulder by silver buckles, and girt round the
waist by a girdle; over which gown they wear a short cloak, which is
fastened before by a silver buckle. They wear their hair in several long
braided tresses, flowing negligently over their shoulders, and decorate
their heads with false emeralds and a variety of trinkets. They wear
square ear-rings of silver, and have necklaces and bracelets of
glass-beads, and silver rings on all their fingers.

Like all the other tribes in Chili, before the arrival of the Spaniards,
the Araucanians still continue to construct their houses or huts rather
of a square form, of wood plaistered with clay, and covered with rushes,
though some use a species of bricks; and as they are all polygamists,
the size of their houses is proportioned to the number of women they are
able to maintain. The interior of their houses is very simple, and the
furniture calculated only to serve the most necessary purposes, without
any view to luxury or splendour. They never form towns, but live in
scattered villages along the banks of rivers, or in plains that can be
easily irrigated.

The whole country of the Arauca