As rain was pouring down we had to sleep in the overcrowded hut. The Indians slept only from eight at night to two in the morning; the rest of the time they chatted and prepared their bitter cupana drink, poking the fire and complaining of the cold, even though the temperature was 21°C. This custom of staying awake, even of getting up four or five hours before dawn, is common to the Guiana Indians.

We were struck to see in the Parurama camp that old women were more preoccupied in painting themselves than young ones. We saw an Otomac woman having her hair rubbed with turtle oil and her back painted with annatto by her two daughters. The ornaments consisted of a kind of lattice-work in crossed black lines on a red background. It was work needing incredible patience. We came back from a long herborization and the painting was still only half done. It is all the more amazing that this research into ornament does not result in tattooing, for the painting done so carefully washes off if the Indian exposes herself to a downpour. Some nations paint themselves to celebrate festivals; others are covered in paint all year round. With these Indians annatto is seen as so indispensable that men and women have less shame in appearing without a guayuco (97) than without paint. The Orinoco guayucos are made from bark and cotton. Men wear larger ones than women who, according to the missionaries, seem to feel less shame than men. Shouldn't we attribute this indifference, this lack of shame in the women in tribes that are not depraved, to the state of numbness and slavery to which the female sex has been reduced in South America by the injustice and power of men?

In Esmeralda, as in all missions, the Indians who refuse to be baptized but who live in the villages have remained polygamous. The number of wives differs according to the tribe; those who have most are the Caribs and those tribes that still carry young girls off from enemy tribes. Women live as slaves. As men exert absolute authority no women dare to complain in their presence. In the homes an apparent peace reigns, and the women vie to anticipate the whims of their demanding and bad-tempered master. They look after children, whether their own or another's. Missionaries say that this peace, the result of collective fear, breaks down when the master is away for a long time. The squabbling does not end until he returns and silences them just with the sound of his voice, or with a simple gesture, or by some other more violent means. As these unhappy women do all the work, it is not strange that in some tribes there are few women. Then you find a sort of polyandry. With the Avanos and Maypures several brothers share one wife. When an Indian with several wives becomes a Christian the missionaries force him to choose the one he wants to keep and to reject the others. The moment of separation is critical: the new convert finds that each wife has some special quality: one knows about plants, another how to make chicha, the drink made from cassava root. Sometimes an Indian would rather keep his wives than become a Christian; but usually the man lets the missionary choose for him, as part of his fate.