People
Columbus thought the Lucayans resembled the Guanche of the Canary Islands (in part because they were intermediate in skin color between Europeans and Africans). The Lucayans were described as handsome, graceful, well-proportioned, gentle, generous and peaceful, and customarily going almost completely naked. Peter Martyr d'Anghiera said that the Lucayan women were so beautiful that men from "other countries" moved to the islands to be near them. Women past puberty wore a small skirt of cotton, and the men might wear a loincloth made of plaited leaves or cotton. Some people wore head bands, waist bands, feathers, bones and ear and nose jewelry on occasion. They were often tattooed and usually applied paint to their bodies and/or faces. They also practiced head flattening. Their hair was black and straight, and they kept it cut short except for a few hairs in back which were never cut. Columbus reported seeing scars on the bodies of some of the men, which were explained to him as resulting from attempts by men from other islands to capture them.
Read more about this topic: Lucayan People
Famous quotes containing the word people:
“Wit is so shining a quality that everybody admires it; most people aim at it, all people fear it, and few love it unless in themselves. A man must have a good share of wit himself to endure a great share of it in another.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“Hell is a city much like London—
A populous and a smoky city;
There are all sorts of people undone,
And there is little or no fun done;
Small justice shown, and still less pity.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)