Note 10 — Chapter XLII

426. The eyes of all are very beautiful and large, either gray or black. The face is broad. The teeth are even and fine; formerly they covered them with ink or a varnish of a black color. Now that is no longer used except among the Tagabaloòyes of Caragà, of whom I have written; their beauty, lightness of complexion, and the features of their faces might deceive one, and they would be taken for Spaniards if they kept their mouths shut, and one did not see the black teeth. They also, especially the chief women, adorned the teeth with gold, with exquisite beauty. I do not know whether they waste the gold so now. All of the men are beardless in the face, but their bodies are sufficiently shaggy, as are those of all Asiatics. It is attributed to the temperature of the torrid zone in which we are. Who cares to study this more in detail would better read Fray Gregorio Garcia, the Dominican.10 In olden times the Indians removed and pulled out, as if it were a defect, any little hair that appeared on the face, with pincers of bamboo made for that very purpose. I have not read that they did this because they considered it a reproach to have a beard, as did those of Perù—who did the same, as I have read in the above-cited author.