Nose Rings Desired by San Blas Indians

1919

Defy Police When Government Rules Out Ornament.

"Changing the style of wearing gold nose rings by government order has aroused dissatisfaction in social circles in the San Blas Indian country on the Atlantic coast of Panama," is a statement made by Everybody's. Police were called in when the ladies insisted upon wearing the facial decoration, despite the order, and several women were fined.

According to the authority on this secluded spot of the world: "The San Blas occupy the Atlantic coast and the adjacent islands near the Colombian border and are among the best natural sailors in the world, many of them going to sea on ships from the Panama canal. They are great fishermen, and their coast and islands are said to produce the best cocoanuts in the world. These natural seamen bring large loads of cocoanuts to Cristobal, piled high in their dugout sailboats, up the roughest bit of coast on the Caribbean, with the waves laving over the edge, and never lose a nut.

"Their blood is probably the purest of any of the American Indians, as no men in the world have guarded their women with more jealousy and efficiency than the San Bias. In a country everywhere touched with the blood of the West Indian negroes, the San Blas never show the slightest trace of any kind of mixture. Until a few years ago, and it is still often true, no men other than those of their own tribe were permitted to be ashore on their coasts or on their islands after sunset."

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 9.