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A closeup of the decorative leggings of a Kuna woman sitting on an old canon while sewing a mola outside of the Puerto Bello ruins in Colon, Panama. These handmade leggings are made of hundreds of small beads and are worn on both the arms and the legs of the Kuna women, traditionally only by ones who are married. Years ago they featured designs of dragons and venomous serpents as a symbol that if anyone other than her husband were to touch her, he would die of the "poison". Nowdays the tradition has lost some of it's symbolism and they are used by both married and single women as a decoration.
Photographer: Jacom Stephens
©2004 Avid Creative, Inc.
