The great lord [El Dorado] goes about continually covered in gold dust, as fine as ground salt. He feels that it would be less beautiful to wear any other ornament. It would be crude and common to put on armour plates of hammered or stamped gold, for other rich lords wear those when they wish. But to powder oneself with gold is something exotic, unusual, novel, and more costly -- for he washes away at night what he puts on each morning, so that it is discarded and lost. And he does this every day of the year.
— Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés