Ayahucas, south of Quitu.Canas, east of the Vilcañeta Pass.Caras, on the coast from Charapoto to Cape San Francisco.Casamarcas, on the head-waters of the Marañon.Chachapuyas, on the right bank of the Marañon.Chancas, near Huanta, in department Ayacucho.Chichasuyus, in the inter-Andean valley, from Loxa to Cerro de Pasco.Conchucos, near Huaraz.Huacrachucus, on both banks of the gorge of the Marañon.Huamachucus, on the upper Marañon.Huancapampas, near Juan de Bracamoros.Huancas, in the valley of Sausa.Huancavillcas, on and near the river Guayaquil.Huanucus, near Tiahuanuco.Incas, between Rio Apurimac and Paucartambo.Iquichanos, near Huanta.Kechuas, from Lake Apurimac to the Pampas.LamanosorLamistas, about Truxillo.Malabas, on Rio San Miguel (a branch of the Esmeraldas).Mantas, on the coast north of the Gulf of Guayaquil.Morochucos, in the department of Ayacucho.Omapachas, adjacent to the Rucanas.Quitus, near Quito.Rucanas, near the coast, about lat. 15°.Yauyos, near Cañete.[304]
I have thought it best to treat of the Aymara as a distinct linguistic stock, although the evidence is steadily accumulating that it is, if not merely a dialect of the Kechua, then a jargon made up of the Kechua and other stocks. In the first place, the name “Aymara” appears to have been a misnomer, or, as Markham strongly puts it, a “deplorable blunder,” of the Jesuit missionaries stationed at Juli.[305]The true Aymaras were an unimportantaylluor gens of the Kechuas, and lived in the valley of theAbancay, hundreds of miles from Juli. A number of them had been transported to Juli to work in the mines, and there had intermarried with women of the Colla and Lupaca tribes, native to that locality. The corrupt dialect of the children of these Aymara colonists was that to which the Jesuit, Ludovico Bertonio, gave the name Aymara, and in it, Markham claims, he wrote his grammar and dictionary.[306]
Its grammar and phonetics are closely analogous to those of the southern Kechua dialects, and about one-fourth of its vocabulary is clearly traceable to Kechua radicals. Moreover, the Colla, Lupaca, Pacasa and allied dialects of that region are considered by various authorities as derived from the Kechua. For these reasons, Markham, Von Tschudi, and later, Professor Steinthal, have pronounced in favor of the opinion that the so-called Aymara is a member of the Kechua linguistic stock.[307]
On the other hand, the decided majority of its radicals have no affinity with Kechua, and betray a preponderating influence of some other stock. What this may have been must be left for future investigation. It does not seem to have been the Puquina;for although that tongue borrowed from both the Aymara and the pure Kechua dialects, its numerals indicate a stock radically apart from either of them.
The Aymara was spoken with the greatest purity and precision by the Pacasas; and next to these, by the Lupacas; and it was especially on these two dialects that Bertonio founded his Grammar, and not upon the mongrel dialect of the imported laborers, as Markham would have us believe.[308]
The physical traits of the Aymara Indians offer some peculiarities. These consist mainly in an unusual length of the trunk in proportion to the height, in a surprising development of the chest, and short extremities. The proportion of the thigh to the leg in length is under the average. The leg and calf are well developed, and the general muscular force good. The hands and feet are smaller even than is common in the American race. The skull has a tendency to dolichocephaly.[309]The unusual thoracic development is plainly attributable to the tenuity of the atmosphere breathed by these residents of heights varying from 4,000 to 17,000 feet above sea level. Making allowances for the results of this exposure, they do not differ materially from the general physical habits of the Kechuas.
The location they occupied was generally to the south and east of the Kechuas, upon the plateau and western slopes of the Andes, from south latitude 15° to 20°, and through about six degrees of longitude. It may be said roughly to have been three hundred miles from north to south, and four hundred from east to west. The total native population of this area to-day is about six hundred thousand, two-thirds of whom are of pure blood, and the remainder mixed. Some of them dwell along the sea coast, but the majority are on the Bolivian plateau, the average altitude of which is more than twelve thousand feet above sea level.
The old writers furnish us very little information about the Aymaras. At the time of the discovery they were subject to the Kechuas and had long been thus dependent. Many, however, believe that they were the creators or inspirers of the civilization which the Kechuas extended so widely over the western coast. Certain it is that the traditions of the latter relate that their first king and the founder of their higher culture, Manco Capac, journeyed northward from his home on the shores of Lake Titicaca, which was situated in Aymara territory. From the white foam of this inland sea rose the Kechua culture-hero Viracocha, who brought them the knowledge of useful arts and the mysteries of their cult.
On the cold plain, higher than the summit of the Jungfrau, which borders this elevated sea are also found the enigmatical ruins of Tiahuanuco, much the most remarkable of any in America. They are the remains of imposing edifices of stone, the cyclopean blocks polished and adjusted so nicely one tothe other that a knife-blade cannot be inserted in the joint.[310]In architectural character they differ widely from the remains of Incarian structures. The walls are decorated with bas-reliefs, there are remains of columns, the doors have parallel and not sloping sides, all angles are right angles, and large statues in basalt were part of the ornamentation. In these respects we recognize a different inspiration from that which governed the architecture of the Kechuas.[311]
No tradition records the builders of these strange structures. No one occupied them at the time of the conquest. When first heard of, they were lonely ruins as they are to-day, whose designers and whose purposes were alike unknown. The sepulchral structures of the Aymaras also differed from those of the Incas. They were not underground vaults, but stone structures erected on the surface, with small doors through which the corpse was placed in the tomb. They were calledchulpas, and in construction resembled thetolasof the Quitus. Sometimes they are in large groups, as thePataca Chulpa, “field of a hundred tombs,” in the province of Carancas.[312]
Canas, in the Sierra of the province so-called, east of Cuzco.Canchis, in the lowlands of the province of Canas.Carancas, south of Lake Titicaca.Charcas, between Lakes Aullaga and Paria.Collas, orCollaguas, north of Lake Titicaca.Lupacas, west of Lake Titicaca, extending to Rio Desaguadero.Pacasas, occupied the eastern shore of Lake Titicaca.Quillaguas, on part of the southern shore of Lake Titicaca.
The Puquinas are also known under the names Urus or Uros, Hunos and Ochozomas. They formerly lived on the islands and shores of Lake Titicaca, in the neighborhood of Pucarini, and in several villages of the diocese of Lima. Oliva avers that some of them were found on the coast near Lambayeque.[313]If this is correct, they had doubtless been transported there by either the Incas or the Spanish authorities. They are uniformly spoken of as low in culture, shy of strangers and dull in intelligence. Acosta pretends that they were so brutish that they did not claim to be men.[314]Garcilasso de la Vega calls them rude and stupid.[315]Alcedo, writing in the latter half of the eighteenth century, states that those on the islands had, against their will, been removed to the mainland, where they dwelt in gloomy caves and in holes in the ground covered with reeds, and depended on fishing for a subsistence.
They are alleged to have been jealous about their language, and unwilling for any stranger to learn it. Their religious exercises were conducted in Kechua, with which they were all more or less acquainted. The only specimen of their tongue in modern treatises is the Lord’s Prayer, printed by Hervas and copied by Adelung.[316]On it Hervas based the opinion that the Puquina was an independent stock. The editors of the “Mithridates” seemed to incline to the belief that it was related to the Aymara, and this opinion was fully adopted by Clement L. Markham, who pronounced it “a very rude dialect of the Lupaca,”[317]in which he was followed by the learned Von Tschudi.[318]
None of these authorities had other material than thePater Nosterreferred to. Hervas credits it to a work of the missionary Geronimo de Ore, which it is evident that neither he nor any of the other writers named had ever seen, as they all speak of the specimen as the only printed example of the tongue. This work is theRituale seu Manuale Peruanum, published at Naples in 1607. It contains about thirty pages in the Puquina tongue, with translations into Aymara, Kechua, Spanish and Latin, and thus forms a mine of material for the student. Though rare, a copy of it is in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, and is thus readily accessible. I have published a number of extracts from its Puquina renderings in theProceedings of the American PhilosophicalSocietyfor 1890. They are sufficient to show that while this language borrowed many terms, especially those referring to religion and culture, from the neighboring Kechua and Aymara dialects, these were but additions to a primitive stock fundamentally different from either of them.
The dissimilarity of the three tongues is well seen in their numerals, which are as follows:
In these lists the Aymara numerals,one,twoandfourare independent;three,five,sixandtenare taken from the Kechua; and the remaining three are compound,pa-callco, being 2+5;quimsa-callco, 3+5; andllalla-tuncameaning “less than ten.”Callcois derived from the word for “foot,” the counting being with the toes. On the other hand, there is not a single numeral in the Puquina which can be derived from either Kechua or Aymara; and what is more remarkable, there is apparently not one which is compounded.
It remains puzzling to me why the Puquina, which seems to have been spoken only by a few wretched villagers about Lake Titicaca, should have beenclassed by writers in the sixteenth century as one of thelenguas generalesof Peru. Not only does Ore refer to it by this term, but in one of the officialRelaciones Geograficaswritten in 1582, it is mentioned as “one of the three general languages of this kingdom.”[319]This would seem to indicate that at that period it had a wider extension than we can now trace.
The Yuncas occupied the hot valleys near the sea between south latitude 5° and 10°, their capital being in the vicinity of the present city of Truxillo. Their tongue belongs to an entirely different stock from the Kechua, and was not influenced by it. It still survives in a few sequestered valleys. The extreme difficulty of its phonetics aided to prevent its extension.[320]
There is little doubt but that the Yuncas immigrated to their locality at some not very distant period before the conquest. According to their own traditions their ancestors journeyed down the coast in their canoes from a home to the north, until they reached the port of Truxillo.[321]Here they settled and in later years constructed the enormous palace known as theGran Chimu, whose massive brick walls, spacious terraces, vast galleries and fronts decorated with bas-reliefs and rich frescoes, are stillthe wonder and admiration of travelers.[322]
Near by, in the valley of Chicama and vicinity, they constructed capacious reservoirs and canals for irrigation which watered their well-tilled fields, and were so solidly constructed that some of them have been utilized by enterprising planters in this generation. Doubtless some of these were the work of the Incas after their conquest of this valley by the Inca Pachacutec, as is related by Garcilasso de la Vega,[323]but the fact that the Chimus were even before that date famed for their expertness in the working of metals and the fashioning of jewels and vases in silver and gold,[324]proves that they did not owe their culture to the instruction of the Quichuas.
The termyunca-cunais a generic one in the Kechua language, and means simply “dwellers in the warm country,” thetierra caliente, near the sea coast. It was more particularly applied to the Chimus near Truxillo, but included a number of other tribes, all of whom, it is said, spoke related dialects. Of the list which I append we are sure of the Mochicas or Chinchas, as the Yunca portion of Geronimo de Ore’s work is in this dialect;[325]of the Estenes, Bastian has printed quite a full vocabulary which is nearly identical with the Yunca of Carrera;[326]Mr. Spruce obtained in 1863 a vocabulary of forty wordsfrom the Sechuras, proving them to belong to this stock;[327]but the dialects of the Colanes and Catacoas are said by the same authority to be now extinct. According to the information obtained by the Abbé Hervas, the “Colorados of Angamarca” also spoke a Yunca dialect,[328]but I have been unable to identify this particular tribe of “painted” Indians.
The location of the stock at the conquest may be said to have been from south lat. 4° to 10°; and to have included the three departments of modern Peru called Ancachs, Libertad, and Piura.
Catacoas, on the upper Rio Piura.Chancos, on the coast south of the Mochicas.Chimus, near Truxillo.Chinchas, seeMochicas.Colanes, on Rio Chiura, north of Payta.Etenes, in the valleys south of Lambayeque.Mochicas, at Mochi, near Truxillo.Morropes, north of Lambayeque.Sechuras, on Rio Piura.
In the valley of the river Loa, about 20°-23° south latitude, and in the vicinity of Atacama, there still survive remnants of a tribe called Atacameños by the Spaniards, but by themselvesLican-Antais, people of the villages. Their language appears to be of an independent stock, equally remote from that ofthe Kechuas and the Aymaras. Vocabularies of it have been preserved by various travelers, and the outlines of its grammar have been recently published by San-Roman.[329]From two of its numerals and some other indications Dr. Darapsky has connected it with the Aymara, which is also spoken in that vicinity.[330]The relationship, however, cannot be considered established, and the latest researches tend to sharpen the contrast between theCunza, as it is sometimes called, and the Aymara.
The Lican-antais are fishermen and live in a condition of destitution. The aridity of the climate is unfavorable to agriculture. In physical habitus they are short, with dark complexions, flat broad noses and low foreheads.
D’Orbigny identifies the Lican-Antais with the Olipes, Lipes or Llipis of the older writers[331](Garcilasso, etc). This, however, is open to doubt. Von Tschudi hazarded the opinion that the Atacameños were a remnant of the Calchaquis of Tucuman, who had sought refuge from the Spaniards in this remoteoasis on the coast.[332]I can find no positive support for this view, as we have no specimens of the language of the Calchaquis.
Immediately to the south of the Atacameños, bordering upon the sterile sands of the desert of Atacama, between south latitude 22° and 24°, are theChangos. In their country it never rains, and for food they depend entirely on the yield of the sea, fish, crustacea and edible algae. Like the Bushmen of the Kalihari desert, and doubtless for the same reason of insufficient nutrition, they are undersized, as a tribe perhaps of the shortest stature of any on the continent. The average of the males is four feet nine inches, and very few reach five feet.[333]They are, however, solidly built and vigorous. The color is dark, the nose straight and the eyes horizontal.
Nothing satisfactory is reported about their language, which is asserted to be different from the Aymara or any other stock. The tribe has been confounded by some writers with the Atacameños, and the Spaniards apparently included both under the termChangos; which is at present used as a term of depreciation. But both in location and appearance they are diverse. Whether this extends also to language, as is alleged, I have not the material to determine, and probably the tongue is extinct.[334]
Those two mighty rivers, the Amazon and the Orinoco, belong to one hydrographic system, the upper affluents of the latter pouring their waters for six months of the year into the majestic expanse of the former. Together they drain over three million square miles of land,[335]clothed throughout with lush tropical vegetation and seamed by innumerable streams, offering natural and facile paths of intercommunication. It is not surprising, therefore, that we find linguistic stocks extended most widely over this vast area, each counting numerous members. Of them the most widely disseminated were the Tupi, the Tapuya, the Carib and the Arawak families, and to these I shall first give attention.
Along the coast of Brazil and up the Amazon there is current a more or less corrupted native tongue called the “common language,”lingua geral. It is derived mainly from the idiom of the Tupis, whose villages were found by the first discoverers along theseaboard, from the mouth of the La Plata to the Amazon and far up the stream of the latter. According to their traditions, which are supported by a comparison of their dialects, the Tupis wandered up the coast from the south. Their earlier home was between the Parana river and the Atlantic. There they called themselvesCarai, the astute, a term they afterwards applied to the Spaniards, but later were given the nameGuaranis, meaning warriors, by which they are generally known. They must have been very numerous, as a careful estimate made in 1612 computed those then living in the modern states of Corrientes and Uruguay at 365,000; a census which could not have been much exaggerated, as about a century later the Jesuits claimed to have over three hundred thousand Christianized and living in their “reductions;”[336]even to-day ninety per cent. of the population of Uruguay have Guarani blood in their veins.
The inroads of the Spaniards from the south and of the kidnapping Portuguese from the east, reduced their number greatly, and many bands sought safety in distant removals; thus the Chiriguanos moved far to the west and settled on the highlands of Bolivia, where they have increased their stock from four or five thousand to triple that number,[337]extending as far south as the Pilcomayo river. On the upper watersof the Parana were the Tapes, a nation so called from the name of their principal village. It is another form of Tupi, and means “town.” They received the early missionaries willingly, and are complimented by these as being the most docile and intelligent of any of the nations of South America.[338]
The Tupi tribes did not extend north of the immediate banks of the Amazon, nor south of the Rio de la Plata. It would appear not improbable that they started from the central highlands where the Tapajoz on the north and the Paraguay on the south have their sources. Their main body followed the latter to the Atlantic, where the Tupis proper separated and moved up the coast of Brazil. This latter migration is believed to have been as late as a few hundred years before the discovery.[339]
Like the Tapuyas, the Tupis have a tendency to dolicocephaly, but it is less pronounced. They are less prognathic, the forehead is fuller and the color of the skin brighter. The hair is generally straight, but Pöppig saw many among the Cocamas of pure blood with wavy and even curly hair.[340]
I have no hesitation in including in the Tupi family the Mundurucus, or Paris, on the upper Tapajoz. Their relationship was fully recognized by Professor Hartt, who was well acquainted with both dialects.[341]They are a superior stamp of men, tall, of athletic figures, light in color, their naked bodies artistically tattooed. Their women are skilled in weaving cotton hammocks, and the men pursue some agriculture, and manufacture handsome feather ornaments.
To the same family belong the Muras and Turas, in the swampy valley of the Madeira in its middle course, “an amphibious race of ichthyophagi,” as they are called by Martius, savage and hostile, and depraved by the use of theparica, a narcotic, intoxicating snuff prepared from the dried seeds of theMimosa acacioides. At the beginning of this century they were estimated at 12,000 bowmen; but this was doubtless a great exaggeration. Though their dialect differs widely from thelingua geral, the majority of their words are from Tupi roots.[342]Others are related to the language of the Moxos, and in the last century certain of their tribes lived in the immediate vicinity of these, and were brought into the “reductions” of the Moxos Indians by the Jesuit missionaries.[343]The tendency of their migrations has been down the Madeira.
The tribes of this lineage in the extreme south of Brazil were numerous. The Guachaguis, corresponding apparently to the modern Guachis, are said by Lozano to speak a corrupt Guarani.[344]Vocabularies have been obtained by Castelnau and Natterer, which indicate only a remote resemblance. According to their own tradition, they migrated from near the Moxos in the Bolivian highlands.
The Gualachos, who spread from the river Iguaza to the sea coast, spoke a Guarani dialect in which the sounds off,jandlwere present, which, in pure Guarani, are absent. They built thatched houses divided into several rooms, and raised abundant harvests.[345]
The Omaguas and Cocamas, the most western of the Tupis, dwelling within the limits of Ecuador, had evidently profited by their contiguity to the civilization of Peru, as they are described by early travelers as familiar with gold, silver and copper, living in permanent villages connected by good roads, and cultivating large fields of cotton, maize and various food-plants. The art-forms which they produced and the prevalence of sun-worship, with rites similar to those of Peru, indicate the source of their more advanced culture. By some authors the Omaguas are stated to have migrated down the Rio Yupura from Popayan in New Granada, where a tribe speaking their dialect, the Mesayas are alleged still to reside.[346]The peculiar “mitred” skulls of the Omaguas are anartificial deformity prized by them as a beauty.
The Tupi is rich in mythological tales which have been collected by several competent students of their tongue. (Hartt, Magalhaes, etc.) Their religion is a simple animistic nature-worship.
The dead were buried in large urns, usually in localities set aside for the purpose. One such on the island Maraho, near the mouth of the Amazon, has yielded a rich harvest to archæologists.
The general culture of the Tupis was superior to that of any other Brazilian tribes, but much inferior to that of the Incas. They were to a slight extent agricultural, raising maize, manioc, tobacco, which they smoked in pipes, and several vegetables. Some fowls, monkeys and peccaries were tamed and used as food. Their houses were of straw, lattice work and leaves, sometimes plastered with mud. The communal system prevailed, twenty or thirty families occupying one residence. A number of such houses would be erected on some favorable site and surrounded by a palisade of strong poles. These towns were, however, not permanent, and nearly half the year was spent in hunting and fishing expeditions along the streams. They went entirely naked, but wove excellent hammocks from the bark of trees and other vegetable fibres. Devoid of a knowledge of metals, they were in the height of the age of polished stone, many of their products in this direction being celebrated for symmetry and delicacy.[347]The art of the potter was also well developed, and the vases fromthe Amazon, calledigasauas, rank both in symmetry, decoration and fine workmanship among the most creditable specimens of American ceramics.
The language which characterizes this widely distributed stock is polysynthetic and incorporating, with the flexibility peculiar to this class of tongues. It has been the subject of a number of works, but still lacks a thorough comparative treatment. The Jesuit missionaries adopted the Guarani dialect throughout their extensive “reductions,” and translated into it a variety of works for the instruction of their acolytes, some of which have been printed.
Ababas, in Bolivia.Amazonas, on lower Amazon.Anambes, on Rio Tocantins.Apiacas, near Rio Arinos and upper Tapajoz.Araguagus, on lower Paru.Bororos, near Rio Paraguay.Camaguras, in province Matogrosso.Cambevas, seeOmaguas.Cambocas, mouth of Rio Tocantin.Caracatas, on upper Uruguay and Parana.Cayovas, on Rio Tapajoz.Chaneses, in Bolivia.Chiriguanos, in Bolivia.Chogurus, on Rio Pajehu.Cocamas, near Rio Nauta (upper Amazon) and Rio Ucayali.Cocamillas, near the Cocamas.Cuchiuaras, on Rio Tocantins.Guaranis, in Uruguay.Guarayos, in Bolivia.Guayanas, in Uruguay.Gujajaras, on Rio Maranhao.Jacundas, on Rio Tocantins.Jamudas, in province Pará.Maues, on the Amazon.Mbeguas, on Rio Parana.Manitsauas, on upper Schingu.Mitandues, near Rio Tapajoz.Mundurucus, on Rio Tapajoz.Muras, on Rio Madeira.Omaguas, on lower Iça.Oyampis, on upper Oyapok.Pacajas, on lower Amazon.Parentintims, in province Amazonas.Paris, seeMundurucus.Piturunas, on Rio Curitiba.Sirionos, on Rio Paray, Bolivia.Tamoyos, near San Vincente, Brazil (extinct).Tapaunas, on Rio Tocantins.Tapirapes, in province Goyaz.Tapes, on Rio Uruguay.Turas, on lower Rio Madeira.Uyapas, on Rio Arinos.Yurunas, on Rio Schingu, from 4° to 8°.
TheTapuyastock is at once the most ancient and the most extensive now living on the soil of Brazil. Its various tribes are found from s. lat. 5° to s. lat. 20°, and from the Atlantic to the Schingu river. The nameTapuyawas applied to them by the Tupis, and means “enemies” or “strangers”—two ideas which are always synonymous in primitive life. They are also calledCrensorGuerens, the Old Ones or Ancient People. This seems to have reference to their possession of the coast before the arrival of the Tupi hordes from the south.
By some writers they are believed to have been the earliest constructors of thesambaquis, the shell-heaps or kitchen-middens, which are of great size and numerous,along the Atlantic and its bays. These are supposed to indicate an antiquity of 2,000 years;[348]but the Tapuyas can lay claim to a title to their land far older than that. The skulls and human bones which were discovered by Dr. Lund in the caves of Lagoa Santa in immediate juxtaposition to those of animals now extinct, came from a region occupied by the Tapuyas, and are in all respects parallel to those of the tribe to-day. This would assign them a residence on the spot far back in the present geologic period.
Their appearance is that of an antique race of men. They are of middle height, with long upper and short lower extremities. The face is broad, the eyes small and under prominent ridges, the forehead low and retreating; the sutures are simple, the face prognathic, and the skull decidedly dolichocephalic (73), but of good capacity (1470 cub. cent.), and leptorhinic; the mouth is large and the nose prominent. In color they present a variety of shades of reddish-brown, and their hair, which is coarse, verges rather on the dark-brown than the black.[349]They are not ugly, and the expression of the face, especially in the young, is often attractive. Those of them, however, who distend the lower lip with the large labret orbotoque(from which theBotocudosderive their name), cannot be other than hideous to European eyes.
In culture the Tapuyas are reported to stand on the lowest scale. When free in their native woods they go absolutely naked; they have no other houses than temporary shelters of leaves and branches; they manufacture no pottery, build no canoes, and do not know how to swim. When first in contact with the whites they had no dogs, knew nothing of the use of tobacco or salt, and were common cannibals. They have no tribal organizations and no definite religious rites.
To counterbalance all these negatives, I hasten to add that they are hunters of singular skill, using strong bows with long arrows, manufacture polished stone axes and weave baskets of reeds, and, what is rare among the Indians, use tapers made from wild bees-wax and bark fibre.[350]Their marriages are monogamous, though rarely permanent, and they are not devoid of family affection.[351]Though lacking definite religious ideas, they are careful to bury the dead, and have a belief that the spirit of the departed survives and wanders about at night, for which reason they are loth to move in the dark. The soul of a chief may take the form of a jaguar. During a thunder storm they shake a burning brand and shoot arrows toward the sky, to appease by imitation the powers of the storm; and they are much given to semi-religious dances, in which their motions are to the sound of anative flute, which is played with the nose.[352]
Their language is difficult in its phonetics, and presents a contrast to most American tongues by its tendency toward the isolating form, with slight agglutination. A carefully prepared vocabulary of it has recently been published by Dr. Paul Ehrenreich,[353]whose studies on this stock have been peculiarly valuable.
Apina-gês, north of Rio Tocantins.Aponegi-crens, in south of province Maranhao.Acroas, near Rio Tocantins.Aimores, seeBotocudos.Botocudos, in Sierra dos Aimures.Carahos, on Rio Tocantins.Camacans, near Rio Pardo.Cayapos, north of Rio Pardo.Chavantes, near Rio Maranhao.Cherentes, near Rio Tocantins.Chicriabas, near Rio de San Francisco.Coretus, on Rio Yupura.Cotoxos, near Rio Doce.Cumanachos, in province Goyaz.Crens, seeBotocudos.Gês, in province Goyaz.Goyotacas, in province Goyaz (see below).Malalalis, near Rio Doce.Malalis, in province Goyaz.Masacaras, in province Goyaz.Pancas, on Rio das Pancas.Potés(Poton), on upper Mucuri.Puris, near Rio Paraiba.Suyas, on upper Schingu.
The Goyotacas in the province of Goyaz and the regions adjacent include a large number of tribes which Von Martius has shown to have sufficient linguistic affinity among themselves to unite in one group, and connections enough with the Tapuya stem to be regarded as one of its sub-stocks.[354]
Capochos, in the sierra between Minas Geraes and Porto Seguro.Coropos, on the Rio da Pomba.Cumanachos, adjacent to the Capochos.Machacalis, on and near Rio Mucury.Macunis, between Minas Geraes and Porto Seguro.Monoxos, adjacent to the Macunis.Panhames, on head-waters of Rio Mucury.Patachos, on head-waters of Rio de Porto Seguro.
Another group believed by Martius to be a mixed off-shoot of the Tapuya family belong to what I may call the
Cobeus, on Rio Uaupes.Dace, on Rio Uaupes.Jupua, on upper Yupura.Jauna, on Rio Uaupes.Tucano, on Rio Uaupes.
All these tribes are found in the vicinity of the river Uaupes, and are distinguished by three vertical lines tattooed or incised on the cheeks. They take their name, as do some other Brazilian tribes not related to them, from the beautiful toucan bird, which is frequently held sacred among them, and is sometimeschosen as the totem of a gens.
I also attach to this stock the Carnijos or Fornio, a vocabulary of whose language has been published by Professor John C. Branner, and which hitherto has not been identified.[355]The following comparison between it and the Tapuya dialects will show the affinity:
The Arawak stock of languages is the most widely disseminated of any in South America. It begins at the south with the Guanas, on the head-waters of the river Paraguay, and with the Baures and Moxos on the highlands of southern Bolivia, and thence extends almost in continuity to the Goajiros peninsula, the most northern land of the continent. Nor did it cease there. All the Antilles, both Greater and Less, were originally occupied by its members, and so were the Bahama Islands,[356]thus extending its dialects to within a short distance of the mainland of the northern continent, and over forty-five degrees of latitude. Itstribes probably at one time occupied the most of the lowlands of Venezuela, whence they were driven not long before the discovery by the Caribs, as they also were from many of the southern islands of the West Indian archipelago. The latter event was then of such recent occurrence that the women of the Island Caribs, most of whom had been captured from the Arawaks, still spoke that tongue.
They were thus the first of the natives of the New World to receive the visitors from European climes, and the words picked up by Columbus and his successors on the Bahamas, Cuba and Hayti, are readily explained by the modern dialects of this stock. No other nation was found on any part of the archipelago except the two I have mentioned. The whole of the coast between the mouths of the Orinoco and Amazon appears to have been in their possession at or a short time before the epoch of the discovery.
The Antis or Campas, who perhaps occupy the original home of the stock, own as the centre of their domain the table-land known as El Gran Pajonal, or the Great Grass Field, bounded by the rivers Ucayali, Pachitea and Perene. Their hue is a bistre and their habits wild; some slight tillage is carried on, and the women spin and weave the wild cotton into coarse garments. The taming of animals is one of their arts, and around their huts are seen monkeys, parrots, peccaries and tapirs.[357]It is noteworthy that some of them are skilful blacksmiths, smelting the metal from the native ores, and working it into axes,knives, spear points, etc., of excellent quality.[358]
The names Campas and Antis were used as generic terms, the latter applied to the tribes on the slopes of the Cordilleras and the former to those on the plains. A large number of sub-tribes are named by the older writers, the principal of which were the Choseosos, Machigangas, Pilcosumis and Sepaunabos. The Machigangas lived on the Pilcopata and Vilcanota, and their language has been erroneously stated by Von Tschudi to be an independent stock.[359]The Chunchas and Cholones are by some classed with the Campas, and they are said to have been the possessors of the famous Cerro de Sal, or Salt Mountain, to which the neighboring tribes repaired in great numbers to obtain supplies of this useful article.
The Guanas are a nation who have long lived on the upper Paraguay, in the province Mato Grosso on the river Mambaya, and vicinity. D’Orbigny believed that they were a member of the Mataco group,[360]but they are now recognized as belonging to the Arawak stock. They are noteworthy for their peaceful disposition and unusual intelligence. Hervas speaks of them as the most able nation visited by the missionaries in the whole of America.[361]The traveler Castelnau confirmed this good opinion. He foundthem living in neat houses and cultivating the land with skill and industry. They raised not only the ordinary food plants, but cotton and sugar cane, pressing the sap from the latter by machinery of their own devising, and moulding the sugar into loaves. Their cotton cloth, dyed of various colors, was highly esteemed for its texture.
Castelnau describes them as occupying four settlements near Albuquerque and Miranda, and comprising the Chualas or Guanas proper, the Terenos, the Laianas, and the Quiniquinaos.[362]Later investigations have shown that of these the Terenos and Quiniquinaos are members of the Guaycuru stock of the Chaco, and that the Chualas and Laianas alone belong to the true Guanas.[363]
ThePaiconecasor Paunacas were attached to the mission of the Conception in Bolivia, in 16° south latitude. They numbered about 500 in 1831. In customs and appearance they approached the Chiquitos. Their former home was between the sources of the Rio Blanco and Rio Verde.
TheSaravecas, three or four hundred in number in 1831, were attached to the mission of Santa Anna, in Bolivia, and were its handsomest members. Their former homes were in the eastern hills of the Cordillera, about 16° south latitude.
Although these are classed as irreducible stocks by D’Orbigny and others who have followed him, they are both clearly branches of the Arawak stem,as will be seen by a brief comparison.[364]
Others could readily be added, but the above are sufficient.
Another important tribe of this stock in this region were the Piros, otherwise called Chuntaquiros and Simirenchis, whose home was about the junction of the Ucayali and Apurimac, and thence along both these rivers. The vocabularies of their tongue obtained by Castelnau and Paul Marcoy leave no doubt of their affiliations. They were largely converted by the Jesuits between 1683 and 1727.
The Wapisianas, or Wapianas in British Guiana, with their sub-tribe the Atorai (Tauri or Dauri), are stated by Im Thurn to speak a tongue wholly different from the Arawak; but an analysis of its expression and an extended comparison place it beyond doubt in this stock.[365]
The Tarumas and Maopityans, who now live in southern British Guiana, but are said to have originallycome from the Rio Negro, speak related dialects.
They enjoy a rather high degree of culture, being celebrated for the manufacture of cassava graters, for the hunting dogs which they breed and train, and for the fine pottery they manufacture. Both Schomburgk and Im Thurn regard them as an independent stock; but from a comparison of the fifteen nouns given by the former in their language,[366]I infer that they are an Arawak tribe, speaking a dialect mixed with some Carib and Tupi words, and with frequent vowel elision.
This comparison leaves little doubt but that this mixed dialect is chiefly of Arawak lineage.
The Arawaks wandered as far east as the upper Schingu river, where Von den Steinen found the Kustenau, a distant member of the stem, with various minor tribes, as the Vauras, Mehinacus, etc. Alongthe river Ventuari the populous tribe of the Maipures have taken a conspicuous place in the annals of the missions. Indeed, the whole stock is sometimes called by their name;[367]but it is well to retain the better knownArawak, which is the appellation of that portion of the tribe in Guiana between the Corentin and Pomeroon rivers. It means “meal-eaters,” and was first applied to them in derision on account of their large consumption of cassava bread.
There is a prevailing similarity in their physical type. The adults are slightly undersized, rarely reaching above five feet six inches, with low foreheads and straight narrow noses. The form of the skull is short and the jaws are not protruding—orthognathic and brachycephalic.[368]The physical force averages less than that of the European, and there is decidedly less power of resisting disease.[369]The Jesuit Eder mentions a peculiarity among the Peruvian Arawaks, (Moxos, Baures). It is that the end of the little finger does not reach to the last joint of the third finger. The absence of this peculiarity he states will reveal a mixture of Spanish blood to the third generation.[370]It would be interesting to learn how widely this isnoticeable.
The culture of the Arawak stock was generally somewhat above the stage of savagery. On the West Indian islands Columbus found them cultivating maize, potatoes, manioc, yams and cotton. They were the first to introduce to Europeans the wondrous art of tobacco smoking. They wove cotton into garments, and were skilful in polishing stone. They hammered the native gold into ornaments, carved curious masks of wood, blocked rude idols out of large stones, and hollowed the trunks of trees to construct what they calledcanoes.
Such is approximately the culture of the existing tribes of the stock. The Arawaks of Guiana also raise cassava and maize, though they depend largely on hunting and fishing. Like the northern tribes, they have well-developed gentile or totemic systems, with descent in the female line.[371]Marriages are by purchase, and the strange custom of thecouvadeobtains; that is, at the period of parturition the husband takes to his hammock, and is waited on as if he was the sick one. Their houses are usually single, not communal, and are furnished with swinging hammocks, mats, basket-work and pottery.
The Haytian mythology was quite extensive, and the legends of the Arawaks of Guiana have been collected, and are also rich. In all the tribes the dead were generally buried, and often the house of the deceased was destroyed or the spot deserted.