Amusgos, in Guerrero.Chatinos, in Oaxaca, department of Jamiltepec.Chuchonas, on borders of Oaxaca and Guerrero.Cuicatecos, in Oaxaca, department of Teotilan.Mazatecos, in Oaxaca, near boundary of Puebla, in ancient province of Mazatlan.Mixtecos, in Oaxaca and Guerrero.Papabucos, in Oaxaca.Soltecos, in Oaxaca.Zapotecos, in Oaxaca.
The mountain regions of the isthmus of Tehuantepec and adjacent portions of the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca are the habitats of the Zoques, Mixes, and allied tribes. The early historians draw a terrible picture of their valor, savagery and cannibalism, which reads more like tales to deter the Spaniards from approaching their domains than truthful accounts.[175]However this may be, they have been for hundreds of years a peaceful, ignorant, timid part of the population, homely, lazy and drunken, but not violent or dangerous. The Mixes especially cultivate abundance of maize and beans, and take an interest in improving the roads leading to their towns.[176]
The faint traditions of these peoples pointed to the south for their origin. When they lived in Chiapas they were conquered by the Chapanecs (Mangues), and this induced many of them to seek independence in the Sierra to the north and west. At present the main village of the Mixes is San Juan Guichicovi, while the Zoques are scattered between the Rio del Corte and the Rio Chiapa. They are described as agricultural and laborious, but also as stupid, inclined to drunkenness, and very homely.[177]
A comparison of the two languages leaves no doubt as to their derivation from a common stem.
Chimalapas, a sub-tribe of Zoques.Mixes, in Oaxaca, and on the Isthmus.Tapijulapanes, on Rio de la Sierra.Zoques, in eastern Tabasco, Chiapas and Oaxaca.
The Chinantecs inhabited Chinantla, which is a part of the state of Oaxaca, situated in the Sierra Madre, on the frontiers of the province of Vera Cruz. Their neighbors on the south were the Zapotecs and Mixes, and on the north and east the Nahuas. They lived in secluded valleys and on rough mountain sides, and their language was one of great difficulty to the missionaries on account of its harsh phonetics. Nevertheless, Father Barreda succeeded in writing aDoctrinain it, published in 1730, the only work which has ever appeared in the tongue. The late Dr. Berendt devoted considerable study to it, and expressed his conclusions in the following words: “Spoken in the midst of a diversity of languages connected more or less among themselves, it is itself unconnected with them, and is rich in peculiar features both as to its roots and its grammatical structure. It is probable that we have in it one of the original languages spoken before the advent of the Nahuas on Mexican soil, perhaps the mythical Olmecan.”[178]
The Chinantecs had been reduced by the Aztecs and severely oppressed by them. Hence they welcomed the Spaniards as deliverers. Their manners were savage and their disposition warlike.[179]Other names by which they are mentioned areTenezandTeutecas.
In speaking of the province of Chiapas the historian Herrera informs us that it derived its name from the pueblo so-called, “whose inhabitants were the most remarkable in New Spain for their traits and inclinations.”[180]They had early acquired the art of horsemanship, they were skillful in all kinds of music, excellent painters, carried on a variety of arts, and were withal very courteous to each other.
One tradition was that they had reached Chiapas from Nicaragua, and had conquered the territory they possessed from the Zoques, some of whom they had rendered tributary, while others had retired further into the Sierra. But the more authentic legend of the Chapas or Chapanecs, as they were properly called from their totemic bird theChapa, the red macaw, recited that their whole stock moved down from a northern latitude, following the Pacific coast until they came to Soconusco, where they divided, one part entering the mountains of Chiapas, the other proceeding on to Nicaragua, where we find them under the name of Mangues, or Chorotegans, along the shores of Lake Managua.[181]Here they occupied a number of populous villages, estimated by the historian Oviedo to contain about forty thousand souls.[182]They were agricultural and sedentary, and moderately civilized, that is, they had hieroglyphicbooks, wove and spun cotton, were skilled in pottery and had fixed government. They are described as lighter in color than most Indians, and wearing long hair carefully combed. A small band wandered still further south, to the vicinity of Chiriqui Lagoon.[183]
The Chapanec language is one of marked individuality. Its phonetics are harmonious, but with many obscure and fluctuating sounds. In its grammatical construction we find a singular absence of distinction between subject and object. While the appreciation of number in the form of nouns is almost absent, their relations are expressed with excessive particularity, so that a noun may have different forms, as it is used in different relations.[184]There is comparatively slight development of the polysynthetic structure which is generally seen in American languages.
Chapanecs, on Rio Grande in Central Chiapas.Chorotegans, seeMangues.Dirians, in the mountains south of Lake Managua.Guetares, in Costa Rica.Mangues, on Lake Managua, Nicaragua.Orotinans, on the Gulf of Nicoya.
According to the census of 1880 there were 31,000 Indians in Mexico belonging to theFamilia Chontal.[185]No such family exists. The wordchontalliin theNahuatl language means simply “stranger,” and was applied by the Nahuas to any people other than their own. According to the Mexican statistics, the Chontals are found in the states of Mexico, Puebla, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Tobasco, Guatemala and Nicaragua. A similar term ispopoloca, which in Nahuatl means a coarse fellow, one speaking badly, that is, broken Nahuatl. The popolocas have also been erected into an ethnic entity by some ethnographers, with as little justice as the Chontallis. They are stated to have lived in the provinces of Puebla, Oaxaca, Vera Cruz, Mechoacan, and Guatemala. Sometimes the same tribe has been called both Chontales and Popoloras, which would be quite correct in the Nahuatl tongue, since in it these words are common nouns and nearly synonymous in signification; but employed in an ethnographic sense, they have led to great confusion, and the blending into one of distinct nationalities. I shall attempt to unravel this snarl as far as the linguistic material at my command permits.
The Chontales of Oaxaca lived on the Pacific coast on the Cordillera in that State, in the Sierra Quiegolani. They were brought under instruction in the latter part of the sixteenth century by Father Diego Carranza, who labored among them for twelve years with gratifying success, and wrote aDoctrina,SermonesandEjercicios Espiritualesin their language.[186]Unfortunately these works are no longer to be found, and the only specimen of their idiom which I haveobtained is a vocabulary of 23 words, collected by John Porter Bliss in 1871. This is too limited to admit of positive identification; but it certainly shows several coincidences with the Yuma linguistic stock.[187]Provisionally, however, I give it the name ofTequistlatecan, from the principal village of the tribe, where Father Carranza built his church. The Chontales of Guerrero were immediately adjacent to those of Oaxaca, in the same Sierra, and there is every reason to believe that they belonged to the same family; and from their location, history and associations, I do not doubt that Orozco y Berra was right in placing the Triquis in the same family.[188]
The Chontales of Tabasco occupied most of the basin of the Rio Grijalva. Herrera states that their language was that in general use in the province, being richer in words than the Zoque, or the provincial Mexican which has been introduced.[189]This leads us to believe that it was a Maya dialect, a suppositionconfirmed by a MS. vocabulary obtained by the late Dr. C. H. Berendt. By this it is seen that the Chontal of Tabasco is a member of the numerous Maya family, and practically identical with the Tzendal dialect.[190]
In Nicaragua two entirely different peoples have been called Chontales. The first of these is also sometimes mentioned as Popolucas. Their tongue is, or a generation ago was, current in and around the city of Matagalpa and in various hamlets of the departments of Matagalpa, Segovia and Chontales. The only specimen I know of it is a vocabulary, obtained in 1874 by the Rev. Victor Noguera, and supplied by him to Dr. Berendt. It contains a small percentage of words from the neighboring dialects, but in the mass is wholly different, and I consider it an independent stock, to which I give the nameMatagalpan.
The second Chontales of Nicaragua are those mentioned as Chontal-lencas by M. Désiré Pector, and are none other than the Lencas described by Mr. E. G. Squier.
The Chontal of Honduras is located geographically in those regions where the Chorti dialect of the Maya stock prevails, and there is no reasonable doubt but that it is Chorti and nothing more.
The Chontales described by Mr. E. G. Squier as living in the mountains north of Lake Nicaragua, about the sources of the Blewfield river, and of whoselanguage he gives a short vocabulary,[191]are proved by this to be members of the extensive family of the Ulvas.
Of the various tribes called Popolocas, that living at the period of the conquest in and near Puebla was the most important. Their chief city was Tecamachcalco, and they occupied most of the old province of Tepeaca. We can form some idea of their number from the statement that in the year 1540 Father Francisco de las Navas visited their country for missionary purposes, and in less than two months converted (!) and baptized 12,000 of them, and this without any knowledge of their language.[192]The first who did obtain a familiarity with it was Francisco de Toral, afterwards first bishop of Yucatan. He described it as most difficult, but nevertheless succeeded in reducing it to rules and wrote anArte y Metodoof it, now unfortunately lost.[193]Its relationship has remained obscure. De Laet asserted that it was merely a corrupt dialect of the Nahuatl;[194]while Herrera was informed by his authorities that it was a wholly differenttongue.[195]In this opinion he was right. In 1862 Dr. Berendt succeeded in obtaining a short vocabulary of it as it is still spoken at Oluta, Tesistepec, San Juan Volador and the neighboring country. A comparison shows that it belongs to the Mixe family. The ancient province of Tepeaca adjoined directly the territory of the Mixes, and this identification proves that their tongue was more important and extended much more widely than has hitherto been supposed. It was spoken, therefore, by the Tlapanecos, Coviscas and Yopes, who were located in this region.
The Popoloca of Oaxaca is an entirely different tongue. It is mentioned as identical with the Chochona, and some have supposed this dialect, in which we have aCatecismoby Father Roldan, was the same as the Popoloca of Tepeaca. This is an error. As I have said, the first missionary to master and write about the latter was Father Toral, who wrote hisArteabout 1561; but more than ten years before that, to wit, in 1550, Father Benito Fernandez had printed in the city of Mexico hisDoctrina en Lengua Misteca, and had composed variants in the Tepuzcolola and Chochona dialects of that tongue.[196]The Chochona or Popoloca, of Oaxaca, belongs to the Zapotec-Mixtec, and not to the Zoque-Mixe family.
The Popolocas who lived in and near Michoacan were also called Tecos, and Orozco y Berra enumerates the language they spoke, the Teca, among thosewhich are extinct.[197]The nameTecos, however, was merely an abbreviated form ofCuitlatecos, and was applied to the conquered Nahuatl population around Michoacan. In some of the old glossariestecois explained byMexicano.[198]The language they spoke belonged to the Nahuatl branch of the Uto-Aztecan stock.
The Popolocas of Guatemala were located at the close of the eighteenth century in two curacies widely apart.[199]One of these was Yanantique, partido of San Miguel, province of San Salvador, and contained the villages Conchagua and Intipuca. Now Intipuca is a Lenca name, as stated by Mr. Squier, and we are thus authorized to identify these Popolocas with the Lencas. The other Popolocas were at and near Conguaco in the partido of Guazacapan, province of Escuintla, where they lived immediately adjacent to the Xincas. Dr. Otto Stoll identifies them with the Mixes, but by an error, as he mistook the vocabulary collected by Dr. Berendt of the Popoloca of Oluta, for one of the Popoloca of Conguaco.[200]What language is spoken there I do not know, as I have not been able to find a word in it in any of my authorities.
Dr. Julius Scherzer has further added to the confusion about the Popolocas of Guatemala by printing at Vienna a vocabulary under this name which he had obtained near the Volcan de Agua.[201]It is nothing more than the ordinary Cakchiquel dialect of that locality, known as thelengua metropolitanafrom its official adoption by the church.
The geographical relations of the members of the Maya stock are in marked contrast to those of the Uto-Aztecan—its only rival in civilization. Except the colony of the Huastecas on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in the valley of the Rio Panuco, all its dialects were in contiguity. The true Maya, which is believed to be the purest form of the language, extended over the whole of the peninsula of Yucatan, around Lake Peten, and far up the affluents of the Usumacinta, the dialect of the Lacandons being closely akin to it. The principal tribes in Guatemala were the Quiches, the Cakchiquels and the Mams; while in Tabasco the Tzendals and the Tzotzils held an extensive territory. We cannot identify the builders of the ruined cities of Palenque in Tabasco and Copan in Honduras with the ancestors of any known tribe, but the archæological evidence is conclusive that whoever they were, they belonged to this stock, and spoke one of its dialects.
The historic legends of several members of the family have been well preserved. According to the earliest authorities, those of the Quiches went backmore than eight hundred years before the conquest,[202]that is, to about 700 A. D.; while the chronicles of the Mayas seem to present a meagre sketch of the nation nearly to the beginning of the Christian era.[203]The uniform assertion of these legends is that the ancestors of the stock came from a more northern latitude, following down the shore of the Gulf of Mexico. This is also supported by the position of the Huastecas, who may be regarded as one of their tribes left behind in the general migration, and by the tradition of the Nahuas which assigned them a northern origin.[204]So far no relationship has been detected with any northern stock, but the striking similarity of some art remains in the middle Mississippi to those of Yucatan, suggests that one should search in this vicinity for their priscan home.[205]
Physically the Mayas are short, strong, dark, and brachycephalic. The custom of compressing the skull antero-posteriorly which formerly prevailed, exaggerated this latter peculiarity. When first encountered by the Spaniards they were split into a number of independent states of which eighteen are enumerated in Yucatan alone. According to tradition,these were the fragments of a powerful confederacy which had broken up about a century before, the capital of which was Mayapan. The tribes were divided into gentes, usually named after animals, with descent in the male line. A man bore the names of both his father’s and mother’s gens, but the former was distinguished as his “true name.” The chieftainship was hereditary, a council from the gentes deliberating with the ruler.
The art in which these people excelled was that of architecture. They were born builders from a remote epoch. At the time of the conquest the stately structures of Copan, Palenque, T’Ho, and many other cities were deserted and covered with an apparently primitive forest; but others not inferior to them Uxmal, Chichen Itza, Peten, etc., were the centers of dense population, proving that the builders of both were identical. The material was usually a hard limestone, which was polished and carved, and imbedded in a firm mortar. Such was also the character of the edifices of the Quiches and Cakchiquels of Guatemala. In view of the fact that none of these masons knew the plumb-line or the square, the accuracy of the adjustments is remarkable.[206]Their efforts at sculpture were equally bold. They did not hesitate to attempt statues in the round of life-size and larger, and the facades of the edifices were covered with extensive and intricate designs cut in high relief upon the stones. All this was accomplishedwithout the use of metal tools, as they did not have even the bronze chisels familiar to the Aztecs. Gold, silver and copper were confined to ornaments, bells and similar purposes.
The chief source of the food supply was agriculture. Maize was the principal crop, and the arable land was carefully let out to families by the heads of the villages. Beans and peppers were also cultivated and bees were domesticated, from which both honey and wax, used in various arts, were collected. Cotton was woven into fabrics of such delicacy that the Spaniards at first thought the stuffs were of silk. It was dyed of many colors, and was the main material of clothing. Brilliant feathers were highly prized. Their canoes were seaworthy, and though there was no settlement of the Mayas on the island of Cuba as has been alleged, there was a commercial interchange of products with it, since Columbus was shown wax from Yucatan and was told about the peninsula. An active commerce was also maintained with southern Mexico, along the Gulf Coast, the media of exchange being cacao beans, shells, precious stones and flat pieces of copper.[207]
The points which have attracted the most attention in Maya civilization, next to its architecture, are the calendar and the hieroglyphics. The calendar is evidently upon the same basis as that of the Mexicans,turning upon the numerals thirteen, twenty, and four. But the Mayas appear to have had more extended measures for the computation of time than the Aztecs. Besides the cycle of twenty years, called by them thekatun, and that of fifty-two years, they had theahau katun, or Great Cycle, of two hundred and sixty years.
Both the Cakchiquels, Quiches and Mayas of Yucatan were literary peoples. They made frequent use of tablets, wrote many books, and covered the walls of their buildings with hieroglyphs carved on the stone or wood, or painted upon the plaster. Their characters are entirely different from those of the Mexicans. Most of them have rounded outlines, something like that of a section of a pebble, and for this reason the name “calculiform” has been applied to the writing. Their books were of maguey paper or of parchment, folded like those of the Mexicans. Although five or six of them have been preserved, as well as numerous inscriptions on the walls of buildings, no satisfactory interpretations have been offered, largely, perhaps, because none of the interpreters have made themselves familiar with the Maya language.[208]
Imperfect description of the myths and rites of the Yucatecan Mayas are preserved in the old Spanish authors; while of the Quiches we have in the originaltheir sacred book, thePopol Vuhwith a fair translation by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg.[209]This may well be considered one of the most valuable monuments of ancient American literature, and its substantial authenticity cannot be doubted. Its first part presents a body of ancient mythology and its second the early history of the tribe. The latter is supplemented by a similar document relating to the history of their neighbors the Cakchiquels, written at the time of the conquest, which I have published from the unique MS. in my possession.[210]Many facts relating to their ancient mythology, history and superstitions were written down by educated natives of Yucatan in a series of documents entitled “the Books of Chilan Balam,” copies of a number of which have been preserved.[211]They are replete with curious material.
Achis, in eastern Guatemala, now extinct.Aguatecas, in Aguacatan, Guatemala.Cakchiquels, in central Guatemala.Chaneabals, in eastern Chiapas.ChinantecosorCinantecos, same asTzotzils.Choles, in Depart. Palenque, in Chiapas.Chortis, in valley of Rio Montagua, near Copan.Huastecas, on Rio Panuco, north of Vera Cruz.Ixils, on head-waters of Rio-Salinas, in Guatemala.Lacandons, on the Rio Lacandon.Mams, in western Guatemala.Mayas, in peninsula of Yucatan.Mopans, north of the Chols, in Guatemala.Quekchis, on Rio Cahabon, in Guatemala.Quiches(Utlateca), head-waters of Rio Grande, Guatemala.Pokomams, south of Rio Grande, in Guatemala.Pokonchis, in central Guatemala.Tzendals, in Tabasco and Chiapas.Tzotzils, in Chiapas.Tzutuhils, south of lake Atitlan, Guatemala.Uspantecas, on Rio Negro, Guatemala.
The small tribe of theHuavesoccupies four hamlets on the isthmus of Tehuantepec on the Pacific Ocean.[212]The men are tall and strong but the women are unusually ugly. Their occupation is chiefly fishing and they have the reputation of being dull. The language they speak is said to be of an independent stock, and according to various writers the tribe claims to have come from some part of the coast a considerable distance to the south. The vocabularies of their tongue are too imperfect to permit its identification.
TheSubtiabasare inhabitants of the valley of that name near the modern city of Leon in Nicaragua. They were called Nagrandans by Mr. E. G. Squier,[213]because the site of ancient Leon was on the plain ofNagrando and the province also bore this name at the time of the conquest. They are probably the descendants of the ancient Maribois, whom both Oviedo and Palacios place a few leagues from Leon and to whom they ascribe an independent language; but it is an error of some later writers to confound them with the Chorotegans or Mangues, to whom they had no relationship whatever. Their language stands by itself among the inter-isthmian stocks.
TheLencais spoken by several semi-civilized tribes in central Honduras. Its principal dialects are the Intibucat, Guajiquero, Opatoro and Similaton. It is an independent stock, with no affinities as yet discovered. The Guajiqueros dwell in remote villages in the San Juan Mountains southwest of Comayagua, the capital of Honduras. We owe to the late Mr. E. G. Squier vocabularies of all four dialects and an interesting description of the present condition of the stock.[214]
A little known tribe in a low stage of culture dwelt on the Rio de los Esclavos, theXincas. They extended about fifty miles along the Pacific coast and thence back to the Sierra which is there about the same distance. The one vocabulary we have on their tongue shows some loan words from their Nahuatl neighbors the Pipiles, but in other respects it appears to be a stock by itself. Its radicals are generally monosyllabic, and the formation of words is by suffixes.[215]The tribe was conquered by Alvarado, in1524, who states that their principal village was at Guazacapam. It was built of wood and populous. There are some reasons for believing that previous to the arrival of the Quiches and Cakchiquels on the plains of Guatemala that region was occupied by this nation, and that they gave way before the superior fighting powers of the more cultured stock.
TheXicaqueslive in the state of Honduras to the number of about six thousand. Their seats are on the waters of the Rio Sulaque and Rio Chaloma. They acknowledge one ruler, who is elective and holds the office for life. Their language contains a few Nahuatl words, but in the body of its vocabulary reveals no relationship to any other stock.
The wordCaribis frequently applied by the Spanish population to any wild tribe, merely in the sense of savage or wild. Thus on the upper Usumacinta the Lacandons, a people of pure Maya stock, are so called by the whites; on the Musquito coast the uncivilized Ulvas of the mountains are referred to as Caribs. There are a large number of pure and mixed Caribs, probably five or six thousand, in British Honduras near Trujillo, but they do not belong to the original population. They were brought there from the island of St. Vincent in 1796 by the British authorities. Many of them have the marked traits of the negro through a mingling of the races, and are sometimes called “Black Caribs.” The Rev. AlexanderHenderson, who has composed a grammar and dictionary of their dialect, gives them the nameKarifs, a corruption of Carib, and is the term by which they call themselves.
That portion of Honduras known as the Musquito coast derived its name, not from the abundance of those troublesome insects, but from a native tribe who at the discovery occupied the shore near Blewfield Lagoon. They are an intelligent people, short in stature, unusually dark in color, with finely cut features, and small straight noses—not at all negroid, except where there has been an admixture of blood. They number about six thousand, many of whom have been partly civilized by the efforts of missionaries, who have reduced the language to writing and published in it a number of works. The Tunglas are one of the sub-tribes of the Musquitos.
On the head-waters of the streams which empty along the Musquito coast reside the numerous tribes of theUlvas, called by the EnglishSmoos. These are dark, but lighter in color than the Musquitos, and are much ruder and more savage. The custom of flattening the head prevails among them, and as their features are not handsome at the best, and as they are much afflicted with leprous diseases, they are by no means an attractive people.
Bulbuls, seePoyas.CarchasorCukras, on Rio Meco above Matlack Falls.Cocos, on Rio Coco.Micos, on Rio Mico.Parrastahs, on Rio Mico.Pantasmas, on upper basin of Rio Coco.Melchoras, on Rio de los Ramas.Siquias, on upper Rio Mico.Smoos, seeWoolwas.Subironas, on Rio Coco.Twakas, at San Blas and on Rio Twaka.Woolwas,Ulvas,Smoos, on head-waters of Blewfield river.
TheRamas, described as men of herculean stature and strength, with a language of their own, reside on a small island in Blewfield Lagoon.
Toward the mountains near the head-waters of Black River, are thePayas, also alleged to be a separate stock. But unfortunately we have no specimens of these tongues.[216]
The upper waters of the Rio Frio and its affluents form the locality of theGuatusosor Huatusos. By some older writers these were supposed to be of Nahuatl affinities, and others said that they were “white Indians.” Neither of these tales has any foundation. I have seen some of the Guatusos, and their color is about that of the average northern Indians; and as for their language, of which we have rather full vocabularies, it is not in the slightest related to the Nahuatl, but is an independent stock. They are a robust and agile set, preferring a wild life, but cultivating maize, bananas, tobacco and other vegetables, and knitting nets and hammocks from the fibres of the agave. The huleros, or gatherersof india rubber, persecute them cruelly, and are correspondingly hated. It is doubtful if at present they number over six hundred.[217]
The mountain chain which separates Nicaragua from Costa Rica, and the head-waters of the Rio Frio from those of the more southern and eastern streams, is the ethnographic boundary of North America. Beyond it we come upon tribes whose linguistic affinities point towards the southern continent. Such are the Talamancas, Guaymies, Valientes and others, which I must include, in view of recent researches into their languages, in the next section.
The linguistic classification of the South American tribes offers far greater difficulties than that of North America. Not only has it been studied less diligently, but the geographical character of the interior, the facilities with which tribes move along its extensive water-ways, and the less stable temperament of the white population have combined to obscure the relationship of the native tribes and to limit our knowledge about them.
The first serious attempt to take a comprehensive survey of the idioms of this portion of the continent was that of the Abbé Hervas in his general work on the languages of the globe.[218]Balbi and Adelung did scarcely more than pursue the lines he had traced in this portion of the field. So little had these obtained definite results that Alexander von Humboldt renounced as impracticable the arrangement of South American tribes by their languages, because “more than seven-eighths would have remained what the classifying botanists callincertæ sedis.”[219]
This eminent naturalist, however, overlooked no opportunity to collect material for the study of the native tongues, and on his return to Europe placed what he had secured in the hands of his distinguished brother for analysis. William von Humboldt, who was the profoundest linguist of his day, gave close attention to the subject, but rather from a purely critical than an ethnographic aspect. He based upon the South American languages many principles of his linguistic philosophy; but so little general attention was given the subject that his most valuable study was first given to the press by myself in 1885.[220]
Sixty years ago the French traveler, Alcide D’Orbigny, published his important work devoted to South American Ethnography, but confined to that portion of the continent he had visited, south of the parallel of 12° south latitude.[221]His classification was based partly on language, partly on physical traits, and as it seemed simple and clear, it has retained its popularity quite to the present day. He subsumes all the tribes in the area referred to under three “races,” subdivided into “branches” and “nations” as follows:—
In this classification, the distinctions of “races” and “branches” are based exclusively on physical characteristics, and are at times in conflict with a linguistic arrangement. The Botocudos and Guaranis, for instance, are wholly dissimilar and should no more be classed together than the Peruvians and the Tupis; the Saravecas and Paiconecas speak Arawak dialects; and other examples could be cited.When D’Orbigny confined himself to the identification of related tribes by a close scrutiny of their idioms, he rendered valuable service by introducing order into the chaotic nomenclature of earlier writers, as he forcibly points out; but his physical discriminations are of little value.
About the middle of this century, two German travelers, Von Tschudi and Von Martius, gave close attention to the linguistic ethnology of the continent, Von Tschudi in Peru and Von Martius in Brazil. The former found the field so unoccupied that he did not hesitate to write in a work published less than ten years ago, “In fact, the knowledge of the languages of South America is to-day less than it was two hundred years ago.”[222]His own divisions of the linguistic regions (Sprachgebiete) of the continent is less satisfactory than we might expect. He describes three principal and seven minor districts, the former being, 1. The Pampo-Andean; 2. The inter-Andean; and 3. The Tupi-Guarani regions. The minor centers are, 1. The Arawak-Carib region; 2. That of Cundinamarca; 3. The Rio Meta; 4. The Rio Tolima; 5. The Rio Atrato; 6. The Rio Salado; 7. The Chaco; 8. That of the Moxos.
These are so far from meeting the requirements of our linguistic possessions at present that scarcely one of them can be accepted. Von Tschudi was an able and critical scholar in his particular field, that of the Kechua tongue, but he had not made a wide study of South American languages.
Von Martius was much more of a comparative linguist. His work on the ethnography and linguistics of South America[223]is a mine of general information, and indispensable to every student of the subject. Taking the numerous and confused dialects of Brazil, and the almost hopeless synonymy of its tribal names, he undertook a classification of them by establishing verbal and grammatical similarities. It is now generally recognized that he went too far in this direction. He maintained, for instance, that there is a demonstrable relationship between the Tupi, the Carib, and the Arawak stocks; later studies have not endorsed this, but have tended to show that they cannot be traced to any common mother-speech. What Martius called the “Guck” nations, which he brought into connection through the word of that sound used by them to designate the paternal uncle, are now considered to be without general relationship. The researches of Karl Von Den Steinen and Lucien Adam have overthrown this theory.
It is especially in studying the vast and largely unexplored regions watered by the upper streams of the mighty Amazon, that one is yet at a loss to bring the native inhabitants into ethnic order. Of the various explorers and travellers who have visited that territory, few have paid attention to the dialects of the natives, and of those few, several have left their collections unpublished. Thus, I have been unable to learn that Richard Spruce, who obtained numerous vocabularies along the Amazon and its branches, gavethem to the press; and there were in the hands of Von Tschudi more than a hundred vocabularies collected by the German naturalist, Johannes Natterer, in the interior of Brazil,[224]most of which I learn are still in manuscript. In default of material such as this, the classification of the tribes of Brazil must remain imperfect.
It is also a matter of much regret that no copy can be found of the work of the celebrated missionary, Alonso de Barcena,Lexica et Precepta in quinque Indorum Linguis, published at Lima, in 1590—if, indeed, it was ever really printed. It contained grammars of the Kechua, Aymara, Yunca, Puquina and Katamareña, (spoken by the Calchaquis). Of the two last mentioned idioms no other grammar is known, which makes the complete disappearance of this early printed book particularly unfortunate. Another Jesuit, Father Guillaume D’Étré, wrote out the catechism and instructions for the sacraments in eighteen languages of eastern Peru and the upper Orinoco;[225]but this, too, seems lost.
Of late years no one has paid such fruitful attention to the relationship and classification of the South American tribes and languages as M. Lucien Adam. Although I have not in all points followed his nomenclature, and have not throughout felt in accordance with his grouping, I have always placed my main dependence on his work in the special fields he hasselected—the three great South American families of the Amazon region, the Arawak (called by him the Maypure), the Carib, and the Tupi.[226]
The general plan which I shall adopt is rather for convenience of arranging the subject than for reasons based on similarities either of language or physical habitus. It is that which allows the presentation of the various stocks most in accordance with their geographic distribution and their historic associations.
It is as follows:
This region includes the mountainous district in northwestern South America, west of the basin of the Orinoco and north of the equator—but without rigid adherence to these lines. The character of its culture differed considerably from that found in the Atlantic regions and was much more closely assimilated to that of Peru. Three lofty mountain chains traverse New Granada from north to south, the intervening valleys being beds of powerful rivers, rich in fish and with fertile banks. This configuration of the soil has exerted a profound influence on the life and migrations of the native inhabitants, severing them from the fellow-members of their race to the east and directing their rovings in a north and south direction.
The productive valleys were no doubt densely populated; though we must regard as a wild extravagance the estimate of a modern writer that at the conquest the native inhabitants of New Granada reached “six to eight millions”[227]; and I hope that the historian Herrera was far beyond the truth when he asserted that in Popayan alone, in a single year fifty thousandof the Indians died of starvation, five thousand were killed and eaten by the famishing multitude, and a hundred thousand perished from pestilence![228]
At the discovery, the Isthmus of Panama was in the possession of theCunastribe, as they call themselves. They are the same to whom were applied later the names Darien Indians (Wafer), Tules, Cunacunas, Cuevas, Coybas, Mandingas, Bayanos, Irriacos, San Blas Indians, Chucunacos, Tucutis, etc.
They extended from the Gulf of Uraba and the river Atrato on the east to the river Chagres on the west. In that direction they were contiguous to the Guaymis, while on the right bank of the Atrato their neighbors were the Chocos.
The Cunas are slightly undersized (about 1.50), but symmetrical and vigorous. Their color is light, and individuals with chestnut or reddish hair and grey eyes have always been noted among them, and have erroneously been supposed to be albinos. Their skulls are markedly brachycephalic (88) and their faces broad.
In spite of the severe measures of the Spaniards, they have never been thoroughly reduced, and still manifest an unconquerable love of freedom and a wild life. When first met they lived in small villages composed of communal houses, raised maize and cotton, working the latter into garments for the women, and possessed some gold, which they obtained from the mountain streams and by working auriferousveins. The men usually appeared naked and used poisoned arrows.
The Cuna language does not seem to be positively connected with any other stock, nor have dialects of it been discovered elsewhere. A number of verbal similarities have been pointed out with the Chibcha, and it has also a certain similarity to the Carib;[229]but with our present knowledge it would be hasty to class it along with any other.
TheChanguinaor Dorasque tribes of the Isthmus lived latterly on the River Puan, a branch of the Telorio, and are said to have numbered 5000 persons, though but a few miserable remnants are surviving. They are lighter in color than the Guaymis, with whom they were in a constant state of quarreling. In earlier times they were bold warriors, lived by hunting, and were less cultured than their neighbors; yet a remarkable megalithic monument in the pueblo of Meza is attributed to them.[230]At the period of the conquest they dwelt in the high Sierras back of the volcano of Chiriqui and extended to the northern coast near Chiriqui Lagoon, where the River Changuina-Aula (aula, in the Mosquito language, meansriver), still preserves their name. They were an independent warlike tribe, and gave the Spaniards much trouble. Finally, these broils led to their practical extinction. The last member of the Dorasque branch died in 1882, and few others remain.