Gahhigué-Vatake, ChiefFIG.158.—Gahhigué-Vatake (chief), a Dakota-Siouan Indianwith tomahawk, 38 years old.(Phot. Prince Roland Bonaparte.)
FIG.158.—Gahhigué-Vatake (chief), a Dakota-Siouan Indianwith tomahawk, 38 years old.(Phot. Prince Roland Bonaparte.)
II. TheIndians, improperly calledRed-skins,[601]occupy a territory of such vast extent that, in spite of a certain common likeness,considerable differences are noticeable among them, according to the countries they occupy, the climate, configuration, and fauna of which vary in a marked degree. We can in the first place distinguish theIndians of the Arctic and Atlantic slopesof Canada and the United States, belonging to a taller and less brachycephalic race than that which predominates among theIndiansin the northern part of the Pacific slope. In the southern part of the Pacific slope we note the appearance of the Central American race, short and brachycephalic, and in the Californian peninsula perhaps the Palæ-American sub-race.[602]Each of the slopes in turn afford several “ethnographic provinces,”[603]the boundaries of which approximately coincide with those of the linguistic families now about to be rapidly passed in review.
Chief, Front ViewFIG.159.—Siouan chief of Fig.158, front face.(Phot. Prince Roland Bonaparte.)
FIG.159.—Siouan chief of Fig.158, front face.(Phot. Prince Roland Bonaparte.)
a. The Indians of the Arctic slope—that is to say, of the low-lying country watered by the Mackenzie and the Yukon—belong to one and the same linguistic family, called Athapascan.
The best known tribes are theKenaiin Alaska, theLoucheuxon the lower Mackenzie, theChippewas, the numerous Tinné clans between Hudson’s Bay and the Rocky Mountains, theTakulliesto the west of these mountains, etc. All theseAthapascans, of medium height (1 m. 66), and mesocephalic, are skilful hunters; they traverse the immense forests of their country hunting fur-bearing animals in winter on their snow shoes, in summer in their light beech-bark canoes. The Athapascan linguistic family is not, however, confined to the wooded region of Alaska and western Canada. Members of this tribe have migrated to a far distant part of the Pacific slope, where they have settled in twodifferent districts. The Athapascans of the West, or the Hupas who dwell in southern Oregon and northern California, differ but little physically from the Athapascans properly so called, but they are already Californians in ethnic character. TheAthapascans of the south—that is to say, theNavajosorNodehsand theApaches(Fig.161), taller (1 m. 69), more brachycephalic (ceph. ind. 84) than their northern kinsfolk[604]—live in the open country of the Pueblo Indians (Arizona, NewMexico), from whom, however, they differ in regard to manners and usages. They are husbandmen relatively civilised, fierce warriors and bold robbers, whose name has been popularised by the novels of Gustave Aimard and Gabriel Ferry. They are more numerous (23,500 in the United States)[605]than the Athapascans of the north (8,500) and the Hupas (scarcely 900).[606]
Woman of Wichita TribeFIG.160.—Woman of Wichita tribe,Pawnee Nation, Indian Territory, U.S.
FIG.160.—Woman of Wichita tribe,Pawnee Nation, Indian Territory, U.S.
b. The Indians of the Atlantic slopeare divided into three great linguistic families: Algonquian-Iroquoian, Muskhogean-Choctaw, and Siouan or Dakota.
1. TheAlgonquiansandIroquoiansoccupy the “ethnographical province” which bears their name and extends over the east of Canada and the north-east of the United States, between the Mississippi and about the 36th degree of N. latitude. This province is characterised by a temperate climate, abundance of prairies, and broad water-ways; it affords facilities for the chase and the gathering of wild rice and tobacco; certain usages are common to all the tribes inhabiting it (tattooing, colouring the body, moccasins similar to those of the Athapascans, etc.).
The original home of the Algonquians was the region around Hudson’s Bay, where theCreetribe, which speaks the purest Algonquian language, still exists. Leaving this region, they spread as far as the Atlantic, the Mississippi, and the Alleghany Mountains, driving back the Dakotas into the prairies of the right bank of the Mississippi. TheAbnakisof Lower Canada, theMicmacsof Acadia and Newfoundland, theLeni-Lenapéof the Delaware, who fought so valiantly against the European immigrants; theMohicans, idealised by Cooper; the warlikeShawnees, theOjibwasorChippewas(Fig.30), who, together with the Lenapé, are alone among the Red-skins in possessing a rudimentary writing; theOttawas, theBlack Feet, theCheyennes, and so many other tribes besides belonged to this great Algonquian people. It has left traces of its existence in the “mounds” as well as in a great number of the geographical names of the region which it formerly occupied. It is estimated that at the present day there are not more than 95,000 Algonquians, of whom two-thirds inhabit Canada. The most numerous tribe is that of the Chippewas (31,000), while the “last” of the Mohicans were only 121 in the census of 1890. Among the Algonquians ought probably to be included a tribe which became extinct in 1827, that of the Beothucs of Newfoundland, whose affinities with other tribes have not yet been definitely established.[607]
At the time when the Algonquians held a large part of modern Canada and the United States, an isolated portion of their territory was peopled with Iroquoians around Lakes Erie and Ontario, as well as on the lower St. Lawrence. The Iroquoians, sprung from the same common stock as the Cherokis, the ancient mound-builders of the Ohio basin, have dwindled down to a few thousand families in the upper valley of the Tennessee (H. Hale). They are divided intoHurons(between Lakes Ontario and Huron) andIroquoisorIroquoians properly so called. The latter formerly comprised five nations:Mohawks,Oneidas,Onondagas,Senecas, andCayugas, united into a democratic confederacy by the famous chief Hiawatha, of whom Longfellow has sung. At a later date theTuscaroras, who dwelt farther to the south-west in Virginia, were also admitted into the confederacy.[608]
The wars in which the Iroquoians have been engaged have singularly reduced their number; to-day there are only about 43,000, of whom 9000 are in Canada.
2. TheMuskhogean groupcomprises several tribes:Apalachi,Chata-Choctaw,Chicasaws,CreeksorMuskhogis, who formerly dwelt between the lower Mississippi, the Atlantic, the Tennessee River, and the Gulf of Mexico. To these we must add theSeminoleswho formerly occupied the Florida peninsula.[609]The habits of the Muskhogean tribes, of which Hernando de Soto drew so vivid a picture in 1540, were those of husbandmen somewhat advanced in civilisation; they had a hieroglyphic writing (Brinton), but were unacquainted with the use of metals, gold excepted. The southern portion of the United States which these tribes occupied is a region with a sub-tropical climate, favourable to the cultivation of the sugar-cane, maize, and tobacco. The ancient Muskhogis wore garments of special texture, and daubed their bodies like the Algonquians, but were unacquainted with tattooing. At the present day they have dwindled down to 25,500 individuals. Certain tribes, like theYamasis, have completely disappeared; in 1886 there were only threeApalachiwomen left. We include among the Muskhogis the tribes who formerly lived in the lower valley of the Mississippi, and whose dialects have not been classified: theNatchez, idealised by Chateaubriand, a score of whom still dwell among the Creeks and Cherokis; theAtacapas, reduced in number to a dozen individuals, in the Calcasieu Pass (Louisiana), etc.
3. TheSiouansorDakotas(Figs.158and159) occupied at the time of the discovery of America the whole country extending to the west of the Mississippi, between the river Arkansas on the south and the Saskatchewan on the north, as far as the Rocky Mountains. For a long time this was believed to be their original home; but it has been foundnecessary to modify this opinion since the discovery by Hale and Gatschet of tribes speaking a Siouan tongue with archaic forms east of the Mississippi. These tribes are theTutelosof Virginia, of whom but a score of individuals are left; theBiloxisof Louisiana, and theWinnebagos. It is now admitted that the original home of the Siouans was the Alleghany Mountains and the surrounding country; thence they were doubtless forced back by the Algonquians into the prairies to the west of the Mississippi, where they became buffalo-hunters.
Christian Apache IndianFIG.161.—Christian Apache Indian.
FIG.161.—Christian Apache Indian.
The principal Siouan tribes are: theAssinaboinson the Saskatchewan, theMinnetarison the Yellowstone river, thePonkasand theOmahasin Nebraska, theOsagesof the borders of Arkansas, theHidatsasof Dakota, theCrowsof Montana, theSiouansorDakotasproperly so called (Figs.26,158, and159) in the upper basin of the Missouri, etc. The total number of the Siouans is estimated at 43,400 individuals, of whom 2,200 are in Canada.[610]
The Indians of the four groups just enumerated all resemble each other in physical type: stature very high (from1 m. 68 among the Cherokis of the east, to1 m. 75 among the Cheyennes and Crows), head sub-dolichocephalic or mesocephalic (ceph. ind. on the liv. sub., from 79.3 among the Iroquoians to 80.5 among the Cheyennes), face, oval.[611]Near the Siouans, in the same ethnographic region of the plains of the Great West, dwelt thePawneesorCaddoes, one of the tribes of which, theAricarasorRikaris(450 individuals at the present day), emigrated north towards the sources of the Mississippi. As to thePawnees properly so calledthey were established in the valley of the Plata, whence they were transferred in 1878 into the Indian Territory; they numbered 820 individuals in the census of 1890. The rest of the nation, theWichitas(Fig.160), theCaddoes, etc., have abandoned the predatory habits of the true Pawnees and become good husbandmen distributed over different reservations.
TheKiowasform a small linguistic group by themselves. The neighbours formerly of the Comanches and the Shoshones, these ex-robbers are at the present day installed, to the number of 1,500, in the Indian Territory.
The Pawnees and Kiowas are tall and mesocephalic, with a tendency towards brachycephaly.
c. Indians of the Pacific slope.—The coast tribes of the Pacific might be united into a single group in spite of the great diversity of language existing among them.[612]In fact, most of these Indians belong to one and the same sub-division of the North American race, thePacific sub-race. They are above medium height (from1 m. 66 among theUtesto1 m. 69 among theChahaptes), sub-brachycephalic (mean ceph. ind. from 82.7 to 84.7, except the Utes, whose index is 79.5), with rounded face (Tsimshians and Haidas), or elongated (Kwakiutls); they have straight eyes and their pilous system is well developed (Boas). It is only in the region of the Pueblos that we can detect the admixture of the short, brachycephalic Central American race.[613]Ethnic characters enable us to divide the Indians of the Pacific into three groups: Indians of the north-west, Indians of Oregon-California, and Pueblo Indians.[614]
1.The Indians of the north-west[615]are divided into two slightlydistinct groups by their ethnic characters. In the north, on the indented coast of Alaska and British Columbia, as well as in the innumerable rocky islands lying off it, dwell tribes of fishers and hunters who form a very characteristic group by their ethnic traits, of which the following are the principal: garments of woven wool or of bark (before the arrival of the Whites); communal barracks, near which are raised “totem posts,” usually of slate, ornamented with anthropomorphic sculptures, grotesque or horrible, representing totems; plated armour, composite bow of wood and bone, tattooing, etc. The Pacific coast to the south of Vancouver and the Columbia drainage area is occupied by another group of populations, which, while having some traits in common with the former (communal barracks but without “totem post,” cooking by means of heated stones, zoomorph masks, etc.), exhibits a multitude of characters (garments of raw hides, cranial deformations, absence of tattooings, plain bow, etc.) which keep them widely separate.
The first group comprises the following tribes, beginning at Cape St. Elias and going towards the south: theTlinkitsorKolushesas far as the 55th degree of N. lat. (6,437 individuals in 1880, according to Petroff); theHaidasorSkittagetsof the Queen Charlotte Islands (2,500), skilful carvers in wood; theTsimshiansof the coast situated opposite to these islands; theWakashes, sub-divided intoNootkasof Vancouver Island andKwakiutlsof the adjacent coast. The second group is composed of the remnants of theSalishans,Selish, or Flat-heads (12,000 in Canada, 5,500 in the “reservations” of the United States); of theShahaptsor “Nez-percés” (300), to the south of these; and lastly, theChenooks, well known for their cranial deformations (p.176).
2.The seaboard of Oregon and Californiais a succession of short, isolated valleys, abounding in fibrous plants, fruit, and fish. These are excellent conditions for the formation of little isolated ethnic groups; thus it happens that the Indians of this coast are divided into twenty-four or twenty-six distinct linguistic families.
Of these the principal, as we go from north to south, are: theCopehsof the right bank of the Sacramento; thePujunnasorPooyoonasof the left bank of the same water-way; theKulanapansto the north of San Francisco; theCostanosto the south of that town; theSalinas, who formerly inhabited the valley bearing the same name, but of whom there remain but a dozen individuals; theMariposorYokuts(145 individuals) to the east of the last-named tribe; theChumashesaround the mission of Santa-Barbara, 35° N. latitude, of whom scarcely two score individuals still speak the language of their fathers; theHupas, very primitive in their habits. Among most of these populations are found vestiges of the ancient custom of tattooing and the use of garments fashioned from vegetable fibres.
It is probably in this group that we must include theYumasof the lower valley of the Colorado (Arizona) and of the Californian peninsula, of whom the principal tribes are as follows: theMohaves(Fig.4) and theYumasproperly so called, in the valley of the Colorado; theMaricopasof the valley of the Gila; theSorisorSerisin Mexico, opposite to the Californian peninsula; lastly, in this peninsula itself theCochimisin the north and thePeriquès, now extinct, at the southern extremity of the peninsula; there is not, however, any direct evidence that these last spoke aYumatongue; further, they burnt their dead while all the other Yumas buried theirs. The population of lower California was very scattered (10,000 individuals in all); they gained a miserable existence from hunting and fishing, and could not even make canoes. To-day but few are left. To judge from the bones gathered at the extreme end of the Californian peninsula, the Indians who dwelt there (the ancestors of the Periquès?) were if anything of short stature; by this characteristic, as well as by their dolichocephaly, they would appear then to be allied to the Palæo-American sub-race.[616]
3. The namePueblo Indiansis sometimes given to the populations inhabiting the caves hollowed out of the sides of the deep cañons and the “pueblos” of the warm and arid table-lands of Arizona, New Mexico, and the adjacent parts of Utah, California, and Mexico.
Some of these populations, theMoquis(2000) for example, belong to the Shoshone linguistic family,[617]others perhaps to thePimastock (see p.535); but there are three small groups of these cliff-dwellers whose languages present no analogy with one another nor with any other dialect. These are theKeres(3,560 individuals) and theTanos(3,200 individuals), both in the upper basin of the Rio Grande, and theZuñis, who to the number of 1,600 occupy the “pueblo” of the same name in the west of New Mexico.
In spite of the diversity of their dialects all the cliff-dwellers have certain physical characters in common, such as stature above the average, brachycephaly, etc.[618]It must not be forgotten that the cliff-dwellers are surrounded on all sides by immigrant populations of the Athapascan stock (see p.524).
III.The Indians of Mexico[619]and Central Americamay be divided, from the ethnographical point of view, into two great groups: the Sonoran-Aztecs, inhabiting the north of Mexico or what is improperly called the Anahuac plateau; and the Central Americans of Southern Mexico and the states situated more to the south as far as the Costa Rica republic.[620]
a.TheSonoran-Aztecsare allied by language to the Shoshones, and by manners and customs to the true Pueblo Indians of the United States, while they exhibit some divergences as regards physical type. Physically the Sonorans are allied to the North Americans of the Atlantic slope, while the peoples of the Aztec group show a great infusion of Central American blood.
ThePimasand their congeners thePapajosconstitute one of the principal tribes of the Sonorans. They dwell in pueblos or “casas grandes,” and expend a prodigious amount of labour in drawing their subsistence from the infertile soil of the Gila valley. However, they are fine tall men (mean height1 m. 71, according to Ten Kate), slim and nimble, having the head a trifle elongated (ceph. ind. on the liv. sub., 78.6), the nose prominent, etc. Their neighbours theYakisand theMayas, included in theCahitalinguistic group, 20,000 strong, have the same type as the Pimas. They inhabit the sterile regions through which flow the rivers Yaki and Mayo, and have preserved their racial purity almost intact,[621]unlike their kinsmentheOpatasand theTarahumarasof Chihuahua and Sonora, in whom there is a powerful strain of Spanish blood.[622]
Under the collective name ofAztecsorNahuaare comprised several peoples and tribes who formerly occupied the Pacific slope from Rio de Fuerte (26th degree of N. lat.) to the frontiers of Guatemala, with the exception of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec; their colonies even extended farther into Guatemala and Salvador (example, thePipils). On the other side, on the Atlantic slope the Nahua tribes inhabited the regions around Mexico. There they had formed, probably two or three centuries before the arrival of the Europeans, three confederate states:Tezcuco,TlacopanandTenochtitlan, under whose dominion were ranged tribes of the same origin scattered along the coast, among theTotonacpeople in the existing province of Vera Cruz; one of these tribes, theNicaraosorNiquirans, migrated into Nicaragua.[623]
At the present day the Aztecs, about 150,000 in number, are dispersed over the whole Mexican coast from Sinaloa in the south to Tepic, Jalisco, Michoacan on the west. Very peaceful, sedentary, with a veneer of civilisation, they are nominally Catholics, though at bottom they are animists, and full of superstition. In many of the Aztec villages the ancient Nahua language is still spoken.[624]
Side by side with the Aztecs there exist in Mexico three other ethnic groups which may be designated by the name ofMexicans properly so called. These are:—
1st. TheOtomis, presumably the aboriginal inhabitants of the Mexican table-lands, now settled in the state of Guanajuato, and the basin of the upper Moctezuma between Mexico and San Luis de Potosi. They afford a unique example of an American people speaking an almost monosyllabic language. They are below the average height, brachycephalic as a general rule, with a tendency towards mesocephaly.[625]
2nd. TheTarascos, formerly spread over the whole of the state of Michoacan, in Guanajuato and Queretaro,[626]have been absorbed by the half-breed population. Lumholtz, however, states that nearly 200,000 uncrossed Tarascos are still living (1896) in the mountains of Michoacan. They had a form of pictography peculiar to themselves, and must have come, according to their traditions, from the northern regions, like the Nahuatlans.
3rd. TheTotonacsof the province of Vera Cruz, formerly very civilised, resemble physically their neighbours on the north-east, theHuaxtecs; the latter, however, belong to the Maya linguistic group (see below).
b. The Central Americans.—They may be divided into three geographical groups, the Indians of Southern Mexico, the Mayas, and the Isthmians.
I. Among the numerous aboriginal peoples of Southern Mexico theZapotecsof the state of Oajaca are the mostnumerous (about 265,000 individuals). These are the descendants of a once powerful people who had attained to nearly the same degree of civilisation as the Aztecs.
TheMiztecs(Figs.163and164), who occupy the eastern part of the state of Oajaca and the adjacent regions of Guerrero, have dwindled to a few thousand individuals. They appear to be of fairly pure Central American race, are very short, brachycephalic, and have a dark brown skin and projecting cheek-bones.[627]
Young Creole Woman, MartiniqueFIG.162.—Young Creole woman of Martinique.(Phot. Coll. Anthr. Soc. Paris.)
FIG.162.—Young Creole woman of Martinique.(Phot. Coll. Anthr. Soc. Paris.)
In the east of Oajaca and in Chiapa, on the frontier of Guatemala, are found theZoques, theMixes, and theChapanecs, with whom it is customary to connect theChontalsand thePopolucas. But these two vocables signify in Nahuatlan merely “stranger” and “one who speaks badly or stammers.”[628]Amongthe tribes of Oajaca and Tabasco, described under the name of Chontals, some speak a dialect peculiar to themselves, the Tequistlatecan, allied to the Yuma language (Brinton), while others speak the Maya dialects.[629]
Miztec Indian, MexicoFIG.163.—Miztec Indian (Mexico), Central American race.(Phot. D. Charney, Coll. Mus. Nat. Hist. Paris.)
FIG.163.—Miztec Indian (Mexico), Central American race.(Phot. D. Charney, Coll. Mus. Nat. Hist. Paris.)
II. The peoples composing theMaya groupappear to have come in post-quaternary times (by sea?), and in a state of civilisation already well advanced,[630]into the Yucatan peninsula. Thence they spread into Guatemala and the surrounding regions of Salvador and Honduras, where at the present day they form the bulk of the population. The ancient Mayacivilisation resembled that of Mexico, the sanguinary creeds of the latter excepted; their writing was of a perfect hieroglyphic type. Besides theMayas properly so calledof Yucatan, the principal tribes of this group are: theTsendalsorChontalsof Mexico, already mentioned above; theMopansof Northern Guatemala; theKoïtchesorQuichésfarther south, the only Indian people possessing an aboriginal written literature; thePokomamsof the district around the town of Guatemala; theChortison the territory where the ruins of Copan stand; and a long way off, isolated from the rest of their kinsmen, in the Mexican province of Tamaulipas, theHuaxtecs(p.537). In spite of linguistic differences, all the Guatemalans or Indians of Guatemala resemble each other physically; they are short, thick-set, with high cheek-bones, prominent and often convex nose.[631]Some characteristic habits, as for instance geophagy, are common to all these populations.
III.The Isthmians.—We include under this name the native populations of Central America, scattered between Guatemala and the Isthmus of Panama, whose dialects do not fit into any group of American languages.[632]
These are theLenkasof the interior of Honduras; theXicaksorSihahvin the north of this country; theChontalsof Nicaragua, formed from theMatagalpes, speaking a language peculiar to themselves; and the tribes adjoining theLenkas, theGuatusosorHuatusos, who inhabit the forests surrounding San Juan. The latter were formerly classed, without adequate reason, with the Nahua, and they were represented as having dark complexions, whereas they are as yellow as the rest of Americans. In number they scarcely exceed 600 individuals.[633]
Miztec Women, MexicoFIG.164.—Miztec women (Mexico).(Phot. D. Charney, Coll. Mus. Nat. Hist. Paris.)
FIG.164.—Miztec women (Mexico).(Phot. D. Charney, Coll. Mus. Nat. Hist. Paris.)
To all these peoples there must be added certain uncivilised tribes of theUlvagroup (Soumoo of the English),[634]on the coast of Mosquito, who are sometimes called Caribs, although they have nothing in common with the true Caribs (p.552); then theMicas, theSiquiasof the Rio Mico, theSubironasof the Rio Coco, etc., who are all distinguished by the colour of their skin, which is darker than that of Indians in general.
TheMoscosorMosquitoswho inhabit the neighbourhood of the Blewfields lagoon (Mosquito reservation) are still darker, indeed, almost black like Negroes, without, however, exhibiting other points of resemblance with the latter. They areshort in stature, having a fine, prominent nose, etc., and it is not difficult to distinguish those who are the offspring of Mosquitos crossed with true Negro blood. About 6000 in number, the Mosquitos are relatively civilised, and make use of the Latin alphabet, introduced by missionaries, for writing their mother-tongue. In an island of the Blewfields lagoon, between the Rio Mico and the Rio San Juan, have been found theRumas, of very high stature, but their language is as yet unknown.
Half-breeds of North America.—In the United States and Canada the half-breeds of Indians and Whites, as well as Mulattos, form but a very slight portion of the population. This is not the case in Central America and Mexico. The aboriginal populations of Central America are reduced to a few thousand individuals; on the other hand, the half-breeds, produced by the crossings between them and the Europeans, form almost the whole of the population.
In Mexico the half-breeds form a little less than the half of the population, and in a general way they increase in number as we go from north to south and from west to east. Their nomenclature is somewhat complicated.[635]On the other hand, Negroes and Mulattos are not very numerous in Mexico and Central America. The Negro element exhibits a marked predominance only in the Antilles. The population of theisland of Haiti is almost wholly Negro or Mulatto; that of the other islands has sprung from the manifold crossings between the ancient Carib or Arawak aborigines (see p.552), and between Negroes and Europeans. The children of a white man and a mulatto woman are called Quadroons in the Antilles, but most of the half-breeds among whom European blood predominates prefer the name ofCreoles. The Creole type of the Antilles is indeed very fine, especially among the women (Fig.162), who sometimes have a vivacious look and a bewitching smile unique of their kind.
Accepting, with Brinton, the northern political frontier of Costa Rica as the ethnological limit of South America, I propose to pass in review the native populations of the continent, grouping them according to the four great natural regions: the Cordillera of the Andes; the plains of the Amazon and the Orinoco, with Guiana; the table-lands of eastern and southern Brazil; lastly, the Pampas of the southern part of the continent, with Tierra del Fuego.
This division corresponds pretty well with the distribution of races, languages, and ethnographic provinces.[636]In fact, the substratum of the Andean populations is formed of the Central American race, while that of the Amazonians and Guianas is composed of the South American race with its two sub-races, South American properly so called, and Palæo-American; the latter predominates also in east Brazil and Tierra del Fuego, while there are mingled with it Patagonian and other elements in the south of Brazil and among the Pampeans.
As regards language there is the same difference. In the Andean dialects the pronominal particles are suffixes, while in the Amazonian dialects these particles are prefixes, but both groups allow of a limitative form of the personal pronoun in the plural. As to the Pampean dialects, they are without the limitative form in most cases, and sometimes make use of prefixes, sometimes of suffixes.[637]
The ethnological differences of the three groups are manifold. This subject will be briefly dealt with further on. For the present let us observe that, in a general way, the Andeans are husbandmen, and have had a highly-developed native civilisation, while the Amazonians and the Brazilians of the east are for the most part fishers or hunters, often in the lowest scale of civilisation. As to the Pampeans, they are typical pastoral nomads. Before the arrival of the Europeans, the Andeans were acquainted with the weaving of stuffs; they worked in gold, silver, and bronze, manufactured fine pottery, had houses of stone and fortified towns, and employed as their chief weapons clubs and slings. The Amazonians and their congeners, on the other hand, still go almost naked, and adorn themselves with feathers; they were unacquainted with metals on the arrival of the Europeans, and some are ignorant even now of the art of pottery; they dwell in shelters or huts of branches and leaves, and their weapons are the blow-pipe and poisoned arrows. The Pampeans, before being influenced by the Andean or European civilisation, clothed themselves with skins, were acquainted neither with metals nor pottery, dwelt in huts, and used thebollasas their principal weapon.
Before beginning a rapid review of the South American tribes, it must again be remarked that their nomenclature often leads to confusion. A great number of terms are only qualifications applied by Europeans to the most different peoples, in no way akin one to the other. Such, for example,is the term “Bougres,” which is given in the east of Brazil to savages in general; or that of “Jivaros,” employed in the same sense in Peru; such also are the appellations ofCoroados(crowned or tonsured), ofOrejones(pierced ears), ofCherentes,Caribs, etc., without taking into account those relating to the half-breeds.[638]
I.The Andeans.[639]—By this name we shall describe the principal populations which are stationed in the Cordilleras, and on the high table-lands shut in by these mountains from Costa Rica to the 45th degree of S. latitude. Most of them belong to the Chibcha and Quechua linguistic families; but there are also several whose linguistic affinities have yet to be determined.
1.Chibcha Linguistic Family.—TheTalamancasof Costa Rica, sub-divided into several tribes (Chirripos,Bribris, etc.), form the most northern tribe of this group; they dwell partly on the Atlantic slope, partly on the Pacific. By certain ethnic characters (feather ornaments, use of the blow-pipe) they are related to the Amazonians.[640]Farther away theGuaymisinhabit the region of Chiriqui (Panama), where such beautifully ornamented ancient pottery (Figs.63and64) has been found in the tombs of a still mysterious population. They are short, thick-set, and flat-faced, resembling the Otomis of Mexico. There may be about 4000 of them, according to Pinart; but some of their tribes had dwindled to such an extent, that of theMuoi, for example, there were only three individuals in 1882. They organise feasts among the tribes, to which invitations are sent by means of a staff sent round (a portion of a liana-stem, having as many knots as there are days remaining before the feast). With their bodies daubed with red or blue, the Guaymis give themselves up during these feasts to drinkingand the game ofbalza, which consists in throwing a sort of club at the legs of their adversaries. There are also lesser feasts, feasts of initiation called hereurotes.[641]TheChibchasof Columbia, whose civilisation is no whit behind that of theNahuas,[642]have been under Spanish influence since the conquest, and to-day but a few tribes are met with who still speak their mother-tongue or who have preserved their ancient customs.
Such are theChimilasof the Sierra-Perija; theTunebos, true cliff-dwellers, eastward of Bogota; theArahuacos, dwelling to the number of 3000 in the Sierra-Nevada of Santa Marta. The latter have nothing in common with the true Arawaks, unless it be their name, which, however, they repudiate as an insult; the name they give to themselves isCöggaba, that is to say, “Men.”[643]As to theChibchaorMuiscaIndians of the Rio Magdalena, who were the most civilised of all the peoples speaking the Chibcha tongue, no survivors are to be found.
2.The Quechua Linguistic Familyis one of the most far-reaching of South America. The Quechua dialects are still spoken to-day on the coast, and along the chain of the Andes from Quito to the 30th degree S. latitude. This is practically the extent of the ancient empire of theIncas, the best known nation among the Quechua peoples. But the influence of the Inca civilisation and the Quechua language extended even farther, to Columbia, the borders of Ucayale, and the Bolivian table-land on the north, to the edge of the Pampas on the south (among the Calchaquis). For the western part of South America the Quechua tongue was thelengua general, as the Tupi-Guarani tongue was thelingua geralfor the east(Brazil, Paraguay, etc.). This language is not at all superseded by Spanish; on the contrary, the Whites learn it, and several Quechua words:guano,pampa,condor,quina, have found their way into the languages of all civilised nations.[644]The principal tribes are: theHuancasto the north-east of Lima, theLamanasnear Trujillo, theIncasin the vicinity of the Rio Apurimac, theAymarasof the high table-lands of Bolivia (600,000 individuals, of whom two-thirds are of pure blood).
In spite of the diversity of dialects all the Quechuas and Aymaras present a remarkable uniformity of physical type. They are of low stature (1 m. 60 according to D’Orbigny,1 m. 57 according to Forbes), thick-set, and very strong. The chest is broad, the head massive and globular, the nose aquiline, forehead retreating. This last peculiarity should however be attributed to the custom of deforming the head, very widespread among all the Quechuas and neighbouring peoples; this deformation is still practised in the same way as in the days of the Inca civilisation. It is very unlikely that the frequent occurrence of the “Inca bone” (p.67) in Peruvian skulls has any connection with this deformation. The greatest part of the population of Peru is composed of Quechuas and Aymaras, or of Quechua-Spanish half-breeds.[645]