Chapter II: The South Atlantic Group (1)

1. THE AMAZONIAN REGION.

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.

_1. The Tupis._

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 the seaboard, 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 themselves _Carai_, the astute, a term they afterwards applied to the Spaniards, but later were given the name _Guaranis_, 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 waters of 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 the _parica_, a narcotic, intoxicating snuff prepared from the dried seeds of the _Mimosa 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 the _lingua 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 of _f_, _j_ and _l_ were 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 an artificial 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 from the Amazon, called _igasauas_, 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.

TUPI LINGUISTIC STOCK.

_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_, see _Omaguas_.
_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_, see _Mundurucus_.
_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°.

_2. The Tapuyas._

The _Tapuya_ stock 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 name _Tapuya_ was applied to them by the Tupis, and means “enemies” or “strangers”--two ideas which are always synonymous in primitive life. They are also called _Crens_ or _Guerens_, 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 the _sambaquis_, 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 or _botoque_ (from which the _Botocudos_ derive 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 a native 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.

TAPUYA LINGUISTIC STOCK.

_Apina-gês_, north of Rio Tocantins.
_Aponegi-crens_, in south of province Maranhao.
_Acroas_, near Rio Tocantins.
_Aimores_, see _Botocudos_.
_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_, see _Botocudos_.
_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]

GOYOTACA SUB-STOCK.

_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

TUCANO SUB-STOCK.

_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 sometimes chosen 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:

CARNIJOS. TAPUYA.
Fire, _tŏch_, _tiaköh_.
Eye, _i-to_, _ainthó_, _kitho_.
Nose, _d-ereta_, _d’asigri_.
Tooth, _i-axi_, _aiquá_, _daguoi_.

_3. The Arawaks._

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. Its tribes 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 found them 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]

The _Paiconecas_ or 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.

The _Saravecas_, 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]

PAICONECA. SARAVECA. ARAWAK STOCK.
Sun, _isese_, _caame_, _sese_, _camu_.
Moon, _kejere_, _cache_, _kejeres_, _kashi_.
Fire, _chaki_, _tikai_, _yaki_, _ikii_.
Water, _ina_, _une_, _ine_, _une_.
Eye, _ihuikis_, _nol_, _nohlo_, _ikise_.

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 originally come 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.

TARUMA.
Sun, _ouang_, (_auvan-ialü_, Paravilhana).
Moon, _piwa_, (_pia_, Baniva, _piua_, Ouayéoué).
Fire, _hua_, (_hua-to_, Carib).
Water, _tza_, (_tuná_, Carib).
Head, my, _a-tta_, (_no-totia_, Baré).
Eye, my, _a-tzi_, (_a-kussi_, Arawak).
Mouth, _me-ruku-kanna_, (_ülle-rukuhu_, Arawak).
Nose, _assa_, (_issi-rihi_, Arawak).
Hand, _ahu_, (_kx-aua_, Bakairi).
Foot, _appa_, (_upu_, Galibi).
Bow, _tzeika_, (_takou_, Carib).
Star, _uingra_, (_uinari_, Baré).

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. Along the 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 known _Arawak_, 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 is noticeable.

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 called _canoes_.

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 the _couvade_ obtains; 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.

ARAWAK LINGUISTIC STOCK.

_Amarapas_, in British Guiana.
_Antis_ or _Campas_, on Rio Apurimac.
_Araicus_, on Rio Jatahy.
_Arawaks_, on coast of Guiana.
_Atorais_, on the upper Essequibo.
_Banivas_, on Rio Atahuapo and Rio Içauna.
_Barés_, on Rio Negro.
_Baures_, on Rio de los Baures.
_Campas_, see _Antis_.
_Canamirim_, on Rio Jurua.
_Cariayos_, on Rio Negro.
_Cauixanas_, on Rio Jupura.
_Chontaquiros_, see _Piros_.
_Goajiros_, on Goajira peninsula.
_Guanas_, on Rio Paraguay.
_Guinaus_, on upper Orinoco.
_Haitians_, on island of Hayti.
_Jabaanas_, on Rio Marauia.
_Jucunas_, on Rio Jupura.
_Jumanas_, near Rio Jupura.
_Juris_, on Rio Solimoes.
_Kustenaus_, on Rio Schingu.
_Manaos_, near Rio Negro.
_Manatenerys_, on Rio Purus.
_Manivas_, see _Banivas_.
_Maipures_, on Rios Ventuari and Orinoco.
_Maranhos_, on Rio Jatahy.
_Mariates_, on Rio Iza.
_Mawakwas_, on upper Orinoco.
_Moxos_, on head-waters of Rio Mamore.
_Paiconecas_, on Rio Blanco.
_Pareni_, on Rio Orinoco.
_Parisis_, in province Mato Grosso.
_Passés_, on lower Jupura.
_Piapocos_, on Rio Guaviare.
_Piros_, on Rio Ucayali.
_Saravecas_, near Santa Ana, Bolivia.
_Simirenchis_, see _Piros_.
_Tainos_, see _Haitians_.
_Tarianas_, on Rio Negro.
_Tarumas_, in British and Dutch Guiana.
_Uainambeus_, on Rio Jupura.
_Uainumas_, on Rio Jupura.
_Uirinas_, on Rio Marari.
_Wapisianas_, in Guiana.
_West Indians_, on Bahamas and Antilles.
_Yuris_, see _Juris_.

The Barés are now found along the banks of the Casaquiare and the Guainia, the Felipe, the Atabapo and some portions of the Rio Negro. They belong to the Arawak stock, their dialect being related to those of the Banivas and Maipures. About the middle of this century the traveller Richard Spruce found them in the regions assigned by Gilii to other tribes, indicating a displacement of the population. He collected a number of vocabularies, offering sufficient evidence in his opinion to establish the relationship of the following bands:[372]

BARÉ FAMILY OF THE ARAWAK STOCK.

_Barés_, or _Barrés_, on Rio Negro, etc.
_Cunipusanas_, on Rio Casaquiare.
_Guariquenas_, on Rio Casaquiare.
_Jabaanas_, on Rio Pacimoni.
_Mandauacas_, on Rio Casaquiare and Siapa.
_Masacas_, on Rio Masaca and Siapa.
_Pacimonarias_, on Rio Casaquiare.
_Tarianas_, on Rio Yupura.

To these I would add the Uirinas of the Rio Marari, on the strength of a vocabulary collected by Natterer.

_4. The Caribs._

The Carib stock is one of the most extensively distributed in the southern continent. At the discovery its dialects were found on the Lesser Antilles, the Caribby Islands, and on the mainland from the mouth of the Essequibo River to the Gulf of Maracaibo. West of the latter it did not reach the coast, nor has any positive traces of its introduction above the straits of Panama earlier than the conquest been found, in spite of frequent assertions to the contrary. Inland from the Arawaks on the shore of Guiana are a number of Carib tribes, as the Macusi and Woyawoi, so numerous that this region has been thought by some to have been the original home of the stock; but the discovery by Dr. Karl von den Steinen of a tribe, the Bakairi, on the head-waters of the Schingu River, speaking a very pure form of the language,[373] and the recognition of the Carib affinities of the Palmellas on the Rio dos Baures, throw another light on the trend of Carib migrations, strongly supported by a series of other considerations. Thus, it has been satisfactorily shown by Im Thurn that the Caribs in Guiana wandered thither from the Orinoco district, some inland and some along the coast, and probably from the large islands adjacent to the coasts.[374]

These islands in turn were peopled from the mainland to the east, as I have already shown, their earlier population having been Arawak. All the Island, Orinoco and Guiana Caribs can thus be traced back to the mainland of northern Venezuela. In this vicinity was spoken the Cumanagoto dialect, in the province of Cumana or New Andalusia. According to the early missionaries, it was current along the coast for more than a hundred leagues, extending into the province of Caracas and beyond. The tribes who spoke it were the Chaymas, the Cores, the Cumanas, the Quacas, the Parias, the Palenques, the Varrigones, and others.[375] Other dialects to the west are the Opone and Carare, specimens of which were obtained by Lengerke in the vicinity of Bucaramanga, province of Santander.[376]

The sierra which divides the head-waters of the Caura from those of the Rio Branco and other streams flowing into the Rio Negro and Amazon, are peopled on both slopes by wandering tribes of the Carib stock. Near the sources of the Caura, Chaffanjon found the once formidable Guaharibos, now naked and wretched fugitives, fearing the white far more than they are feared by him.[377] On the southern slope, along the Rio Jauapery and neighboring streams, are bands of Crichanas, Ipurucotos (Purigotos), Macuchis, and Jauamerys (Waimiris), all speaking nearly related dialects of the Carib tongue. Dr. Barboza Rodrigues has given a touching picture of their recent struggles with the whites of the adjacent settlements, and the miserable condition to which they are reduced. We owe to the same sympathetic naturalist an interesting description of their customs and language.[378]

The hill tribes of French Guiana are known as Roucouyennes, from the _roucou_, a vegetable coloring matter with which they paint their skins. They exhale a peculiar odor like that of new leather, probably from the action of the tannin in the roucou on the skin. Naturally they are light in color, and at birth almost white.[379] Marriages of father and daughter, or brother and sister, are not rare among them.[380]

A connecting link between these Caribs of Guiana and the Bakairis of the south is supplied by the Apiacas of the Rio Tocantins, who speak a pure dialect of the stock, midway in character between those of the two extremes named.[381]

The Arubas, who occupied the island of that name off the coast of Venezuela, and whose mixed descendants now speak the Papamiento jargon, are no doubt correctly assigned to this stock by M. Pinart. They were skillful potters, and buried their dead in large urns. The numerous polychromatic petroglyphs they have left and their peculiar character are especially noteworthy.[382]

Sir Robert H. Schomburgk classifies the Carib stock in Guiana as follows, giving a short specimen of each dialect, which differ, he says, among themselves about as much as French and Italian.[383]

CARIB SUB-STOCK IN GUIANA.

_Accawai_.
_Arecuna_.
_Caribisi_.
_Guianau_.
_Macusi_.
_Maiongkong_.
_Mawakwa_.
_Pianochotto_.
_Soerigong_.
_Tiverighotto_.
_Waiyamara_.
_Woyawoi_.

The Guaques, who live on the head-waters of the Caqueta or Yapura river, have not been heretofore identified as Caribs; but their dialect, as collected by Presbyter Manuel P. Albis in 1853, leaves no doubt as to its relationship. He describes them as intelligent and kindly, but incorrigible and dexterous thieves, skillful in the collection of wax and the preparation of poisons. Nowhere is the couvade with its associate superstitions more rigidly observed. No woman must be seen by men during her catamenia, and at childbirth she must separate from the household for three months. During all that time her husband strictly observes a diet and seclusion.[384]

The lower Orinoco basin was for a long time the center of distribution of the stock; they probably had driven from it nations of Arawak lineage, some of whom, as the Goajiros, they pushed to the west, where they were in contact with the Carib Motilones,[385] and others to the islands and the shores to the east. The Carijonas and Guaques on the head-waters of the Yapura or Caqueta are now their most western hordes, and the Pimenteiras on the Rio Paruahyba are their most eastern. We can thus trace their scattered bands over thirty-five degrees of latitude and thirty of longitude. The earliest center of distribution which best satisfies all the conditions of the problem would be located in the Bolivian highlands, not remote from that I have assigned to the Arawaks.

The physical features of the Caribs assimilate closely to those of the Arawaks. They are taller in the average and more vigorous, but their skulls are equally brachycephalic and orthognathic. They are beardless, and have the same variability in color of skin. As good specimens of the modern Caribs we may take the tribes of Venezuela. These are spoken of as “the strongest, handsomest and most intelligent of any of the natives in northern South America.”[386] They are tall, straight and symmetrical, the women not less muscular than the men. The hair is sometimes slightly wavy, as Von den Steinen saw among the Bakairi.

The Caribs have had a bad reputation as to culture on account of their anthropophagous tendencies. Indeed, the word _cannibal_ is a mispronunciation of their proper name, _Karina_. But they were quite on a par with their neighbors, the Arawaks, and in some respects superior to them. For instance, their canoes were larger and finer, and they had invented the device of the sail, which seems to have been unknown to all the other tribes on the continent. To some extent they were agricultural, and their pottery was of superior quality.

The beginnings of picture-writing were in use among them, and the remarkable rock inscriptions still visible on the Orinoco and the Essequibo are attributable to them, and were probably intended as conjurations to the supernatural powers, similar to others which remain in St. Vincent and other islands from the date of the Carib occupation.[387] Their family life was not usually communal, but each household occupied its own dwelling. In some parts, as in the deltas of the Essequibo and Orinoco, and even on the dry savannas, their huts were built on a substructure of piles which lifted them five or six feet from the ground or the water, as the case might be.

The religious rites they observed were often elaborate. Their principal divinities are said to have been the sun, moon and earth, the latter of which was spoken of as the mother of the race. They practiced the _couvade_, and their priests, called _piaye_, exercised unlimited power, and were correspondingly feared.

It was the opinion of Von Martius that the Carib, the Tupi-Guarani and the Arawak stocks are traceable to some very ancient common tongue. This view is at first sight strengthened by a wide comparison of vocabularies, but is weakened by an examination of the grammars of the three families, especially their pronominal elements. It is probable that the three ancestral tribes had early and close communication, but not original identity.

The seeming relationship has been rendered more prominent in certain instances by free later borrowings. M. Adam has shown that some of the northern dialects are in the condition of jargons, their grammar on the Carib model, their words drawn from various stocks. Such are the “Island Carib,” which is largely Arawak, and the Boni-Ouyana, described by Dr. Crévaux.[388]

CARIB LINGUISTIC STOCK.

_Akavais_, or _Accowoios_, in southern British Guiana.
_Apalais_, on the lower Paru.
_Apiacas_, on the lower Tocantins.
_Arecunas_, on Rio Branco.
_Aricoris_, see _Yaos_.
_Bakairis_, on the Upper Schingu.
_Caribisis_, in Guiana.
_Carijonas_, head-waters of the Caqueta.
_Cariniacos_, on lower Orinoco.
_Chaimas_, in ancient province of Cumana.
_Cumanagotos_, in ancient province of Cumana.
_Galibis_, in French Guiana.
_Guaques_, on the upper Caqueta.
_Guaharibos_, on the upper Caura.
_Guayqueris_, in province of Cumana.
_Jauamerys_, on Rio Jauapery.
_Macusis_, on Rio Negro.
_Maqueritares_, on Rio Branco.
_Motilones_, near R. Zulia in Venezuela.
_Palmellas_, on Rio Paruahyba.
_Paramonas_, sub-tribe of Akavais.
_Paravilhanas_, on Rio Branco.
_Pianagotos_, on Rio Branco.
_Pimenteiras_, on Rio Paruahyba.
_Purigotos_, on Rio Jauapery.
_Roucouyennes_, in French Guiana.
_Tamanacas_, on Rio Cuccivero.
_Tiverighotto_, on Rio Branco.
_Trios_, on upper Corentyn.
_Vaiyamaras_, on Rio Branco.
_Voyavois_, on Rio Branco.
_Yaos_, in Guiana.
_Zurumutas_, sub-tribe of Macusis.
(The Orinoco sub-stock will be described later.)

_5. The Cariris._

In his enumeration of the tribes of Central Brazil, Von Martius brings together a large number who once dwelt in the provinces of Bahia and Pernambuco, under the general title, “the Guck or Coco stem,” so called from the word which in many of them means “the paternal uncle.”[389] This division has not been endorsed by later research, and it is evident that Von Martius included several quite different stocks under this appellation.

Among these, the most prominent were the _Cariris_ or Kiriri. They are now reduced to about 600 souls, but at one time were a powerful nation, and in 1699 the Jesuit Mamiani published a grammar and other works in their tongue.[390] They were among the more cultivated of the Brazilian tribes, given to agriculture, skilled in dyeing and weaving cotton, employing a primitive spindle and loom, with weapons of several kinds and of superior finish.

The Sabuyas, who dwell near them, speak a closely related dialect; but further affinities have not been verified. They have, indeed, many loan words from the Tupi, and some from the Carib stock, but the ground-work of these tongues is different. Von den Steinen offers some reasons for believing that they moved down the Amazon from a far western residence.[391]

_6. The Coroados, Carajas and others._

The Coroados derive their name from the Portuguese word _coroa_, a crown, the term “crowned” being applied to several native tribes who wore their hair in a peculiar manner. It is not at all an ethnic designation, and I use it to bring into relief the need of some term of greater precision. Thus, there are the Coroados who are neighbors and linguistically related to the Puris, dwelling on the Paruahyba river. By some they have been included among the Tapuyas as alleged relatives of the Botocudos. But not only is there no relationship of language, but physically they are widely apart. The Puris-Coroados are a dark yellow brown, with mesocephalic heads, dark brown oblique eyes, large mouths and thick lips--nowise the type of the Botocudo. They are moreover agricultural in habits, and farther advanced in the arts.[392]

There are other Coroados in the extreme south of Brazil, in the province of Rio Grande do Sul, whither they are said to have wandered from the north. These do not appear to be Botocudos either. They have round heads, dark brown eyes, low foreheads, and are of a light coffee color. They are noticeable for their clean and ornamental huts, and for their skill in hunting, in which they employ arrows five feet in length, with bone points. They pray to certain stars as protective divinities, and like some northern tribes, clean and preserve the bones of the dead.[393]

The _Carajas_ belong to a stock who dwell on the affluents of the river Araguay, in the province of Goyaz in southern Brazil. The traveler Castelnau[394] penetrated to them, and was our earliest source of information about them. They are wild and warlike, with a bad reputation among their neighbors. He was told they had no religion and no rites, but also that they were strictly monogamous and singularly firm moralists, punishing libertinage with the death of both parties; statements which do not accord. Their method of burial was curious. The corpse was interred in an upright position, the head out of the ground. An ample stock of bananas and other food was placed near it, and renewed from time to time. This clearly indicates a belief in life after death. The pure Carajas are markedly dolichocephalic.

The Caraja language is known too imperfectly to permit a proper study of its relationship. It is complex and difficult, and spoken differently by the men and the women. From the scant material at hand I perceive lexical relationship in some important words to the Tapuya stock,[395] but a wide divergence in phonetics and apparently in construction. Its members are as follows:

CARAJA LINGUISTIC STOCK.

_Carajahis_, about Salinas.
_Carajas_, on the Rio Araguay.
_Chimbioas_, on the eastern affluents of lower Araguay.
_Javahais_, on upper Araguay and island of Bananal.
_Ximbioas_, see _Chimbioas_.

A certain number of vocabularies have been obtained by travelers in Brazil from mixed-blood tribes, who spoke dialects sometimes compounded of several native tongues, sometimes of these mingled with Portuguese or negro elements. Such is the dialect of the _Meniens_, who lived in eastern Brazil near the Villa Belmonte, whose speech was a jargon of the Tapuya and negro languages; and that of the _Cames_ in the interior of San Paulo, who also made use of a barbarous dialect, compounded of the African idioms of runaway slaves, and that of the Botocudos. The Catoquina, a specimen of which was obtained by Spix from a band on the affluent of the Jurua, and the Catoxa or Cotoxo of the Rio Parda, are other examples.[396]

_7. The Orinoco Basin; Carib Sub-Stock; Salivas; Arawak Sub-Stock; Otomacos; Guamas; Guayoas; Garuoas; Guaraunos; Betoyas; Piaroas, etc._

The Llanos of Venezuela coincide with the former “Territory of Caqueta,” and embrace a region about forty thousand square miles in extent, covered either with grass and rushes or with dense forests. In the wet season it is a vast marsh, in the dry it is scorched by a burning sun, raising the thermometer daily to over 100° in the shade. Yet the Llanos are but a part of the vast upper water-shed of the northern affluents of the Amazon and those of the Orinoco, which together drain a country larger than the whole of France.

This wide expanse is thinly populated with bands of savages, gaining their subsistence chiefly from the rivers, few of them brought within the range of civilized influences. Linguistically the majority belong to the Arawak and the Carib stocks; but there are numbers of tribes whose affinities are uncertain, or who are apparently of quite another lineage. Scores of names are found in the records of the missions and on the pages of travelers, of peoples who have disappeared or are now known by other designations. Alexander von Humboldt named and located 186 tribes on the Orinoco and its affluents alone; but renounced as hopeless the attempt to give them a linguistic classification.[397] I shall not attempt to unravel the tangled ethnography of this region farther than to mention those tribes concerning whom specimens of language or the statements of European visitors permit a reasonable guess as to their affinities.

Something over a century ago, when Father Gilii wrote, largely from personal knowledge, his description of the tribes on the Orinoco and its affluents, he believed they could be included in nine linguistic stocks,[398] as follows:

1. The _Carib_ in a number of dialects, as the Tamanaca, the Paiura, the Quiri-Quiripa, the Mapuya, the Guanero, the Guayquira, the Palenque, the Maquiritare, the Oje, the Mucuru, and others.

2. The _Saliva_, to which he assigned the dialects Ature, Piaroa and Quaqua.

3. The _Maipure_ (Arawak), in its dialects Avane, Meepure, Cavere, Parene, Guipunave, and Chirupa.

4. The _Otomaca_, with one dialect, the Tarapita.

5. The _Guama_, with its dialect, the Quaquaro.

6. The _Guayba_, related to the Chiricoa.

7. The _Jaruri_ (_Yarura_).

8. The _Guaraunos_.

9. The _Aruaca_.

This classification can stand as only approximately accurate, but it serves as an excellent starting point.

Beginning with the Carib stock, and basing my list on the works of Codazzi and more recent travelers, especially Crévaux, Coudreau and Chaffanjon, I offer the following as the tribes which may be definitely located as its members:

CARIB SUB-STOCK IN THE ORINOCO REGION.

_Amarizonas_ (_Amarisanes_), near the Rio Guaviare and Rios Etari
and Ayrico.
_Arecunas_, on head-waters of the Rio Caroni.
_Ariguas_, near the Rio Tauca.
_Cabiunes_, on the Rio Apoporis.
_Carataimas_, on the Rio Cauca.
_Chaymas_, on the Rio Guarapiche.
_Cucciveros_, on the Rio Cauca.
_Cuneguaras_, on the Rio Maturin.
_Enaguas_, on the Rio Agua Branca.
_Guarives_, on the Rio Uñare.
_Maquiritares_, on the Orinoco, near Lake Carida and Rio Ventuari.
_Matanos_, on Rio Caura.
_Mucos_, on Rio Apoporis.
_Panares_, on Rio Caura.
_Parecas_, on the lower Orinoco.
_Paudacotos_, near the Rio Caura.
_Quiri-Quiripas_, on the lower Orinoco.
_Quivas_, on the Orinoco near the confluence of the Meta.
_Tamanacas_, on lower Orinoco.
_Tuapocos_, on the Rio Maturin.
_Vayamanos_, on the Rio Paragua.
_Yaos_, on the Rio de la Trinidad.
_Yocunos_, on the Rio Apoporis.

Even when Codazzi collected his material, more than half a century ago, the once powerful Tamanacas had entirely disappeared, and no tribe of the name existed in the region.[399] The process of dissolution and destruction has gone on since his day with increasing rapidity, so that when Chaffanjon visited the Orinoco and Caura in 1884, he found that immense and fertile region almost uninhabited, the ancient tribes scattered and disappeared, or existing only in wretched remnants, _misérables débris_, of their former selves.[400] The opportunity is forever lost, therefore, to define the ethnography of this region by original observation, and we are thrown back on the collections and statements of former observers.

The Maquiritares, however, still remain as one of the handsomest peoples on the Orinoco, and remarkable for the skill with which they manufacture canoes sixty or seventy feet long from the trunk of a single tree.[401]

On the river Uaupes, an affluent of the Rio Negro M. Coudreau encountered various tribes, such as the Tarianos or Javis and the Nnehengatus, of whose tongues he obtained brief vocabularies. They indicate a distant influence of the Carib stock, especially the latter, but they seem mixed largely with elements from other sources.[402] They dwell adjacent to the Tucanos, to whom I have already referred as assigned by some to the Tapuyas. (See above, p. 240.)

Gilii’s second group, the _Salivas_, offers difficulties. There appears to be none of them under that name at present on the Orinoco. Chaffanjon states that the Atures have become extinct.[403] The Piaroas survive, but the tribe so-called to-day speak a tongue wholly unlike the Saliva, and unconnected, apparently, with any other stock;[404] and the modern Quaquas (Guagues) speak a dialect of the Arawak. Yet a hundred and fifty years ago the missionaries estimated the Salivas at four thousand souls. They lived principally on the river Cinareuco, below the Meta, and also on the Rio Etari, where they were in contact with the Carib Amarisanes. They are described as of a kindly and gentle disposition, well-made in body and willing scholars of their spiritual masters. In their heathendom they had the unique custom of disinterring the bones of their dead after the expiration of a year, burning them, and then collecting the ashes to mix with their drinking water.[405] Their language, which was vocalic and nasal, has been preserved in sufficient specimens to serve for comparison. According to Vergara y Vergara, it is still spoken on the banks of the Meta,[406] and Hartmann includes in those who employ it, the Quevacus and Maritzis, at the head of the Ventuari, and the Mayongcong on the Merevari.[407]

The Arawak stock, which Gilii calls the _Maipure_, had numerous branches in this region. They occupied much of the Orinoco in its middle and upper course, as well as the valleys of its affluents. Gumilla speaks of one of its members, the Caveres, as savage and inhuman warriors, but as the only nation which had been able to repulse the attacks of the down-river Caribs, who were accustomed to ascend the stream in fleets of eighty to a hundred canoes, destroying every village on its banks.[408]

The same authority mentions the Achaguas as possessing the most agreeable and cultured dialect, though he is in doubt whether it is strictly related to the Maipure. This nation, quite prominent in the older annals, still existed in the middle of this century to the number of five hundred on the Rio Muco. They were not civilized, and practiced the customs of polyandry and the destruction of female infants.[409] Cassani refers to them as on the river Ele, and describes them as tattooed and painted, with well-formed bodies and taking great pride in preserving and dressing their magnificent hair.[410]

From a variety of sources at my disposition I have prepared the following list of the

ARAWAK SUB-STOCK IN THE ORINOCO REGION.

_Achaguas_, on Rio Ele and Rio Muco.
_Amoruas_, on Rio Vichada.
_Avanenis_, on Rio Guainia.
_Banivas_, see _Manivas_.
_Barés_, on Rios Baria and Guainia.
_Cabacabas_, between Rios Yapura and Apoporis.
_Cafuanas_, on Rio Yapura.
_Carusanas_, on the Guainia and Inirida.
_Cauiris_, right bank of Rio Guaviare.
_Caveres_ (_Cabres_), on Rio Zama and Orinoco near it.
_Chirupas_, on the Rio Zama.
_Guaripenis_, on Rio Guainia.
_Guaypunavis_ (_Guipunavis_), on Lake Inirida.
_Macuenis_, on Rio Guainia.
_Manivas_ (_Banivas_, _Manitivas_), on Rio Guaviare and Rio Negro
and their affluents.
_Maipures_, on middle Orinoco.
_Moroquenis_, on Rio Yapura.
_Mituas_, on Lake Inirida.
_Moruas_, on Rio Yapura.
_Parenes_, on middle Orinoco.
_Piapocos_, near mouth of Rio Guaviare.
_Uaupes_, on Rio Uaupes (?).
_Yaviteris_, on Rio Atabapo.

The _Otomacos_ remain, as Gilii placed them, an independent stock, with their single dialect, the Tarapita. The Jesuits first encountered them in 1732, amid the forests south of the Orinoco, between the Paos and the Jaruros. In later years they are described as a low grade of savages, given to the eating of earth. They are also said to be monogamous, and the women among them enjoy an unusual degree of consideration, being permitted to take equal part in the public games.[411] Their present locality appears to be on or near the river Meta.

The tribes whom Gilii mentions as the _Guamas_ and Quaquaros lived on the banks of the Rio Apure, and in his day had the reputation of “a numerous and valorous people.”[412] They were not unacquainted with some of the arts, and were particularly skillful in the manufacture of small figures in terra cotta, many of which are to be picked up on the sites of their ancient villages. Now, however, they have been smitten with the fate of their race, and are reduced to a few miserable vagrants, destined to disappear wholly in a few years. Their arts are lost, and the oppression of the whites has driven from them all hopes of bettering their condition.[413]

Of their language I have no specimens. According to Felipe Perez, it is related to the Omagua, and hence should be included in the Tupi stock; but this writer is not always dependable.

The _Guaybas_ (Guahibos) and Chiricoas dwelt originally on the broad plains between the Casanare and Meta rivers; but a number of them were converted in the latter half of the seventeenth century and persuaded to come to the missions. They soon returned to their roving life. Cassani speaks of them as of mild and friendly disposition, but incorrigible vagabonds, “the gypsies of the Indies,” constantly migrating from place to place.[414] They have never lost their love of the wilderness, and it has been their salvation, for they still survive--quite a numerous people--on the left bank of the Orinoco, from the Rio Meta to the Vichada. They are rebellious to all attempts at civilization, and the white man is not safe who ventures into their territory.[415]

Humboldt, in his discussion of the tribes of the Orinoco, refers to the Guahibos as white in color, and founds some speculations on this fact. Their hue is indeed light, at times what may fairly be called a dirty white; but in this respect we are assured by recent and competent authority they do not differ from their neighbors, the Maquiritares and Piaroas. It is not a question of descent, but of climatic surroundings and mode of life.[416]

The home of the _Jaruris_, Yaruras, or, as they called themselves, Japurin, was on and near the Orinoco, between the rivers Meta and Capanapaco. They depended on hunting and fishing, and were indolent and averse to agriculture. They had few arts, but were friendly in disposition, not given to drunkenness, and usually monogamous. At present they number scarcely a hundred individuals, badly formed, afflicted with contagious disease, and rapidly on the road to extinction. They have lost their trait of sobriety, and a man will readily offer his wife or daughter in exchange for a bottle of brandy. (Chaffanjon.)

The _Guaraunos_, called by the English _Warraus_, continue to live in considerable numbers--some say about fifteen thousand--in and near the delta of the Orinoco. They are a thrifty, healthy people, building their houses ingeniously upon piles to protect them from the periodical overflows of the stream. This method of construction, however, was adopted only when they sought as refuge marshy and lonely spots to escape their enemies. Contrary to the statements of most travelers, those who know them best report them as preferring dry uplands, where they make clearings, plantations and houses with singular industry and skill. The favorite wood used in such construction is the _temiche_ (not the _moriche_) palm, which they call, from its magnificent fronds, “the feathers of the sun,” _ya juji_.[417]