Chapter I: Preface

In presenting to the public the results of my journey through the lands about the upper waters of the Amazon, I make no pretence of challenging conclusions drawn by such experienced scientists as Charles Waterton, Alfred Russel Wallace, Richard Spruce, and Henry Walter Bates, nor to compete with the indefatigable industry of those recent explorers Dr. Koch-Grünberg and Dr. Hamilton Rice.

Some months of the years 1908 and 1909 were passed by me travelling in regions between the River Issa and the River Apaporis where white men had scarcely penetrated previously. In the remoter parts of these districts the tribes of nomad Indians are frankly cannibal on occasion, and provide us with evidence of a condition of savagery that can hardly be found elsewhere in the world of the twentieth century. It will be noted that this area includes the Putumayo District.

With regard to the references in footnotes and appendices, I have inserted them to suggest where similarities of culture or variations of a given custom are to be found. These notes may be of some use to the student of such problems as the question of cultural contact with Pacific peoples, and at the least they represent the evidence on which I have based my own conclusions.

THOMAS WHIFFEN.

LONDON, 1914.

CONTENTS

PAGE

CHAPTER I

Introductory 1

CHAPTER II

Topography--Rivers--Floods and rainfall--Climate--Soil--Animal
and vegetable life--Birds--Flowers--Forest
scenery--Tracks--Bridges--Insect pests--Reptiles--Silence in
the forest--Travelling in the bush--Depressing effects of the
forest--Lost in the forest--Starvation the crowning horror 17

CHAPTER III

The Indian homestead--Building--Site and plan of
_maloka_--Furniture--Inhabitants of the house--Fire--Daily
life--Insect inhabitants--Pets 40

CHAPTER IV

Classification of Indian races--Difficulties of
tabulating--Language-groups and tribes--Names--Sources
of confusion--Witoto and Boro--Localities of
language-groups--Population of districts--Intertribal
strife--Tribal enemies and friends--Reasons
for endless warfare--Intertribal trade and
communications--Relationships--Tribal organisation--The
chief, his position and powers--Law--Tribal
council--Tobacco-drinking--Marriage system and
regulations--Position of women--Slaves 53

CHAPTER V

Dress and ornament--Geographical and tribal
differentiations--Festal attire--Feather
ornaments--Hair-dressing--Combs--Dance
girdles--Beads--Necklaces--Bracelets--Leg
rattles--Ligatures--Ear-rings--Use of labret--Nose
pins--Scarification--Tattoo--Tribal marks--Painting 71

CHAPTER VI

Occupations--Sexual division and tabu--Tribal manufactures--Arts
and crafts--Drawing--Carving--Metals--Tools and implements--No
textile fabrics--Pottery--Basket-making--Hammocks--Cassava-squeezer
and grater--Pestle and mortar--Wooden vessels--Stone axes--Methods
of felling trees--Canoes--Rafts--Paddles 90

CHAPTER VII

Agriculture--Plantations--Preparation of ground in
the forest--Paucity of agricultural instruments--Need
for diligence--Women’s incessant toil--No special
harvest-time--Maize the only grain grown--No use for
sugar--Manioc cultivation--Peppers--Tobacco--Coca
cultivation--Tree-climbing methods--Indian wood-craft--Indian
tracking--Exaggerated sporting yarns--Indian sense of locality
and accuracy of observation--Blow-pipes--Method of making
blow-pipes--Darts--Indian improvidence--Migration of game--Traps
and snares--Javelins--Hunting and fishing rights--Fishing--Fish
traps--Spearing and poisoning fish 102

CHAPTER VIII

The Indian armoury--Spears--Bows and arrows--Indian
strategy--Forest tactics and warfare--Defensive measures--Secrecy
and safety--The Indian’s science of war--Prisoners--War
and anthropophagy--Cannibal tribes--Reasons for cannibal
practices--Ritual of vengeance--Other causes--No intra-tribal
cannibalism--The anthropophagous feast--Human relics--Necklaces
of teeth--Absence of salt--Geophagy 115

CHAPTER IX

The food quest--Indians omnivorous eaters--Tapir and other animals
used for food--Monkeys--The peccary--Feathered game--Vermin--Eggs,
carrion, and intestines not eaten--Honey--Fish--Manioc--Preparation
of cassava--Peppers--The Indian hot-pot--Lack of salt--Indian
meals--Cooking--Fruits--Cow-tree milk 126

CHAPTER X

Drinks, drugs, and poisons: their use and preparation--Unfermented
drinks--_Caapi_--Fermented drinks--_Cahuana_--Coca: its
preparation, use, and abuse--_Parica_--Tobacco--Poison and
poison-makers 138

CHAPTER XI

Small families--Birth tabu--Birth customs--Infant
mortality--Infanticide--Couvade--Name-giving--Names--Tabu on
names--Childhood--Lactation--Food restrictions--Child-life and
training--Initiation 146

CHAPTER XII

Marriage regulations--Monogamy--Wards and
wives--Courtship--Qualifications for matrimony--Preparations
for marriage--Child marriages--Exception to patrilocal
custom--Marriage ceremonies--Choice of a mate--Divorce--Domestic
quarrels--Widowhood 159

CHAPTER XIII

Sickness--Death by poison--Infectious diseases--Cruel treatment of
sick and aged--Homicide--Retaliation for murder--Tribal and
personal quarrels--Diseases--Remedies--Death--Mourning--Burial 168

CHAPTER XIV

The medicine-man, a shaman--Remedies and cures--Powers and
duties of the medicine-man--Virtue of breath--Ceremonial
healing--Hereditary office--Training--Medicine-man and
tigers--Magic-working--Properties--Evil always due to bad
magic--Influence of medicine-man--Method of magic-working--Magical
cures 178

CHAPTER XV

Indian dances--Songs without meaning--Elaborate preparations--The
Chief’s invitation--Numbers assembled--Dance step--Reasons
for dances--Special dances--Dance staves--Arrangement of
dancers--Method of airing a grievance--Plaintiff’s song of
complaint--The tribal “black list”--Manioc-gathering dance and
song--Muenane Riddle Dance--A discomfited dancer--Indian riddles
and mimicry--Dance intoxication--An unusual incident--A favourite
dance--The cannibal dance--A mad festival of savagery--The strange
fascination of the Amazon 190

CHAPTER XVI

Songs the essential element of native dances--Indian
imagination and poetry--Music entirely ceremonial--Indian
singing--Simple melodies--Words without meaning--Sense
of time--Limitations of songs--Instrumental
music--Pan-pipes--Flutes and fifes--Trumpets--Jurupari music and
ceremonial--Castanets--Rattles--Drums--The _manguare_--Method of
fashioning drums--Drum language--Signal and conversation--Small
hand-drums 206

CHAPTER XVII

The Indians’ magico-religious system--The Good Spirit and the Bad
Spirit--Names of deities--Character of Good Spirit--His visit
to earth--Question of missionary influence--Lesser subordinate
spirits--Child-lifting--No prayer or supplication--Classification
of spirits--Immortality of the soul--Land of the After-Life--Ghosts
and name tabu--Temporary disembodied spirits--Extra-mundane
spirits--Spirits of particularised evils--Spirits of inanimate
objects--The jaguar and anaconda magic beasts--Tiger folk--Fear of
unknown--Suspicions about camera--Venerated objects--Charms--Magic
against magic--Omens 218

CHAPTER XVIII

Darkness feared by Indians--Story-telling--Interminable
length of tales--Variants--Myths--Sun and moon--Deluge
traditions--Tribal stories--Amazons--White Indians tradition--Boro
tribal tale--Amazonian equivalents of many world-tales--Beast
stories--Animal characteristics--Difference of animal
characteristics in tale and tabu--No totems--Indian hatred of
animal world 236

CHAPTER XIX

Limitations of speech--Differences of
dialect--Language-groups--Tribal names--Difficulties of
languages--Method of transliteration--Need of a common
medium--Ventral ejaculations--Construction--Pronouns as
suffix or prefix--Negatives--Gesture language--Numbers and
reckoning--Indefinite measure--Time--No writing, signs, nor
personal marks--Tribal calls--Drum-language code--Conversational
repetitions--Noisy talkers--Ventriloquists--Falsetto
voice--Conversational etiquette 246