Chapter XXIII: Appendix: I

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Physically, as may be judged from the accompanying tables, there is a wide margin for dissimilarity among these tribes. Their appearance is nearly as varied as their speech, more so in fact, in that there is much diversity of type even among individuals of the same speaking-group. I have seen a Boro as dark as a Witoto, while his fellow-tribesmen may be yellow as a Chinaman. It is, of course, possible that the darker Boro are sons of Witoto women. The custom prevalent in all the tribes of adopting the young children captured from their enemies, makes of necessity for great changes in type even in one household, so that despite the preference for group endogamy that undoubtedly exists there are few households where cross-breeding is not in evidence.

In stature the Indian is small, which I take to be a result of depression due to his forest environment; but the body is well-balanced and upright. Among the tribes I visited the Andoke as a speaking-group were, so far as I could observe, the largest in build and the tallest. The Okaina may possibly come into the same scale. The Karahone represent the mean, while the Maku are invariably small, a low class and badly-fed people. The average measurements of the tribes are best gathered from the types tabulated. I made the average height to be for men 5 feet 6 inches; and for women 4 feet 10 inches.[417] I certainly remember one case of a man among the Andoke nearly 6 feet high, but can recall no other. The women were never much over the average of the female type. I give my measurements for what they are worth, but unfortunately I did not know the correct way in which they should have been taken; they were made with a centimetre rule, but not on the correct anthropometrical principles. The Indians stood against the side of the house to be measured, and I registered their height by the simple process of placing the ruler on the head and measuring its distance from the ground.[418]

The bone of the Indian’s skull is thick, and both dolichocephalic and brachycephalic types are in evidence.[419]

The Indian does not run to fat, rather is he inclined to be thin, but strong, muscular and healthy, with rounded outline and finely-developed chest. The Witoto, however, though broad and strong, fail in the limbs, their legs especially lack development. On this point my observations tally with Robuchon’s notes. The Tukana have a magnificent physique. The Andoke, though some are tall, with large frames, as a group incline more to breadth of both face and figure. The tribes of the Tikie are of a low grade.

The Indians as a rule, have hands of an average size, with stumpy fingers, and short, spatulate nails. Constant manual labour of some sort would seem to keep the nails naturally of a normal length. I never remember seeing an Indian pare his nails, but fear this is a point that may have escaped my observation. The men’s arms are frequently distorted, and the shoulders gain an artificial breadth by the use of ligatures to swell the muscles of the upper arm by means of constriction.

The natural symmetry of the Indian’s person is further enhanced by slight hips, flat buttocks. The abdomen seldom protrudes though the navel is prominent, but not to the same extent as is found among negroes.

1 & 2. WITOTO TYPES.

3. WITOTO FROM KOTUE RIVER]

The men generally have large feet,[420] with long toes. Both men and women have very prehensile toes, and will pick up objects off the ground with their feet rather than trouble to stoop. They are flat-footed.

The Indian does not extend his legs when he walks, as Europeans do. He moves rather with the action of an unathletic woman. His step is on an average about two-thirds of an ordinary man’s thirty-inch pace. The foot is of necessity raised well above the ground, on account of the lianas which would trip the slovenly walker. This does not make for rapid progression. But though he walks more slowly than the white man, the Indian can keep up a jog-trot of about five miles an hour for tremendous distances. Moreover his wind is far better than any white man’s. At a push, to get away from hostile neighbours for example, he is capable of going sixty miles a day. In ordinary circumstances he walks nowhere, except about the house and compounds. Consequently he has developed a different set of muscles from the ordinary pedestrian.

As the Boro are more harassed than the Witoto they march as a rule in silence, while the Witoto are noisy generally; but a march in country that might prove hostile is done in silence by every tribe for obvious reasons. In friendly country the Indians go along chattering and joking, or in silence, just as the spirit moves them: there is no rule. The necessity for walking in single file, and the invariable difficulties of the route, do not, however, altogether encourage conversation. These restricted paths have a further influence upon the Indian. Often enough it is necessary to place one foot directly in front of the other in order to find any footway at all. This is the probable reason, or one of the reasons, why the men walk with a straight foot, a specially needed precaution on the narrow bridges, that are merely formed of single trees. The women walk in rather a stilted fashion, with the toes turned inwards at an angle of some thirty degrees, on account of the tight ligatures they wear below the knee and above the ankle, which cause the calf to swell to enormous proportions, as has been noted. This may not inconceivably have a contracting effect in the angle of the foot. It is regarded as a sign of power if the muscles of the thighs are made to come in contact with each other when walking.

That the men run and jump well is due to their good wind, but they have no pace, and could easily be outstripped over a limited course by an average white man in good condition. But the women neither run nor jump with any facility, as they all suffer from varicose veins, caused by the ligatures to some extent, but also by the burdens they carry, and from labouring in the fields when in a condition unsuited to such physical exertion. As weights are carried on the back suspended by a strap across the forehead, the tendency to stoop or grow round-shouldered is counteracted, for the pull of the strap brings the head back, and the strain is taken by the muscles of the neck.[421] Water is always carried in vessels balanced on the head, and though the Amazonian Indian may not have the superb carriage of her sisters in the East, yet the young girls at least are very well set up, though with advancing age a lifetime of field work and burden-bearing may bow the elder women till they walk, as described by Robuchon, “in an inclined position.”

The Indian woman has generally a beautiful figure, well proportioned and supple, with high, straight shoulders. Untrammelled by dress she is graceful and free in her actions. Before marriage the women have very small breasts, but after they have borne a child the breasts develop considerably. Old women, probably on account of poorer nourishment, are very flat-chested, and one never sees a woman with very pendent breasts. In the older women they atrophy.[422]

There is great individuality in the faces of the Amazonian Indians. A tribe is no herd of sheep, differentiated only to the experienced eye of the shepherd; the dissimilarities of countenance are immediately apparent, and even to the most casual observer Indians show marked variety of face and colour and feature. Like all savages the Indians admire most the lightest coloured skins. The divergence of colour is both tribal and racial; and as a rule it will be found that the higher the type the better the physical development, and the greater the mental capacity, the lighter will be the skin. On account of the saturation of the atmosphere the Indians mostly have skins of a good texture. I never found rough skins on Indians in these districts.[423] Of all the tribes the Menimehe have the lightest complexions, and they are invariably fatter and in better condition than the surrounding tribal groups.

COMBS--1. ANDOKE COMB WITH NUTSHELL CUP FOR RUBBER LATEX

2. WITOTO COMB

3. BORO COMB]

I have mentioned the custom of covering a new-born infant with rubber milk either for warmth or to protect the skin; the women daub themselves with gum and a yellow clay because it is supposed to preserve the skin; but none of these peoples use any oil for lubricating purposes, and they are free from any noxious-smelling secretion. The smell of a negro they consider most offensive, but do not extend this dislike to the white man. The Indian owes his immunity from this unpleasant trait in part because he does not perspire at all freely, perhaps to difference of glandular secretion, and in part to frequent ablutions. Yet, though even a dirty people like the Witoto will bathe at least three times a day and most tribes far more often, these Indians, as has already been noted, are by no means free of body parasites. Head lice may be said to be universal, and in addition jiggers and the red tick that drops off leaves in the forest and burrows under the human skin, there is another burrowing parasite that invades the human body to lay its eggs, which is extremely common among these people. One is apt to be infested with these pests merely from touching an Indian, certainly by lying in an Indian hammock. The parasite causes considerable irritation, and the local remedy is to apply babasco juice.

Except in the case of a medicine-man, who never depilates, hair is looked upon as dirt; therefore it is always removed, only the hair of the head being permitted to grow. Depilation is usually done just before a dance. The method of removal adopted is to cover the hirsute parts with rubber latex. This is allowed to dry, so that a grip can be obtained and the hair removed simply with the forefinger and thumb or by means of two small pieces of cane. Two persons will, as far as facial hairs are concerned, depilate one another. It is universally considered a sign of cleanliness to remove all the body hairs, and even to pull out the eyebrows and eyelashes.[424] That the eyebrows are not removed for æsthetic purposes is proved by the fact that the effect is promptly reproduced with paint. It is not easy to get information with regard to the removal of body hair,[425] but I was able to obtain a little from a Karahone slave boy who was with an Andoke tribe I met. He told me that the Karahone did not depilate the hair of the face. This is the one exception among these tribes.

On the authority of Schomburgh, im Thurn states that occasionally when there is great demonstration of grief at a burial “the survivors crop their hair.” So far as my experience went none of the Indians of the Upper Amazons ever “crop” the hair close, except that of young girls when danger threatens. Should there be any reason to suppose that some man is inclined to steal a girl, her hair might be closely cut as a preventive measure to save the child from being kidnapped, for a hairless woman is looked upon as a social outcast among the tribes. The young Indians have long hair that often reaches to below the small of the back, but this length does not continue, and it is a varying quantity among the adults.

The hair is uniformly scattered over the scalp, and is coarse in texture, lank, and very abundant. Baldness is unknown, and greyness, as with the negroes, is very rare. I have only seen grey hair on a few people of apparently unusual age. In colour it is almost uniformly black, a red- not a blue-black, which gives it an occasional brown glint. Some of the children are lighter-haired, but such a variation as red hair is unknown, though in the sunlight the women’s hair may take a reddish gleam. Both women and children have finer hair than the men, and with young children it is often quite downy. As a rule it is straight, but among the Tukana wavy hair is more evident.

Among the greater part of these peoples the hair is not cut, either by the men or women. The Karahone men cut their hair to the shoulders; the Boro women, and in some cases the men, trim theirs round very much as is often seen among our small girls. Sometimes the Witoto women trim their lank locks. This is done with a knife if they have one, otherwise it is singed. With the Menimehe and Karahone it grows very low on the forehead. The Tikie tribes have most untidy and ill-kept hair.

Owing to race--possibly of Mongoloid origin--and to the prevalence of depilatory customs, the men have scanty beards, if any.

On the whole these Indians hold their own in the matter of good looks, even the lowest types are not repulsive in appearance. I mean, of course, to the eye of the stranger, not according to their individual standard of beauty. In feature both the various language-groups and the tribes of each group show many grades. It may be taken as usual that with a lighter skin the nose and lips are thinner than among those with darker colouring. The Boro and the Resigero, both comparatively light-skinned groups, have thin lips. This naturally follows from what I have already said as to colour and type, the higher type possessing, as would be expected, the more refined features. The Boro, taken as a group, are the best looking, many of them are very handsome, and some of the Andoke also are notably well favoured in appearance. “Noble” is Koch-Grünberg’s decision on the question of the Tukana tribesmen’s appearance. The Okaina, also, must be classed as good looking.

BORO TRIBESMAN FROM THE PAMA RIVER

A MENIMEHE CAPTIVE]

It seems somewhat of a contradiction after this to remark that a squint is so common a trait among these tribes that one cannot but notice immediately any one with normal eyes. This is, however, with the exception of the Tukana, very prevalent among all these tribes. The eyes are not large, and are deeply set. They are black in colour with occasional yellowness of the eyeball, but never to the degree seen in the bilious eye of the negro. Both eyesight and hearing are very acute. In the bush, or in the dark, the tribesmen have most penetrating sight, and can distinguish details at a glance where the ordinary white man can see nothing of any description. In the sun, or any strong light, their sight is inferior.

It is difficult to judge what an Indian’s ears would be like if left to Nature’s fashioning, as they are invariably distorted to more or less degree by artificial means. They are frequently prominent, and do not appear to be set close to the head in any case. The large ear-plugs will pull the lobe of the ear half-way down the neck and more. Nose-boring is not carried to so disfiguring an extent. The Boro, especially the women of those tribes, bore the wing of the nose--a custom peculiar to this people--as well as the septum, which is also bored by Muenane and Witoto women, but the nose pins are small, and do not distort the feature as the ear-plugs do the ear. The Tukana’s nose has naturally large alæ. The tribes on the Tikie also have broad noses, with prominent cheek-bones, a characteristic noted by Wallace among the Kuretu.[426]

The Indian’s chin is narrow, small, rounded, and, especially in the case of the women, retreating. There is no dimple or cleft. The teeth are big and even, and very rarely found projecting.

The Indian’s expression is stolid enough ordinarily, but when talking he has much play of feature, and he will gesticulate freely under the influence of coca. Among the tribes to the south of the Japura a man will look a stranger straight in the face, but north of that river the native has a more furtive glance. The Indian’s gaze is intense.

They are never demonstrative of affection, and, though they will touch a white man as a salutation, never touch each other. By this I mean that when friendlily disposed an Indian would return a white man’s salute, the offer of the hand, but no Indian would grasp a fellow-tribesman’s hand, or put an arm around his neck. Kissing is unknown among these people. Crevaux records that he saw children among the Calina kiss to show affection, but the nearest approach to an embrace I ever witnessed was a slap on the shoulder, probably under the shoulder-blade, which is the salutation between great friends. Mothers of course fondle their children, and I have even seen a woman with her arm round her husband, but such an exhibition is considered barely decent. Neither do they exhibit grief by weeping. The girl children cry occasionally, but no child ever screams; and adults may whine but never shed tears.

As regards brain-power, the Boro group are the most intelligent, with the possible exception of the Menimehe. I invariably found the Boro exceedingly anxious to learn from me anything they judged might be of utility to themselves. They evinced a definitely intelligent interest, not to be confounded with the ordinary curiosity of the untaught. Among all these peoples the power of mental development ceases after they have attained puberty.

One limitation that is to be noticed with all of them is their inability to grasp any chronological data. They have nothing in the way of a tally of any description, and in speaking use the vaguest expressions only for reckoning. It is my opinion, based on observation of the number of generations still living at any one time, that these people live to an advanced age. They grow elderly at from twenty-five to thirty years, and may, under favourable conditions, live another half-century or more. This is borne out by the fact that I found occasionally a man with grey hair--a sign in all coloured peoples, and I believe in Mongoloid peoples, of great age. But no Indian can give any information as to his own age, or the age of his children. For him age is non est, time of little value. He cannot tell you when he came to the neighbourhood in which you find him, though obviously only a year or two may have been passed there. His day is regulated to some extent by the rising and the setting of the sun, portioned only by its height in the heavens. If but occasion serve, one or other of the warriors, drunk with coca, will talk the whole night through, excitedly recounting some folk-tale, or endlessly boasting his feats in the hunt or on the war-path. The interruption is not resented by his comrades, nor does it seem to interfere with their slumber. Indians, in fact, never appear to sleep much, or rather they sleep little and often, as chance offers. Night is no more the time of repose than day, except in so far as darkness puts a stop to certain of their avocations. When sleeping on the ground an Indian curls up on one side with his knees to his chin, or he sleeps on his stomach, seldom lying on the back.[427]

Though, as has been noted, they sleep with no wrap or covering, these Indians are most sensitive to climatic changes. They are decidedly susceptible to a difference of locality, and, more than this, in a land where the extreme contrast of temperature is no more than twenty degrees throughout the year, with an average of half that total, they are affected by even slight variations of temperature. They fear the cold of the early morning, and, accustomed as they are to the half-lights of the forest, they dislike sunshine, and prefer to keep in the shade, fearful of sun-sickness if exposed to the sun.

It has been suggested by some travellers that the curious habit of the Indians of inducing sickness every morning by means of a feather was based on the idea that any food which was retained in the stomach all night must be unwholesome and ought to be removed immediately.[428] I have often seen the Indians do this, but always put it down to a desire to rid the stomach of the non-absorbent constituents of the coca powder, as only the men, who alone may take coca, resort to this practice. The Indian in the early morning drinks an infusion of herbs, as I have already mentioned, which induces the removal of such substances by vomiting, although not taken primarily for this purpose.

Sickness is also secured with the fingers after a prohibitive quantity of cahuana has been drunk, as afore noted, during a big dance. Having imbibed to his utmost capacity, the Indian adopts this simple expedient to enable him to drink again.

The tribes of the upper Amazons are, comparatively with others, very cleanly. But it is only comparatively. The Boro are the cleanest, and the Witoto unquestionably the most dirty. Immediately on rising all Indians resort to the river, but except among the Boro and the Resigeros, who rub themselves with sand, the performance can hardly be called washing, it is simply bathing. The Nonuya and Muenane are cleanly, like the Resigero. Even the Andoke, though they use no sand, are cleaner than the Witoto, for this tribe never wash, and only take a dip two or three times a day, while at least five times is the ordinary rule with the majority.[429]

The first duty of the morning is a visit, as has been said, to the bathing-place. Thither troop the old and the young, both male and female, to wash and revive in the water. They do not attempt to rub their bodies dry, but are content to let the moisture evaporate when they emerge from the stream. When on a march or out hunting Indians will always bathe in any water available on the route. They go in streaming with perspiration, but seem to suffer no ill-effects. Bates has described them as “taking merely a sitz-bath” like a dog,[430] but they seemed to me to bathe as any ordinary person would who went into the water to get cool.

After returning from war the Indians bathe scrupulously before they re-enter the house. It is in the nature of a ceremonial washing, and possibly is a subconscious act of purification, though the Indians, when asked the reason, told me only that it was _pia_, our custom. In fact lustration with the Indian is too frequent an action to keep any ceremonial significance it may ever have had.

It follows as a matter of course with people so familiar with water that one and all are expert swimmers. The Indian of the Amazons invariably swims as naturally as he walks, and with as little tuition. From the hour of his birth he has been conversant with the river, and in a climate where the temperature of the water varies but little from 75° to 80° or more, he regards a dip as his chief solace. He never passes a stream without taking advantage of its proximity to bathe, and the fact that he may have recently fed, or that he is perspiring freely, does not hinder him from a plunge, and makes no difference to his enjoyment.

In swimming the Indian paddles like a dog, and does not attempt to attain to anything approaching the breast-stroke of the European, nor does he extend the legs widely. He flexes the legs sharply upon the trunk, and, suddenly stretching them in a straight line, drives the body forward. The stroke is not a tiring one, and the native is capable of undergoing long immersion without suffering exhaustion, but the speed he can acquire is not remarkable. For that matter there are no reasons why the Indian should desire to make rapid progression. Swimming to him is an adjunct to bathing, or a means to cross a stream; its finer developments trouble him not at all. In the muddy rivers of the Amazons there is nothing to tempt the native to dive, nor are there suitable places to jump off the banks. The Indian slips in as best suits the occasion, and does not aspire to exhibition feats, or to water games.

WITOTO TYPES

WITOTO WOMAN WITH LEG LIGATURES]

When bathing the Indian is exposed to a certain element of danger from fish that inflict varying degrees of injury. There is the stinging eel, and skate of some sort and another stinging fish,[431] the caneiro, and the piranha. Electric fish are less common in the upper rivers than in the main streams, and I never noticed one Indian of the Issa-Japura tribes take any special precaution against them, though elsewhere the natives will beat and prod the water with rods before they bathe, to discover, if possible, whether any eels are lurking in the vicinity. The caneiro’s method of attack is by suction, not shock. They are very plentiful in all these rivers, and their power of suction is most extraordinary. I am not likely to forget the first time I made acquaintance with one of these voracious little fish. It suddenly attacked, or rather attached itself with its sucker-like mouth, to the inner side of my leg. The sensation was most alarming. I made with all possible speed to land. The caneiro certainly sucks up the flesh rapidly and painfully, but I am doubtful if it really “tears off pieces of the skin and flesh,” as it is said to do.[432] The piranha, though quite a small fish,[433] is even more ferocious. It will attack anything, and is said to be capable of reducing a large animal to a skeleton in the space of a few minutes. There is a story, repeated elsewhere, that one very small fish is actually a human parasite. The Indians aver that it will enter the body of a man when bathing. Orton mentions this fish, which according to him is “a slender silurid fish (_Vandellia_)” but remarks that he never met “with one confirmatory case.”[434] Neither did I. But I found that all Indians take precautions against it when bathing.