Part 17

On the Rio Chambira, adjacent to the Yameos and Omaguas, dwelt in the early part of the last century the _Itucales_ and Varinas or Uarunas, who, according to Coleti, spoke allied dialects. The Itucales were noteworthy as the aptest and most biddable converts obtained by the missionaries on the river. They were agricultural and monogamous.[444] Hervas classes them with the Musimos, the Mayorunas and the Barbudos, under the Urarina language; but the last two are members of the Pano stock.

The _Ticunas_ (Tecunas, Tucunas) are found along the lower Javary and the Solimoes, adjacent to the Pebas. They wander about in a state of nakedness, depending on hunting and fishing, and under a loose control of the Brazilian government. Many of them can converse in Kechua, though their own tongue is of a different group. They are given to dances of a sacred character, in which the actors appear in masks. An operation allied to circumcision is practiced on infants of both sexes at the time of assigning them names.[445] One of the several tribes called “Orejones” is thought by Pöppig to belong to the Ticunas.[446]

The tribes in the valley of the Huallaga were first visited by Franciscan missionaries in 1676. In that year Father Jose de Araujo converted a number of the Hibitos (Xibitos) in the Upper Huallaga, and wrote an _arte_ of their language. He found it the same as that of the Chunchos in the Sierra. Their neighbors further down the river, the Cholones, speaking a different idiom, were brought under the instruction of Father Francisco Gutierrez, who composed a work on their tongue. A century later we find these two nations living together at the mission, counting 4800 souls, and occupying that portion of the province of Cajamarquilla between 7° and 8° 30´ s. lat. They were peaceable and agricultural, with fields of cotton and food plants.[447]

This fair scene disappeared in the turbulent life of the next generation, and when the traveler Pöppig visited the Huallaga in 1834 he found the mission in decay, and the natives, much reduced in numbers, had resumed their wild life and again become savages.[448] At present, along the main stream to the north, are the Cocamillas, the Aguanteas, and the Puinahuas. All these appear to be of the Tupi stock, with dialects akin to the Cocama and Omagua.[449]

_The Panos._ When the missionaries first crossed the Cordillera and explored the upper Ucayali river, they found a number of related tribes, the principal of whom were the Panos. By their traditions they had moved from near the equator at the north. They differed little in culture from their neighbors, and are now nearly extinct. By the earlier writers they were placed in relation to the Omaguas as members of the Tupi stock,[450] but the researches of M. Raoul de la Grasserie have vindicated for them an independent position.[451] They are said to have possessed a form of hieroglyphic writing, which they painted on a sort of paper manufactured from vegetable fibre.

Some of the Mayorunas are reported as having thick beards and white skins (Martius), but these peculiarities are probably attributable to early admixtures with the white race.

The largest of these tribes at present is that of the Conibos, who constitute now the greater part of the natives the traveler encounters on the Ucayali. In appearance they have some resemblance to the Peruvians. The nose is aquiline and prominent, the forehead broad, the eye large, and the cheek bones not prominent. In intelligence they are superior to their neighbors, learning the Spanish language readily, and proving themselves valuable house-servants. They are apathetic, however, and none of the Panos have shown any earnest desire to adopt a civilized life.[452]

The Cashibos are the most savage tribe on the Ucayali or its affluents, and are said to have the ugly custom of eating their relations when they die, and if this event is long delayed, the old men are killed. But such is the power of ideas, that one of the obstacles to their conversion is that they so much prefer their bodies to become food for their relatives than a feast for worms![453]

The Pacaguaras or Pacavaras, on the rivers Beni and Mamore, classed by D’Orbigny as a separate stock, belong among the Panos, as is clearly seen by the vocabulary furnished by that traveler, and later that by Mr. Heath.[454] The easternmost branch of the stock (not noted by M. de la Grasserie), are the Canawarys (Canamarys), who live on the banks of the Purus. Mr. Chandless heard that they were related to the Conibos, and the few words he obtained of their language prove the statement correct.[455]

PANO. PACAGUARA. CANAWARY. Sun, _bari_, _uari_, _wari_. Fire, _chi_, _chi-i_, _chi-i_. Water, _uaca_, _waka_.

Mr. Chandless also says, “The Conibos are of the same tribe as the Manitenerys of the river Purus,” which would bring these latter also into the Pano stock. The short vocabulary of their language which he supplies does not bear out this assertion. Mr. Richard Spruce considered that it proved them to be of the Carib stock;[456] but to me it seems unmistakably a member of the Arawak family, as will be seen from the following analysis:

MANITENERY. ARAWAK STOCK. Sun, _cashi_, _catche_. Moon, _siri_, _casiri_. Fire, _chi-chi_, _chichi_. Water, _huni_, _uni_.

From the above considerations I offer the following names as comprising the

PANO LINGUISTIC STOCK.

_Barbudos_, on the Marañon. _Callisecas_, on upper Ucayali.[457] _Canawarys_, on Rio Purus. _Caripunas_, near cataracts of Rio Madeira. _Cashibos_, on Rio Pachitea and Aguaitia. _Chamicuros_, on west bank of the Rio Huallaga.[458] _Cochivuinas_, a sub-tribe of Mayorunas. _Conibos_, on upper Ucayali. _Culinos_, on Rio Juvary. _Jaunavos_, see _Caripunas_. _Mayorunas_, on Rio Tapichi and Rio Yavari. _Maxorunas_, near Rio Tapichi. _Panos_, on upper Ucayali. _Pacaguaras_, on Rio Beni. _Remos_, on Ucayali, from Abayan to Chanchaguaya. _Sencis_, right bank of Ucayali above Saraycu. _Setibos_ (_Setevos_), on upper Ucayali.[459] _Sipibos_, on upper Ucayali.

Mr. Chandless[460] met on the rivers Purus and Jurua tribes of a stock whose tongue I have not been able to connect with any other. They are represented on the former stream by the Pammanas or Pammarys (_pama-ouiri_, eaters of the _pama_, a kind of berry), or Puru-purus (_piru-poru_, name of a skin disease which prevails there), whose name has been transferred to the river. These are believed by Martius to be the same or allied to the Pamas, a tribe who formerly lived on the Madeira, but were driven thence by the Caripunas.[461] On the Jurua are the apparently related _Arauas_ and Araicus. All these depend on hunting and fishing, and are of migratory habits. Some of the Pammanas are reported as light in hue, with blue eyes and brown hair.[462]

Many tribes with names differing from the above are recorded by the older writers as resident on these rivers, but owing to the absence of linguistic material, no identification is possible.

The close relationship of the Pammarys of the Purus and the Arauas of the Jurua is shown by the following comparison:

PAMMARY. ARAUA. Moon, _massicu_, _massicu_. Fire, _si ju_, _sihu_. Water, _paha_, _paha_. Dog, _djuimahi_, _jumayhi_.

So far as known, I would place the following tribes in the

ARAUA LINGUISTIC STOCK.

_Arauas_ (_Araó_), on the lower Jurua. _Pamas_, formerly on the Madeira. _Pammarys_, on the Rio Purus. _Puru-purus_, on the Rio Purus.

The jargon of the Yaguas, on the Amazon between Nauta and Pebas, seems to have borrowed from this stock; as:

YAGUA. PAMMARY. Sun, _ini_, _saf-iny_. Water, _haha_, _paha_.

The neighbors of the Arauas on the river Purus are the _Hypurinas_ (better Jupurinas) of whose language Mr. Chandless also supplies a short vocabulary. It contains a few words in common with the Pammary, but probably only borrowed by both from the Arawak. The following will illustrate the two tongues:

PAMMARY. JUPURINA. Sun, _safiny_, _atocanti_. Moon, _massicu_, _cassiri_. Fire, _siju_, _chamina_. Water, _paha_, _iborahai_. River, _wainy_, _weni_. Dog, _djuimahi_, _anguity_. Tortoise, _ú-jurú_, _chetuyu_. Tapir, _dama_, _chama_.

The Hypurinas on the Rio Acre (or Aquiri) belong to the same tribe. They are said to be related to the Chacobos and the Piros of the Ucayali. They are without civilization. The women go naked, but the men wear long purple robes, and both sexes pierce the lips and nose. Some agriculture is carried on, but hunting and fishing are the main sources of the food supply.[463]

The total number of natives on the Purus and its affluents was estimated by Colonel Labré, in 1885, at 40,000, “speaking forty or more different languages;” but this last assertion we may take with large allowance. Probably not over four or five stocks are represented. The same explorer names nine tribes visited by him on the river Ituxy. They are the: 1, Caccharari; 2, Canamary; 3, Catauxi; 4, Guarayo; 5, Huatanary; 6, Hypurina; 7, Hyuma; 8, Pamana; and 9, Pammary tribes.[464]

In this list, as elsewhere, the term _Guarayos_ has no ethnic significance. It is a Tupi word applied in this Spanish form to various wild, uncivilized tribes.

_9. The Bolivian Highlands: the Chiquitos, Yurucares, Mosetenas, Tacanas, Samucus, Canichanas and others._

On the Atlantic face of the Cordillera, in the easternmost portion of Bolivia, where the head-waters of the Madeira are known by the names of the Mamore, the Guapai and the Beni, there is an astonishing variety of linguistic stocks. It would seem that the broken remnants of many diverse nations had sought refuge in the deep vales and dense forests of this region.

We have already seen that the Caribs were represented here by the Palmellas, and the Arawaks by the Moxos and Baures. South of the Moxos was the extensive region of the _Chiquitos_, stretching between south latitude 16° and 18°, and from the upper affluents of the Paraguay river to the summit of the Cordillera. On the south it adjoined the Gran Chaco, and on the west the territory of the Kechuas. They were a medium-sized, mild-mannered people, mostly of little culture, depending on the chase for food, but willingly adopting the agricultural life recommended to them by the missionaries. They were divided into a vast number of small roving bands, the most important group of which were the Manacicas, whose homes were near Lake Xaray, about the head-waters of the Paraguay. Their myths relating to a male and female deity and their son reminded the Jesuits of the Christian Trinity.[465] The Manacicas were agriculturists and remarkably skilful potters. The villages they constructed were surrounded with palisades and divided by broad streets. The corpses of the dead were deposited in underground vaults, and both property and rank passed in the male line to the sons of the deceased.

The Chiquito language is interesting for its scope and flexibility, being chiefly made up of generic particles capable of indefinite combination.[466] It is singular in having no numerals, not even as far as three. Its four principal dialects were those of the Taos, the Piñocos, the Manacicas and the Penoquies.[467] It was selected by the missionaries as the medium of instruction for a number of the neighboring tribes.

Of such tribes there were many, widely different in speech, manners and appearance from the Chiquitos. Some of them are particularly noteworthy for their un-Indian type. Thus, to the west of the Chiquitos, on the banks of the rivers Mamore and Chavari, were the Yurucares, the Tacanas and the Mosetenas, all neighbors, and though not of one tongue, yet alike in possessing a singularly white skin and fine features. Their color is as light and as really white as many southern Europeans, the face is oval, the nose straight, fine, and often aquiline, the lips thin, the cheek-bones not prominent, the eyes small, dark and horizontal, the expression free and noble. They are of pure blood, and the most important tribe of them derived their name, _Yurucares_, white men, from their Kechua neighbors before the conquest. They are usually uncommonly tall (1.75), bold warriors, lovers of freedom and given to a hunting life. The women are often even taller and handsomer than the men.

The traveler D’Orbigny suggested that this light color arose from their residence under the shade of dense forests in a hot and humid atmosphere. He observed that many of them had large patches of albinism on their persons.[468]

The branches of these stocks may be classed as follows:

YURUCARI LINGUISTIC STOCK.

_Conis_. _Cuchis_. _Enetés_. _Mages_. _Mansiños_. _Oromos_. _Solostos_.

MOSETENA LINGUISTIC STOCK.

_Chimanis_. _Magdalenos_. _Maniquies_. _Muchanis_. _Tucupis_.

The Toromonas occupy the tract between the Madre de Dios and the Madidi, from 12° to 13° south latitude. According to D’Orbigny they are, together with the Atenes, Cavinas, Tumupasas and Isuiamas, members of one stock, speaking dialects of the _Tacana_ language. He was unable to procure a vocabulary of it, and only learned that it was exceedingly guttural and harsh.[469] From their position and their Kechua name (_tuyu_), low or swamp land, I am inclined to identify the Toromonas with the Tuyumiris or Pukapakaris, who are stated formerly to have dwelt on the Madre de Dios and east of the Rio Urubamba, and to have been driven thence by the Sirineris (Tschudi).

According to recent authorities the Cavinas speak the same tongue as the Araunas on the Madre de Dios, which are separated from the Pacaguaras by the small river Genichiquia;[470] and as the language of the Toromonas is called in the earlier accounts of the missions _Macarani_, I may make out the following list of the members of the

TACANA LINGUISTIC STOCK.

_Araunas_. _Atenes_. _Cavinas_. _Equaris_. _Isuiamas_. _Lecos_. _Macaranis_. _Maropas_. _Pukapakaris_. _Sapiboconas_. _Tacanas_. _Toromonas_. _Tumupasas_. _Tuyumiris_.

The Araunas are savage, and according to Heath “cannibals beyond a doubt.” He describes them as “gaunt, ugly, and ill formed,” wearing the hair long and going naked.[471] Colonel Labré, however, who visited several of their villages in 1885, found them sedentary and agricultural, with temples and idols, the latter being geometrical figures of polished wood and stone. Women were considered impure, were not allowed to know even the names of the gods, and were excluded from religious rites.[472] The Cavinas, on the other hand, are described by early writers as constructing houses of stone.[473] The Maropas, on the east side of the river Beni near the little town of Reyes, speak a dialect of Tacana as close to it as Portuguese to Spanish. They are erroneously classed as a distinct nation by D’Orbigny, who obtained only a few words of their tongue. The Sapiboconas, who lived at the Moxos Mission, and of whose dialect Hervas supplies a vocabulary, are also a near branch of the stock. We now have sufficient material to bring these tribes into relation. With them I locate the Lecos, the tribe who occupied the mission of Aten, and are therefore called also Atenianos.[474] At present some civilized Lecos live at the mission of Guanay, between the Beni and Titicaca; but we have nothing of their language.[475]

The Tacana dialects present a number of verbal analogies to Kechua and Aymara; so many in fact that they testify to long inter-communion between the stocks, though I think not to a radical identity. I present a few:

TACANA. KECHUA. Man, _reanci_, _runa_. Water, _jene_, _una_. Hand, _ma_, _maqui_. Foot, _quatri_, _chaqui_. House, _etai_, _uta_ (Aymara). Stone, _tumu_, _rumi_. Star, _emata_, _matti_. Lightning, _ilapa_, _illapa_. Year, _mara_, _mara_. Three, _quimisha_, _quimsa_. Four, _puschi_, _pusi_ (Aymara). Five, _pischica_, _pichka_.

The numerals above “two” have clearly been borrowed from the Kechua-Aymara.

There are also a large number of verbal coincidences between the Tacana and the Pano groups, but not enough to allow us to suppose an original unity.

The _Samucus_ (Zamucas) embraced a number of sub-tribes dwelling on the northern border of the Chaco, between 18° and 20° south latitude, and about the river Oxuquis. They did not resemble the Chaco stocks, as they were not vagrant hunters, but dwelt in fixed villages, and pursued an agricultural life.[476] Their language was singularly sweet in sound, and was called by D’Orbigny “the Italian of the forest.” They included the following members:

SAMUCU LINGUISTIC STOCK.

_Careras_. _Cayporotades_. _Coroinos_. _Cuculados_. _Guaranocas_. _Ibirayas_. _Morotocos_. _Potureros_. _Satienos_. _Tapios_. _Ugaronos_.

Among these the Morotocos are said to have offered the rare spectacle of a primitive gynocracy. The women ruled the tribe, and obliged the men to perform the drudgery of house-work. The latter were by no means weaklings, but tall and robust, and daring tiger-hunters. The married women refused to have more than two children, and did others come they were strangled.

On the river Mamore, between 13° and 14° of south latitude, were the numerous villages of the _Canichanas_ or Canisianas. They were unusually dark in complexion and ugly of features; nor did this unprepossessing exterior belie their habits or temperament. They were morose, quarrelsome, tricky and brutal cannibals, preferring theft to agriculture, and prone to drunkenness; but ingenious and not deficient in warlike arts, constructing strong fortifications around their villages, from which they would sally forth to harass and plunder their peaceable neighbors. By a singular anomaly, this unpromising tribe became willing converts to the teachings of the Jesuits, and of their own accord gathered into large villages in order to secure the presence of a missionary.[477] Their language has no known affinities. It is musical, with strong consonantal sounds, and like some of the northern tongues, makes a distinction between animate and inanimate objects, or those so considered.[478]

Between 13° and 14° of south latitude, on the west bank of the Rio Mamore, were the _Cayubabas_ or Cayuvavas, speaking a language without known affinities, though containing words from a number of contiguous tongues.[479] The men are tall and robust, with regular features and a pleasant expression. The missionaries found no difficulty in bringing them into the fold, but they obstinately retained some of their curious ancient superstitions, as, for instance, that a man should do no kind of work while his wife had her monthly illness; and should she die, he would undertake no enterprise of importance so long as he remained a widower.[480]

Brief notices will suffice of the various other tribes, many of them now extinct, who centered around the missions of the Chiquitos and Moxos early in this century.

The _Apolistas_ took their name from the river Apolo, an affluent of the Beni, about south latitude 15°. They were contiguous to the Aymaras, and had some physical resemblance to them. From their position, I suspect they belong in the Tacana group.

The _Chapacuras_, or more properly Tapacuras, were on the Rio Blanco or Baures in the province of Moxos. They called themselves _Huachis_, and the Quitemocas are mentioned as one of their sub-tribes. Von Martius thinks they were connected with the Guaches of Paraguay, a mixed tribe allied to the Guaycuru stock of the Chaco. The resemblance is very slight.

The _Covarecas_ were a small band at the mission of Santa Anna, about south latitude 17°. Their language was practically extinct in 1831.

The _Curaves_ and the _Curuminacas_, the former on the Rio Tucubaca and the latter north of them near the Brazil line, were said to have independent languages; but both were extinct at the time of D’Orbigny’s visit in 1831. The same was true of the _Corabecas_ and _Curucanecas_.

The _Ites_ or Itenes were upon the river Iten, an affluent of the Mamore about 12° south latitude. They were sometimes improperly called Guarayos, a term which, like Guaycurus, Aucas, Yumbos and others, was frequently applied in a generic sense by the Spanish Americans to any native tribe who continued to live in a savage condition.

The _Movimas_ (Mobimas) occupied the shores of the Rio Yacuma, and Rio Mamore about 14° south latitude. In character and appearance they were similar to the Moxos, but of finer physique, “seldom ever under six feet,” says Mr. Heath. They are now civilized, and very cleanly in their habits. The vocabularies of their language show but faint resemblances with any other.

The _Otuquis_, who in 1831 did not number over 150 persons, lived in the northeast part of the province of Chiquitos near the Brazilian line. Their language was nearly extinct at that time. The short vocabulary of it preserved by D’Orbigny does not disclose connections with other stocks, unless it be a distant affinity with the Tacana group. This may be illustrated by the following words:

OTUQUI. TACANA DIALECTS. Man, _vuani_, _reanci_. Woman, _vuaneti_, _anu_. Sun, _neri_, _ireti_. Moon, _ari_, _bari_. Water, _uru_, _yuvi_. Head, _ikitao_, _ekuya_.

It was the policy of the Jesuits in their missions in this district to gather the tribes from the forest and mountain into permanent settlements, and reduce as far as possible the number of languages and dialects, so as to facilitate instruction in religious teaching. Shortly after this Order was expelled from their missions (1767), an official report on their “reductions” was printed in Peru, giving a list of the tribes at each station, and the languages in use for instruction.[481] From this scarce work I extract a few interesting particulars.

The province of Apolobamba is described as extending about eighty leagues northeast-southwest, east of the Cordillera, and west of the Rio Beni. The languages adopted in it were the Leca, spoken by the Lecos Indians at the mission of Aten, and the Maracani, at the mission of Tumupasa, on the Rio Beni. Forty-nine nations are named as belonging to the mission of the Chiquitos, each of whom is stated to have spoken a different language or dialect, though all were instructed in their religious duties in Chiquito. At the mission of Moxos twenty-nine tribes are named as in attendance, but it had not been found possible, such was the difference of their speech, to manage with less than nine languages, to wit, the Moxa, the Baure, the Mure, the Mobima, the Ocorona, the Cayubaba, the Itonama and the Maracani.[482]