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
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.
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.)