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 Castelnau394 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
Humboldt placed their number at the beginning of the century at about six thousand, which is doubtless more correct than the later estimates. He adds that the Guayquiries, who inhabited the peninsula of Araya and the adjacent islands of Margarita, “admit the relationship of their language with that of the Guaraunos.”418 At the beginning of the last century Gumilla found them living on the south bank of the Orinoco in a most wretched condition and nearly annihilated by their merciless enemies, the Caribs. It is probable, therefore, that they removed from that location to the coast.419 No other dialect of the tongue, so far as I know, has been discovered, and it seems an independent stock.
In appearance they are dark in hue, of muscular build, hair black, abundant and very fine, noses straight and well-shaped, skull brachycephalic, stature below medium.
The Aruaca mentioned by Gilii were some tribes of the Arawaks who occasionally visited the southern bank of the Orinoco, and whose relations to the Maypures were not known to him. They are also mentioned by other authors.
Having thus reviewed the linguistic stocks named by Gilii, I shall proceed to mention some which escaped his attention.
One of the most interesting of these is the Betoi, or Betoya. This tongue derived its name from a tribe dwelling at the foot of the mountains of Bogota, between the rivers Apure and Tame, and are therefore included by some among the Indians of New Granada. From a number of authorities I find the following members are attributed to the
BETOYA LINGUISTIC STOCK
Airicos, on head-waters of the Manacacia, the Ele and Guainia.
Amaguages, near Rio Caqueta.
Anibalis, on Rio Apure. Betois, on and near Rio Casanare, about north latitude 5°.
Correguages, on Rio Yari and head-waters of Caqueta.
Jamas, on Rio Manacacia.
Macaguages, on Rios Caucaya, Mecaya and Sensella.
Piojes, on Rio Putumayo, and on the Napo and Caucaya (Cocayu).
Quilifayes, on Rio Apure.
Situfas, on Rio Casanare.
Tamas, on the Rio Yari and Rio Caguo.
Tunebos, in the Cordillera, adjacent to the Betois.
Of these, the Piojes and Correguages, of which we have vocabularies, do not show close resemblance to the Betoya, yet undoubtedly some;420 so I place them in this stock partly in deference to old authorities.
The Piojes derive their name from the particle of negation in their language, this being their usual reply to all inquiries by traders or travelers. They are divided into two bands, speaking the same dialect, one on the Napo and one on the Putumayo, neither knowing anything of the other. Some of their customs are peculiar. For instance, it is their rule that a widow shall take her son, a widower his daughter, to replace the deceased consort.421 They are somewhat agricultural, and are skillful boatmen.
The Tamas formerly lived on the river Aguarico (Coleti). Dr. Crévaux found them on the Caguo, a branch of the Yapura, and obtained from them a short vocabulary, but enough to mark them as members of the stock.422 There are also some on the Rio Meta who speak Spanish only. (Perez.)
The Betoya has impressed me as showing some distant affinity to the Choco stock, and it may be that ampler resources on both sides would lead to the establishment of an original identity. The following words from the very scanty number which I have for comparison are noteworthy:
The Choco do, river, seems related to the Betoya ocu-du, water.
The Macaguages are industrious and agricultural. Both sexes dress alike in cotton tunics dyed in violet color, and suspend bright feathers and strings of beads in ears, nose and lips.423
A singular question has arisen as to the relationship of the Betoya and the Yarura languages. Their near connection was affirmed by the early missionaries. In fact, the history of the conversion of the Betoyas turns upon the identity of the two tongues. It was brought about in 1701 by a Yarura Indian, a convert to Christianity, who accidentally discovered that he was understood by the Betoyas.
In spite of this detail, it is evident from an inspection of the vocabularies, that there is absolutely no relationship between the two idioms. I can only explain the contradiction as arising from some ambiguity or similarity of names. The two tribes lived together in the time of Gumilla, making up about three thousand souls.424
About the middle of this century some six hundred of the Betoyas dwelt on the head-waters of the river Manacacia.425
In the territory of St. Martin, above the falls of the Guaviare and along the Rio Guejar and the Meta, are several tribes asserted to speak related dialects, but of which I have little information. The principal one is that of the Churoyas, of whom Professor Nicolas Saenz has given an interesting sketch and a short vocabulary.426 They are very ugly, with broad faces, low foreheads, small and oblique eyes, and in color like dried tobacco. Nudity is their usual garb, and the skin is decorated with tattoo marks instead of clothing. According to Perez they number about 1200.427 Following him and other authorities, I may enumerate the following members of the
CHUROYA LINGUISTIC STOCK
Bisaniguas, on the Rio Guejar.
Choroyas, on the Rio Guejar.
Cofanes, on the Rio Aguarico.
Guayues, on the Rio Caqueta.
Macos, on the Rio Aguarico.
Whether the Cofanes here named are those of the Province of Quitu who murdered the Jesuit missionary, Raphael Ferrer, in 1602, I have not discovered. Perez describes them as still warlike and seclusive, living in the terminal hills of the Cordillera, and avoiding traffic with the tribes of the lower river.428
An examination of the vocabulary furnished by Saenz inclines me to think that the Churoya may be a mongrel dialect, or at least has borrowed freely from neighboring stocks. I subjoin the principal words from his short vocabulary, with some comparisons:
The Piaroas are mentioned by Gilii as a branch of the Salivas, but their language reveals no such connection. They are still found on both banks of the Orinoco above the confluence of the Vichada and near the mouth of the Mataveni. They are savage and superstitious, avoiding contact with the whites; they have had good reason to be extremely distrustful of the advances of their civilized neighbors. They are much given to nocturnal ceremonies, and entertain a great respect for the tapir, who is their reputed ancestor, and also the form which is taken by the souls of the departed.429
The Puinavis dwell on the Inirida, an affluent of the Guaviare. A tribe, the Guipunabis, is mentioned by Gilii as belonging to the Maipure (Arawak) stock; but it cannot be the same with the one under consideration, the language of which appears to be without affinities. Latham identified them with the Poignavis of the older writers, and on slight linguistic evidence, believed them connected with the Banivas.430 My own comparisons do not justify this opinion.