Adahi, _gasing_
Salish, _asintzah_
Ottawa, _sayin_=_elder_
Ojibbeway, _osy aiema_
_English_, head
Adahi, _tochake_
Caddo, _dachunkea_=_face_
" _dokundsa_
_English_, hair
Adahai, _calatuck_
Chippewyan, _thiegah_
Kenway, _szugo_
Miami, _keelingeh_=_face_
_English_, face
Adahi, _annack_
Chetimacha, _kaneketa_
Attacapa, _iune_
Eskimo, _keniak_
_English_, ear
Adahi, _calat_
Cherokee, _gule_
Passamaquoddy, _chalksee_
_English_, nose
Adahi, _wecoocat_
Montaug, _cochoy_
Micmac, _uchichun_
_English_, beard
Adahi, _tosocat_
Attacapa, _taesh_=_hair_
Natchez, _ptsasong_=_hair_
Chetimacha, _chattie_
_English_, arm
Adahi, _walcat_
Taculli, _olâ_
Chippewyan, _law_
_English_, nails
Adahi, _sicksapasca_
Catawba, _ecksapeeah_=_hand_
Natchez, _ispeshe_=_hand_
_English_, belly
Adahi, _noeyack_
Winebago, _neehahhah_
Eskimo, _neiyuk_
_English_, leg
Adahi, _ahasuck_=_leg_
Chetimacha, _sauknuthe_=_feet_
" _saukatie_=_toes_
" _sau_=_leg_
Osage, _sagaugh_
Yancton, _hoo_
Otto, _hoo_
Pawnee, _ashoo_=_foot_
Sioux, _see, seehah_=_do._
Nottoway, _saseeke_=_do._
Dacota, _seehukasa_=_toes_
Nottoway, _seeke_=_do._
_English_, mouth
Adahi, _wacatcholak_
Chetimacha, _cha_
Attacapa, _katt_
Caddo, _dunehwatcha_
Natchez, _heche_
Mohawk, _wachsacurlunt_
Seneca, _wachsagaint_
Sack and Fox, _wektoneh_
Mohican, _otoun_
_English_, tongue
Adahi, _tenanat_
Chetimacha, _huene_
Uché, _cootincah_
Choctah, _issoonlush_
Ojibbeway, _otainani_
Ottawa, _tenanian_
_English_, hand
Adahi, _secut_
" _sicksapasca_=_nails_
Choctah, _shukba_=_his arm_
Chikkasaw, _shukbah_=_do._
Muskoge, _sakpa_=_do._
Kenay, _skona_
Attacapa, _nishagg_=_fingers_
Omahaw, _shagai_
Osage, _shagah_
Mohawk, _shake_
Yancton, _shakai_=_nails_
Otto, _shagai=do._
_English_, blood
Adahi, _pchack_
Caddo, _baaho_
Passamaquoddy, _pocagun_
Abenaki, _bagakkaan_
Mohican, _pocaghkan_
Nanticoke, _puckeuckque_
Miami, _nihpeekanueh_
_English_, red
Adahi, _pechasat_
Natchez, _pahkop_
_English_, feet
Adahi, _nocat_
Micmac, _ukkuat_
Miami, _katah_
Taculli, _oca_
Chippewyan, _cuh_
Ilinois, _nickahta_=_leg_
Delaware, _wikhaat_=_do._
Massachusetts, _muhkout_=_do._
Ojibbeway, _okat_=_do._
_English_, bone
Adahi, _wahacut_
Otto, _wahoo_
Yancton, _hoo_
Dacota, _hoohoo_
Ojibbeway, _okun_
Miami, _kaanih_
Eskimo, _heownik_
" oaeeyak
_English_, house
Adahi, _coochut_
Natchez, _hahit_
Muskoge, _chookgaw_
Choctah, _chukka_
Catawba, _sook_
Taculli, _yock_
_English_, bread
Adahi, _okhapin_
Chetimacha, _heichepat chepa_
_English_, sky
Adahi, _ganick_
Seneca, _kiunyage_
_English_, summer
Adahi, _weetsuck_
Uché, _waitee_
_English_, fire
Adahi, _nang_
Caddo, _nako_
Eskimo, _ignuck_
" _eknok_
" annak
_English_, mountain
Adahi, tolola
Taculli, chell
_English_, stone, rock
Adahi, _ekseka_
Caddo, _seeeeko_
Natchez, _ohk_
_English_, maize
Adahi, _ocasuck_
Natchez, _hokko_
_English_, day
Adahi, _nestach_
Muskoge, _nittah_
Chikkasaw, _nittuck_
Choctah, _nittok_
_English_, autumn
Adahi, _hustalneetsuck_
Choctah, _hushtolape_
Chikkasaw, _hustillomona_
" _hustola_=_winter_
_English_, bird
Adahi, _washang_
Choctah, _hushe_
Sack and Fox, _wishkamon_
Shawnoe, _wiskiluthi_
_English_, goose
Adahi, _nickkuicka_
Chetimacha, _napiche_
Ilinois, _nicak_
Ojibbeway, _nickak_
Delaware, _kaak_
Shawnoe, _neeake_
_English_, duck
Adahi, _ahuck_
Eskimo, _ewuck_
_English_, fish
Adahi, _aesut_
Cherokee, _atsatih_
_English_, tree
Adahi, _tanaek_
Dacota, _tschang_
Ilinois, _toauane_
Miami, _tauaneh_=_wood_
_English_, grass
Adahi, _hasack_
Chikkasaw, _hasook_
Choctah, _hushehuck_
Uché, _yahsuh_=_leaf_
Chikkasaw, _hishe_=_do._
_English_, deer
Adahi, _wakhine_
Uché, _wayung_
_English_, squirrel
Adahi, _enack_
Sack and Fox, _aneekwah_
Nanticoke, _nowckkey_
Abenaki, _anikesses_
Knistenaux, _annickochas_
_English_, old
Adahi, _hansnaie_
Caddo, _hunaisteteh_
Nottoway, _onahahe_
_English_, good
Adahi, _awiste_
Dacota, _haywashta_
Yancton, _washtai_
_English_, I
Adahi, _nassicon_
Cherokee, _naski_
_English_, kill
Adahi, _yoeick_
Caddo, _yokay_
Catawba, _eekway_
_English_, two
Adahi, _nass_
Algonkin, &c., _nis, ness, nees_
Now the Adahi is so far from being a singular instance of an
American language having miscellaneous affinities that there are not
half-a-dozen vocabularies for either North or South America for which I
have not similar lists.[138]
Such is the imperfect sketch of my reasons for believing that any
statement which places the glossarial differences between the
American languages, as ascertained by the simple inspection of
their vocabularies, so high as to involve the idea of a unique and
unparalleled philological phænomenon is an _over_-statement.
In thus limiting the extent of a remarkable characteristic I am not
denying its existence. That the difference, even when cut down to
its proper dimensions, is still more considerable than the usual
investigations of philologists prepare them to expect, is shown by
the necessity (which I freely admit) of resorting in America to the
indirect method of comparison, where in many (perhaps most) other parts
of the world, simple collation would suffice.
Why is this? The following facts help us to an answer--fragmentary and
partial though it be.
_The paucity of general terms._--What shall we say to a language where
a term sufficiently _general_ to denote an oak-tree is exceptional;
a language where the _white-oak_ has one _specific_ name, the
_black-oak_ another, the _red-oak_ a third, and so? Yet such is the
ease with the Choctah;[139] where, _a fortiori_, the still more
_general_ name for _tree_ is more exceptional still. This is the case
with a noun.
Verbs, however, are equally _specialized_. Where we in England talk of
_fishing_, the Eskimo has a distinct name for every _mode of fishing_;
and this is only part and parcel of the system which "designates with
a peculiar name animals _of the same species_ according to their age,
sex, or form."
This is a character, which, though illustrated from two languages, is
common to all the American ones.
Now the more specific the name the less extensive its application,
and the less extensive its application the smaller the probability
of its appearing in more languages than one. No one would expect
the word _brother_ to occur in the Gaelic (_brathair_), and in the
Latin (_frater_), if Gaels, Englishmen, and Romans, without any name
for brother in general, had merely known an _elder brother_ by one
separate single name, and a _younger one_ by another, as is really the
fact in America. What we should look for in such a case would be the
equivalents to words like _cadet_, and these might differ in languages
otherwise allied.
Names, then, for common objects are often of so specific a kind in the
American languages, that they differ in cases where, if more general,
they would agree.
_The numerals._--Another class of words, which in many languages
agree, differs in the American, viz., that of the numerals. In the
Indo-European tongues these agree even where other words differ.[140]
The converse, however, takes place with the tongues in question.
Languages, alike in other points, shall count differently. Can this be
explained? I submit the following doctrine, based upon the difference
between absolute numerals like _two_ and _three_ (words which mean two
units, and three units exclusively and irrespectively), and concrete
numerals like _brace_ and _leash_.
Between these two classes of words there is the following difference.
Absolute numerals give no choice, concrete numerals do. Out of two
tribes, wherein the intelligence of each is so little capable of
generalization as not to have evolved abstract and absolute numerals
like those of the Indo-European nations (_one_, _two_, &c.), the only
way of counting is by the adoption of some material object in which the
_number_ of its parts is a striking characteristic; in which case there
is so much room for arbitrary selection that allied languages may take
up different words. It is not to be supposed that unless the English,
Greeks, Gaels, Slavonians, and the members of the Indo-European stock
in general, had broken off from the common stem at a period subsequent
to the evolution of absolute numerals that their names for the first
ten units would be so like as they are. On the contrary, there would
most certainly have been a difference; _two_ being expressed in one
quarter by a word like _brace_, in another by such a term as _couple_,
in a third by _pair_, and so on. Now this latitude exists and bears
fruit with the American languages. One takes the name for (say) _two_
from one natural dualism, another from another--one calls it by the
name for _a pair of hands_, another by that of _a pair of feet_, a
third by that of _a pair of shoes_, &c.
Names, then, for numerals in the American languages differ as much as
the natural objects from which they may be derived, the separation from
the parent-stock of the tongues in which they occur having taken place
before the evolution of fixed absolute and abstract terms.
_The verb-substantive._--In the Indo-European languages the
verb-substantive agrees even where other words differ; the English
_be_ is the Latin _fu-_; the German _ist_ is the Greek ἐστ-ι; the
English _am_ is the Latin _sum_, and the Greek εἰμι. This induces us,
in languages where there is no such agreement, to argue in favour of a
fundamental dissimilarity. And naturally. Tongues as far apart as the
English and Sanskrit _agree_, where tongues as close to each other as
the Adahi and Chetimacha _differ_. But to expect likeness on this point
simply because we find it in Europe and Asia, is to make bricks without
straw. In most of the American languages, an idea so abstract as that
conveyed by the verb-substantive has yet to be evolved; in other
words, there is no verb-substantive at all in the generality of them:
according to some writers, it is wanting in all.
Such are some of the facts and suggestions which help to account for
the glossarial difference between the American languages, a phænomenon
which, even though occasionally overstated, is still a reality to a
certain degree. I am fully aware that, at the first view, they seem to
prove too much; _i.e._ they seem, by accounting for the differences, to
admit them; just as, in common life, the person who excuses himself for
an imputed action, admits the truth of the imputation. How far this is
the true view will be seen after the notice of some of the antagonistic
phænomena of agreement in the way of grammatical structure.
_Negative points of agreement._--_Case-endings_, properly so called,
are either rare or wanting throughout the American tongues. Possession
is expressed by the pronouns; just as if we said, _father his_, or
_pater suus_ instead of _patri-s, ather-'s_. In like manner the
pronoun expresses the objective relation; _I strike him horse_=_ferio
equu-m_.
_Signs of number_, properly so called, are wanting. The general
American equivalent for such a form as the _-s_ in _patre-s_, or
_father-s_, is a word signifying _number_, as _father many_=_father-s_.
_Signs of gender_, properly so called, are wanting. This, however, is
no more than what occurs in the English adjective.
_Signs of the degrees of comparison_ are wanting. This, however, is no
more than what occurs in the French adjective.
Notwithstanding, however, this list of negations--a list capable of
being considerably increased--the American grammar is complex; a fact
which brings us to the positive characteristics of the language in
question. These, also, are very general.
_a._ _The distinction between animate and inanimate objects._--The
plural of the name of such an object as _a star_ is of one form;
the plural of the name of such an object as _a sheep_, another. In
some languages this distinction extends farther, and applies to the
_rational_ and _irrational_ divisions of the _animate_ class.
_b._ _The incorporation of the possessive pronoun._--Certain words like
_hand_, _father_, _son_, express, all the world over, objects which are
rarely mentioned except in relation to some other object to which they
belong--_a hand_, for instance, is _mine_, _thine_, _his_, and so is _a
father_, _a son_, _a wife_, &c. In other words there is almost always
a pronoun[141] attached to them. Now in the American languages this is
almost always incorporated with the substantive; so that an American
can only talk of _my father_, _thy father_, &c., being incapable of
using the substantive in a sense sufficiently abstract to dispense with
the pronoun.
_c_. The incorporation of the objective pronoun with the verb. The
Latin word _a-ma-nt_ contains, beside the part which represents the
action, a second element representing the _agent_. An American verb
would, besides this, contain an element representing the _object_, so
that what the Latin expressed by _amant illas_ (two words) would be
denoted in most Indian tongues by a single form. Now when we remember
that the name of the object is thus reduced to an inflection, and also
that the pronoun expressive of it, varies with the sex, we see how
American tongues may be both copious in the way of grammar and complex
as well. And such, notwithstanding many facts to the contrary, is
really the case.
_Inclusive and exclusive plurals._--A word like _we_ in English, is
a much more abstract word than it appears to be at first sight. What
should we say if instead thereof we only said _I+thou_, or _I+they_?
What if _both_ these expressions were used? In such a case we should
have two plurals one _exclusive_ of the person spoken to (_I+they_),
and one _inclusive_ of him (_I+thou_). Now the phænomenon of the
_exclusive_ and _inclusive_ plural is very general throughout the
aboriginal languages of America.
Such are the chief points wherein languages differ in respect to their
lexicons, and agree in respect to their grammars.[142]
* * * * *
The Californias, New Mexico, and the provinces of Sonora, Sinaloa,
Chihuahua, Cohuahuila, Durango, Zacatecas, and the northern part
of the Anahuac, will now conduct us to the centre of the Aztek
civilization--or semi-civilization of the city of Montezuma. And here
the enumeration of the divisions and sub-divisions of the population
must be almost exclusively geographical, _i.e._ we must take the
tribes as they come in their order on the map, and not in the order
wherein they are related to each other. The reason of this lies in the
unsatisfactory character of our knowledge. Preeminently scanty, it
is unsystematic as well. What follows then is but little better than
an undigested list of references, more than one of which may refer
to the same tribes under different names, and more than one of which
may be incorrect. Still it is a contribution towards a monograph,
the necessity of which gives it place in a systematic work, which it
would not have otherwise; and lest the value of such a monograph, if
properly drawn up, be undervalued, the reader is reminded that most of
the elements of our criticism in regard to the civilizational phænomena
presented by Mexico, Guatimala and Yucatan, depend upon the facts known
concerning the Californias and the parts to the south of them.
_New California._--_For the parts between the mouths of the rivers
Clamet (or Lutuami) and Sacramiento_.--Physical geography gives us for
these parts three divisions: _a_, the coast and western boundary of the
valley of the Sacramiento; _b_, the valley of the Sacramiento itself;
_c_, the eastern watershed of the Sacramiento.
_a._ For the coast we have a notice as to the miserable condition of
the natives about Trinity Bay in N. L. 41° with the special statement
that they file their teeth. Probably they constitute an extension of
the Southern Tototunes. On the other hand, the later writers have
remarked, that the boundary between the Oregon and California is not
only a political but an ethnological one as well; in other words, that
the physical appearance of the Indians changes as soon as the frontier
is passed. Except so far as there is a difference in the physical
geography, this coincidence is unlikely.
_b._ In respect, however, to the valley of the Sacramiento, such a
difference exists. The Desert of California, like that of the Sahara,
has its _oases_, and these are the valleys of its rivers. However
narrow these may be, the conditions of physical and social development
which they afford, are always improvements upon those of the desert
table-land. Here our only data are Mr. Dana's, which consist of--
1. A vocabulary of the occupants of the river about 250 miles from its
mouth, and 60 miles south of the Shasti, whom they resemble, being
a mirthful race, with no arms but bows and arrows, and with little
intercourse with foreigners.
2, 3, 4. Four vocabularies from the occupants of the river, about
100 miles to its mouth, _i.e._ of the Puzhune, Sekumne, and Tsamak
dialects. Allied to these and like them occupants of the western bank,
are the _Yasumnes_, the Nemshaw, the Kisky, the Yale_sumnes_, the Yuk,
and the Yukal.
5. A Talatui vocabulary. Captain Suter, a settler in these parts,
informed Mr. Dana, that the Talatui and the Indians just named,
resembled each other in every thing but language, and that the
Talatui was spoken by the following bands:--The Ochek_amnes_, the
Seroush_umnes_, the Chup_umnes_, the Omutch_umnes_, the Sec_umnes_(?),
the Walag_umnes_, the Cos_umnes_, the Solol_umnes_, the Tureal_emnes_,
the Sayway_menes_, the Nevich_umnes_, the Match_emnes_, the
Sagayay_umnes_, the Muthel_emnes_, and the Lopotal_emnes_. Probably the
Chochouyem tribe of the Mithridates belongs to this quarter. Probably,
also, the Youkiousme of Mofras(?)
6. A notice of Major Sand's, in Gallatin,[143] carries us over the
eastern watershed of the Sacramiento to one of the streams of the
great Californian Desert, which have no outlet to the ocean, called
Salmon-trout River. Here the chief sustenance is of a lower order
than that of tribes on the Sacramiento. With the latter it is nearly
exclusively acorns made into a not unpalatable bread; with the former
grass-hoppers or locusts dried and pounded, mixed with the meal of
grass-seeds, and baked.
_Parts about San Francisco._--_a_. A Youkiousme(?) Paternoster of
Mofras, seems to belong to the same division with--
_b._ A vocabulary of the language of San Rafael in the United States'
Exploring Expedition. If so, and if also the position of the Youkiousme
just suggested be correct, further information will bring the languages
enumerated by Dana, to the neighbourhood of San Francisco; for which
parts we also find in Mofras--
_c._ A _Tularena_ Paternoster.
_d._ A notice of a MS. _Tularena_ grammar by Arroyo.
_e._ _f._ The Santa Inez, and Santa Barbara, Paternosters of Mofras.
_g._ _h._ The Severnow and Bodega vocabularies (apparently representing
mutually unintelligible languages) of Baer's Beiträge.
Lastly, in the Mithridates[144] we find enumerated, as inhabitants
of these parts, the Matalan, the Salsen, and the Quirotes, followed
by the statement of Lasuen, that between San Francisco and San Diego
_seventeen_ languages are spoken, which cannot be considered as
dialects of a few mother-tongues. On the other hand, however, in
respect to the three sections just mentioned, Humboldt expressly states
that, whilst they are separated as peoples (Völkerschaften), their
speech is from a single source.
_Parts about Monterey._--The vocabularies of the Mithridates, taken
from the Voyage of the Sutil and Mexicana of--
_a._ The Eslen or Ecclemachs.
_b._ The Rumsen--East of the Eslen. To which add a notice of--
_c._ The Achastlier probably a section of the Rumsen, or _vice versâ_.
_Parts about N.L. 35°._--Vocabularies of the American Exploring
Expedition for--
_a._ La Soledad.
_b._ San Miguel, about fifty miles south-east of La Soledad.
_c._ The San Antonio of Dr. Coulter. Published in the paper of Dr.
Scouler's, already quoted.
_d._ The San Luis Obispo.--_Ditto._
_e._ The Santa Clara of the Mithridates.
_For the parts between N.L. 35° and N.L. 32-1/2°._--Here, as hitherto,
our knowledge is limited to the tribes on the coast.
_a._ The Santa Barbara, of Dr. Coulter.--Journal of Geographical
Society.
_b._ _c._ The San Juan Capistrano, the same as the Netela of the United
States' Exploring Expedition.
_d._ The San Gabriel of Dr. Coulter, the same as the Kij of the United
States' Exploring Expedition.
_e._ The San Diego of Dr. Coulter.
The SS. Gabriel and Juan Capistrano, are more closely allied than any
other two of Dr. Coulter's. Besides which there seems to be between
them, a regular letter-change of the _l_ and _r_. In San Juan
Capistrano, whilst but one word ends in _r_, _maharr=five_, several
end in _l_; as _shul=star_, _ul=arrow_, _nol=chief_, _amaigomal=boy_,
_shungal=woman_; whereas, the San Gabriel has no terminations in _l_,
but many in _r_, as _touarr=arrow_, _tomearr=chief_, _tokor=woman_, &c.
ENGLISH. SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO. SAN GABRIEL.
_Moon._ mioil. muarr.
_Water._ pal. paara.
_Earth._ ekhel. ungkhur.
_Salt._ engel. ungurr.
_Hot._ khalek. oro(?).
South of San Diego, the land narrows itself into the peninsula of Old
California. Here we have--
1. _The Cochimi._--If the area of the Cochimi dialects (of which there
are four, said to differ from each other as much as the Spanish and the
French) extend as far north as N.L. 33°, the San Diego vocabulary most
probably represents one of them.
2. _The Waikuru._--called also the _Monk_[145] or _Moqui_(?), and of
which the following dialects are enumerated--
_a._ The _Cora_(?)[145]. Extinct, or nearly so.
_b._ The Uchitee, or Utshi. Extinct.
_c._ The Aripe. Probably extinct.
_d._ The Layamon of Loretto, known to us by a vocabulary.
3. The Pericu.--Probably extinct. Spoken at the southern extremity of
the island from N.L. 24°, to Cape St. Lucas.
4(?). _The Ikas._--By the unknown author of the _"Nachrichten von der
Amerikanischen Halbinsel Kalifornien_" (Mannheim, 1773), who was a
Jesuit missionary in the Peninsula, the _Ikas_, a fourth family, is
enumerated amongst the Old Californians.
5(?). The _Picos_, too, or _Ficos_, of Bägert, may possibly represent a
separate family. More probably, however, they are _Ikas_, or sections
of some better known division of the Old Californian population.
If we now take a review of what has been investigated, it is only a
coast and a peninsula. What, however, is the state of the interior of
that great tract which, politically, lies between Mexico, the United
States, and the Pacific, and of which we have the ethnological limits
in the areas of the Tototune, the Shasti, the Palaiks, the Paducas, and
lastly the Indians of Sonora--for thus far south must we go before we
get clear of the _terra incognita_ of California?
I am better prepared with suggestions as to the method of investigating
these parts than with facts concerning them.
1. In the way of physical geography it is convenient to draw a
distinction. The great interior basin (or table-land) of California is
one division; the great triangular watershed between the rivers Gila
and Colorado another.
2. In the way of new facts we must expect the phænomena of _stone_
architecture, as manifested in the ruins of ancient buildings.
3. In the way of inference we must guard against over-valuing the
import of them. They are not upon light grounds to be considered as
the measures of a civilization so different from that of the tribes
hitherto enumerated, as to suggest the machinery of either unnecessary
migrations, or unascertained degradations or annihilations of race.
The difference between the great interior basin of California, and
the valleys of the rivers Gila and Colorado, with their feeders, is
that of a desert and the oases that lie within it. The tribes that
inhabit the former are under some of the most unfavourable conditions
for sustenance in the world. Some of them, such as those to the east
and north, are known to be the more miserable members of the Paduca
class. Those of the west are probably extensions of the imperfectly
known tribes of the coast, and their analogues in the way of physical
influences are to be sought for in Australia rather than in America.
It is not surprising that the water-system of two considerable rivers
should furnish strong elements of contrast to those which exist in
what is either a table-land or a basin, according as the attention of
the investigators is struck by its elevation above the sea, or by its
depressions forming salt-lakes--Dead Seas in the way of ethnology.
Nor yet is it surprising that such contrasts should have full justice
done them in description. Ruins in stone, too, in districts where the
most we expect is the embankment or tumulus, strike even the cautious
observer with surprise; and fragments of art, however imperfect, create
wonder when they represent an industry different from what is found
amongst the existing populations of their locality. Whatever may be the
exaggeration as to particular descriptions, however, the ethnological
deduction is well summed up in the following extract. In describing
the tribes of the Gila, the Colorado, and of New Mexico, Gallatin
writes, "At the time of the conquest of Mexico, by Cortes, there was
_northwardly_, at the distance of 800 or 1,000 miles, a collection of
Indian tribes, in a state of civilization, intermediary between that of
the Mexicans and the social state of any of the other aborigines."[146]
What was the civilization? what the tribes? It is best to express
both these facts in as general a way as possible. The _Casas Grandes_
represent the first. The _Pimos_ Indians the second.
_The Casa Grande_, or _Great House_.--On the south bank of the Gila,
in the midst of a large and beautiful plain, are the ruins of what was
called by its discoverers, Fathers Garcias and Font,[147] the _Casa
Grande_, a building 445 feet in length, and 270 feet in breadth, with
three stories and a terrace; the walls being built of clay, and a wall
interrupted with towers investing the principal edifice.
[Illustration: Fig. 13.]
Later descriptions of Casas Grandes, by eye-witnesses, are those of
Lieutenant Emory and Captain Johnston. That of the latter, of one on
the River Gila, is as follows:--
"Still passing plains which had once been occupied,[148] we saw to our
left the 'Casa de Montezuma.' I rode to it, and found the remains of
the walls of four buildings, and the piles of earth showing where many
others had been. One of the buildings was still quite complete, as a
ruin; the others had all crumbled, but a few pieces of broken wall
remaining. The large casa was fifty feet by forty, and had been four
stories high; but the floors and roof had long since been burnt out.
The charred ends of the cedar joists were still in the wall. I examined
them and found they had not been cut with a steel instrument. The
joists were round sticks about two feet in diameter. There were four
entrances--north, south, east, and west,--the doors about four feet by
two; the rooms as below, and had the same arrangement in each story.
There was no sign of a fire-place in the building. The lower story was
filled with rubbish, and above it was the open sky. The walls were four
feet thick at the bottom, and had a curved inclination inwards to the
top. The house was built of a sort of white earth and pebbles, probably
containing lime, which abounded on the ground adjacent. The walls had
been smoothed outside, and plastered inside; and the surface still
remained firm, although it was evident it had been exposed to great
heat from the fire. Some of the rooms did not open to all the rest,
but had a hole a foot in diameter to look through; in other places
were smaller holes. About two hundred yards from this building was a
mound, in a circle one hundred yards around the mound. The centre was a
hollow, twenty-five yards in diameter, with two ramps or slopes going
down to its bottom. It was probably a well, now partly filled up. A
similar one was seen near Mount Dallas.
"A few yards further, in the same direction, northward, was a terrace
one hundred yards by seventy, about five feet high. Upon this was a
pyramid about eight feet high, twenty-five yards square at the top.
From this, sitting on my horse, I could overlook the vast plain lying
north-east and west, on the left bank of the Gila. The ground in
view was about fifteen miles--all of which, it would seem, had been
irrigated by the waters of the Gila. I picked up a broken crystal
of quartz in one of these piles. Leaving the casa I turned towards
the Pimos, and travelling at random over the plain (now covered
with mezquite), the piles of earth and pottery showed for miles in
every direction. I also found the remains of a zequia (a canal for
irrigation) which followed the range of houses for miles. It had been
very large."
_The Pimos._--Without at present fixing their locality, it is
sufficient for the sake of showing the character of their civilization,
to make the following extracts, directly from Mr. Squier's paper on
New Mexico and California, but indirectly, or in the way of first-hand
evidence, from Lieutenant Emory:--
"At the settlement of the Pimos, we were at once impressed with the
beauty and order of the arrangements for irrigating and draining the
land. Corn, wheat, and cotton are the crops of this peaceful and
intelligent race of people. At the time of our visit, all the crops had
been gathered in, and the stubble showed that they had been luxuriant.
The cotton had been picked and stacked for drying in the sheds. The
fields are sub-divided by ridges of earth into rectangles of about
200 feet by 100, for the convenience of irrigation. The fences are of
sticks wattled with willow and mezquite, and in this particular give
an example of economy in agriculture worthy to be followed by the
Mexicans, who never use fences at all.
"The dress of the Pimos consists of a cotton _serape_, of native
manufacture, and a breech cloth. Their hair is worn long and clubbed
up behind. They have but few cattle, and these are used in tillage.
They possess a few horses and mules, which are prized very highly.
They were found very ready to barter, which they did with entire good
faith. Capt. Johnson relates that when his party first came to the
village they asked for bread, offering to pay for the same. The bread
was furnished by the Pimos, but they would receive no return, saying,
'Bread is to eat, not to sell; take what you want.'
"'Their houses,' says Lieut. Emory, 'were dome-shaped structures of
wicker-work, about six feet high, and from twenty to sixty feet in
diameter, thatched with straw or corn-stalks. In front is usually
a large arbour, on top of which is piled the cotton in the pod for
drying. In the houses were stored water-melons, pumpkins, beans, corn,
and wheat, the three articles last named usually in large baskets;
sometimes these baskets were covered with earth and placed on the tops
of the domes. A few chickens and dogs were seen, but no other domestic
animals except horses, mules, and oxen. Their implements of husbandry
were the axe (of steel, and obtained through the Mexicans), wooden
hoes, shovels, and harrows. The soil is so easily pulverized as to make
the plough unnecessary.'
"Among their manufactures is a substance which they call _pinole_. It
is the heart of Indian corn, baked, ground up, and mixed with sugar.
When dissolved in water it is very nutritious, and affords a delicious
beverage. Their molasses, put up in large jars, hermetically sealed, is
expressed from the fruit of the pitahaya.
"In manufacturing cotton they display much skill, although their looms
are of the simplest kind. 'A woman was seated on the ground under one
of the cotton sheds. Her left leg was turned under, and the sole of her
foot upwards. Between her large toe and the next was a spindle, about
eighteen inches long, with a single fly of four or six inches. Ever
and anon, she gave it a twist in a dexterous manner, and at its end
was drawn a coarse cotton thread. This was their spinning machine. Led
on by this primitive display, I asked for their loom, pointing first
to the thread, and then to the blanket girded about the woman's loins.
A fellow stretched in the dust, sunning himself, rose up leisurely,
and untied a bundle which I had supposed to be a bow and arrows. This
little package, with four stakes in the ground, was the loom. He
stretched his cloth and commenced the process of weaving.
"They had salt among them, which they obtained from the plains.
Wherever there are 'bottoms' which have no drainage, the salt
effloresces, and is skimmed from the surface of the earth. It was
brought to us both in the crystallized form, and in the form when first
collected, mixed with earth.
"The plain upon which the Pimos village stands, extends fifteen or
twenty miles in every direction, and is very rich and fertile. The bed
of the Gila, opposite the village, is said to be dry, the whole water
being drawn off by the _zequias_ of the Pimos for irrigating their
lands; but their ditches are larger than necessary for the purpose, and
the water which is not used returns to the river, with little apparent
diminution in its volume.
"It is scarcely to be doubted, that the Pimos are the Indians described
by Father Garcias and Pedro Font, as living on the south bank of the
Gila, in the vicinity of the Casas Grandes. They lived in two villages,
called Utuicut and Sutaquisau, and are described by these explorers
to have been peaceable and industrious cultivators of the soil. When
Father Font tried to persuade them of the advantages which would
result from the establishment of Christian missions, where an Indian
alcalde would govern with strict justice, a chief answered that this
was not necessary for them. 'For,' said he, 'we do not steal, we rarely
quarrel; why should we want an alcalde?'"[149]
This is enough for a characteristic; to which it should be added
that the area of the Casas Grandes, and that of the agricultural (or
semi-agricultural) industry of the Pimos and other tribes coincide.
So little, however, are these parts known, that our evidence comes
almost exclusively from two quarters--the early Spanish explorers of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the very recent American
surveyors, the circumnavigators (to use an expression of Gallatin's) of
the Californian Desert of the last decennium.
Some of the most western of the tribes that have any (though not
all) of the elements which make the Pimos the representatives of a
provisional ethnological division, are:--
1. _The Yumas._--These are placed near the junction of the rivers Gila
and Colorado, and although at enmity with, are stated to speak the same
language as, the--
2. _Coco-maricopas._--Except that the Coco-maricopas are the taller,
that their noses are more aquiline, that their intelligence is,
perhaps, superior, and _that their language is different_, they agree
in all respects with--
3. _The Pimos._--Both the Pimos[150] and the Coco-maricopas are on the
south bank of the River Gila, bounded on the south by Apaches. The
former are considered as aboriginal to their present locality. Not so,
however, the Coco-maricopas, whose immigrations are said to be recent,
and whose language is akin to the Californian of San Diego.
ENGLISH. COCO-MARICOPAS.[151] SAN DIEGO.
_Horse_ quactish ----
_Man_ apache epatch
_Woman_ seniact seen
_Child_ comerse jacuel
_Corn_ tarichte ----
_Water_ ha-ache kha.
_Fire_ house ----
_Foot_ ametche ----
_Hand_ issalis eshall.
_Eyes_ adoche ----
_One_ sandek siha.
_Two_ haveka khahuac.
_Three_ hamoka khamoc.
_Four_ champapa tchapap.
_Five_ sarap khetlacai.
_Six_ mohok khentchapai.
_Seven_ pakek ----
_Eight_ sapok tchapap-tchapap.
_Nine_ humcamoke sinhtchahoi.
_Ten_ shahoke namat.
4. _The Moqui_.--The peculiarities of the Moqui have had full
prominence given to them; being, though not the best authenticated,
some of the first described. No living writer seems to have seen them;
whilst the evidence of Mr. Gregg, and Lieutenant Emory, which in both
cases is especially stated to be founded on the communications of
others, simply places them in the same category with the tribes which
have preceded them. By more sanguine writers, however, they have had
attributed to them white skins, long beards, towns containing from
2000 to 3000 inhabitants, public squares, parallel streets, and stone
houses.
5. _Zuni._--East of the Moqui, in numbers from 1,000 to 1,500 souls,
and about 150 miles west of the Rio del Norte. Evidence modern. "They
profess the Catholic faith, cultivate the soil, have manufactures, and
possess considerable quantities of stock."--Gregg. "The Soones build
houses in the solid rock. Many of them are Albinos, the probable origin
of the report of a race of white Indians in this quarter. They resemble
the Pimos in habits."--_Lieut. Emory, from the communication of a
Coco-maricopas Indian._
The Zuni, or Soones, bring us out of California, and into New Mexico.
The character of the civilisation is, however, the same. So are the
difficulties of the ethnography.
Conterminous with the Zuni, and amongst the most western, though not
the most northern of the New Mexican aborigines, are--
6. _The Indians of the Rio San José._---This is a feeder of the River
Puerco, itself a westernly feeder of the upper part of the Rio del
Norte. Their villages are _seven in number_--1. _Cibólleta_,[152]
2. _Moquino_,[152] 3. Poquaté, 4. Covero, 5. Laguna, 6. Rito (now
deserted), and 7. Acomo.
7. _The Indians of the parts about Abo and Quarra._--South-east of the
Indians of the San José, and on the opposite bank of the Rio del Norte,
lie the _seven_ villages of 1. Chititi, 2. Tageque, 3. Torreon, 4.
Mansana, 5. Quarra (deserted, and with ruins), 6. Abo (the same), 7.
_Quivira_.[152] The ruins, both of Quarra and Abo, are of stone, with
foundations above 100 feet in length, and in the shape of _crosses_.
One of the easiest passages across the ridge that divides the prairie
country belonging to the water-system of the Mississippi is along the
stream on which Abo is situated.
North of these, and nearer the head-waters of the Rio del Norte (or Rio
Grande) come--
8. _Indians speaking the Piro language._--These are the Taos, Picuri,
and others.
9. _Indians who speak (or spoke) the Hemez_[153] (or _Yemez_)
_languages_.--The Pecos, Cienega, and others in the highlands east of
the Rio del Norte, and between that river and the River Pecos. These
were anciently known as Tagnos, whilst their language is said to be
that of the _Hemez_.[153]
Now the names _Taos_, _Tagnos_, _Tigue_, and _Tegua_, create a
difficulty. Gallatin remarks that the last two are forms of the same
words. I think so, too. But then I also think that _all_ four words
are the same, or, if not, that _Taos_ and _Tagnos_ are, at least, so.
If this be true, the Taos are made to speak the Piro language and the
Hemez as well. Nay more, a third language distinguished from both
(the Piro and Hemez) is mentioned, viz., the Tegua, spoken by a large
portion of the others, all of whom had, originally, this general name,
though some seem to have been distinguished as _Queres_, probably the
Quivix or Quirix of Castañeda.
Be this, however, as it may, the northernmost Indians of New Mexico
bring us in contact with a section of the Indians of the Mississippi
system already mentioned, the Arrapahos, whilst the southern are in
contact with the ill-ascertained tribes of Texas. In Texas, however,
we have traces of the Casas Grandes; in the high-land between New
Mexico and Texas we have the famous _Llano Estocado_. This means a
trail or line of road marked out by stakes placed in nearly a straight
line, and at intervals to indicate its course. Under the name of the
_Cross-Timbers_, this has attracted the notice of several travellers,
and has been especially described in a paper laid before the
Geographical Society, by Mr. Catlin.
The reason why certain names have been printed in italics, a fact
to which the reader's attention was directed by notes,[153] will now be
explained. They all agree in introducing complications in the ethnology
from the fact of their occurring elsewhere. Thus--
_a._ The term _Moqui_, as a synonym to _Waikuru_, appears as the name
of the _Monki_ of the Gila.
_b._ The name _Moquino_ does the same.
_c._ The _Cora_, of California, is the name of a language in New
Galicia.
_d._ The _Yemez_ of New Mexico reappears in California. And--
_e._ Lastly, the word _Cibólleta_, the name of a village on the Rio del
Norte, is inconveniently, like the term Cibola, expressly applied by
the early Spanish writers to a country on the Rio Colorado.
This last remark suggests a new train of facts, viz., the comparison
between the early Spanish and the recent American accounts. Upon
the whole they _agree_. At any rate, the former bear evidence that
the civilization--such as it is--which is under notice, is of home
growth, rather than European in its origin, a view that _cross-shaped_
ground-plans, as well as other circumstances, might suggest.
Finally, we find by comparing one account with another either real
additions to our divisions of the populations, or else new names. Such
are, probably, amongst others--
1. _The Nijoras._--Mentioned by Sedelmayer, in 1748, as occupying the
River Azule(?) a feeder of the River Gila.
2. _The Tompiras._--Mentioned by Benavides, Superior to the Franciscan
mission in New Mexico, in a work printed in 1630, and stated to amount
to 10,000 souls, in fifteen villages. Conterminous with the Taos and--
3. _The Pecos._--On the head-waters of the river so-named, inhabitants
to the amount of 2000, of a single village. This also is on the
authority of Benavides.
4. 5. 6. _The Xumana, Lana, and Zura._--Mentioned by Prichard, whose
list is taken from Hervas rather than from the Mithridates, as being
New-Mexican languages.
We are now free to return to the south of the Gila, or rather south of
the Pimos and Coco-maricopas of its southern bank.
Due south of these come an irregularly distributed branch of the
Paducas--the Apaches.
South of these, and engendering a complication which arises from the
name, come
_The Pima._--Of these we find, in the Mithridates,[154] notice of three
dialects or languages--_a._ The Pima Proper, _b._ the Opata, _c._ the
Eudeve. Said to be allied to--
THE TARAHUMARA.
_Locality._--New Biscay, Eastern part of Sinaloa, north part of
Durango, Chihuahua as far as 30° N.L., _i.e._ the upper portion
of the Sierra Madre, or the watershed to the western feeders
of the Rio Grande and River Yaqui, and others falling into the
Gulf of California.
Casas Grandes occur in the Tarahumara area. The following descriptions,
probably applying to the same building, certainly apply to a very
remarkable one.
"This edifice is constructed on the plan of those of New Mexico,
that is, consisting of three floors, with a terrace above them, and
without any entrance to the lower floor. The doorway is in the second
story, so that a scaling ladder is necessary; and the inhabitants of
New Mexico build in this manner, in order to be less exposed to the
attacks of their enemies. No doubt the Azteks had the same motives for
raising their edifices on this plan, as every mark of a fortress is to
be observed about it, being defended on one side by a lofty mountain,
and the rest of it being defended by a wall about seven feet thick,
the foundations of which are still existing. In this fortress there
are stones as large as a mill stone to be seen: the beams of the roof
are of pine, and well-finished. In the centre of this vast fabric is a
little mount, made on purpose, by what appears, to keep guard on, and
observe the enemy. There have been some ditches found in this place,
and a variety of domestic utensils, earth pans, pots, jars, and little
looking-glasses of _itztli_ (obsidian)."
"Casas Grandes is one of the few ruins existing in Mexico, the
original owners of which are said to have come from the north, and I,
therefore, determined to examine it. Only a portion of the external
walls is standing; the building is square, and of very considerable
extent; the sides stand accurately north and south, which gives reason
to suppose that the builders were not unversed in astronomy, having
determined so precisely the cardinal points. The roof has long lain in
the area of the building, and there are several excavations said to
have been made by the Apache Indians to discover earthenware jars,
and shells. A specimen of the jars I was fortunate enough to procure,
and it is in excellent preservation. There were also good specimens
of earthen images in the Ægyptian style, which are to me at least so
perfectly uninteresting, that I was at no pains to procure any of
them. The country here, for an extent of several leagues, is covered
with the ruins of buildings capable of containing a population of at
least 20,000 or 30,000 souls. Casas Grandes is, indeed, particularly
favourable for maintaining so many inhabitants. Situated by the side
of a large river which periodically inundates a great part of the
low surrounding lands, the verdure is perpetual. There are ruins
also of aqueducts, and, in short, every indication that its former
inhabitants were men who knew how to avail themselves of the advantages
of nature, and improve them by art; but who they were and what became
of them, it is impossible to tell. On the south bank of the Rio Gila
there is another specimen of these singular ruins; and it may be
observed, that wherever these traces are found, the surrounding country
invariably possesses great fertility of soil, and abundance of wood and
water."[155]
_The Papagos_, or _Papabi-cotam_.--These speak the same language as the
Pimas, by whom they are, nevertheless, despised.
_The Tahu, Pacasca, and Acasca._--Mentioned by Castelnada, writing
about A.D. 1560, as being spoken near the Culiacan.
TEPEGUANA.
_Locality._--The coast of Sinaloa, north of the Cora area.
_Dialects_(?)--Tepeguana, Topia (Tubar), _Acaxee_(?) Xixime,
Sicuraba, Hina, and Hiumi.
The Tubar occupied the head-waters of the River Sinaloa; as such they
were conterminous with the western Tarahumaras.
The Acaxee is, probably, the Acasca of Castelnada.
MAYA(?).[156]
_Locality._--Coast between the River Sinaloa and River Yaqui.
_Language._--Spoken by the natives of the River Yaqui,
Zuaque(?), and Maya.
_Guazave._--The Guazave language is mentioned as being that of the
coast of Sinaloa. Whether it was different from the Maya dialects is
doubtful.
The _Ahome_ was a dialect of the Guazave.
ZOE(?).
HUITCOLE(?).
Probably the same as the Huite, stated by Hervas to speak a
different language from the--
CORA.
_Locality._--Southern part of Sinaloa; _i.e._ the valley of the
Culiacan.
_Dialects._--Three.
The Cora and Tarahumara have each been recognized as presenting signs
of philological affinity with the Astek of Mexico.
PIRINDA.
TARASCA.
_Localities._--Mechoacan.
TOTONACA.
_Locality._--Parts about the present city of Vera Cruz.
Although lying nearly within the same latitude as Mexico, the Totonaca
area is that of the low coast, rather than of the lofty table-land,
consequently it is part of the _Sierra Calida_, with a tropical
climate, rather than of the _Sierra Templada_ or _Fria_, where the
elevation of the Anahuac mountain-range effects a change in the
physical conditions within the same latitude, which has doubtless been
a considerable ethnological influence.
The Huasteca, spoken between the Totonaca area and the Texian frontier,
in the parts about the present town of Tampico, has yet to be noticed.
It is, however, a language whereof the geographical and ethnological
positions are at variance; its affinities of the latter kind being
with a language spoken far south of it, and separated from it by the
Totonaca area.
Is the preceding list exhaustive, _i.e._ for the parts between Mexico
Proper and California, for Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Cohuahuila,
Tamaulipas, Zacatecas, and Durango? I am not able to say. The following
may be, _a._ the names of mere dialects; _b._ of separate substantive
languages; _c._ or, finally, synonyms for some tongue already noticed.
_The Guaima._--Mentioned by Prichard--whose list of the Mexican
languages is taken from Hervas, rather than the Mithridates--as being
spoken in Sinaloa.
_Pame._--Mentioned by Prichard, &c., as being spoken in Huastecapan,
or the country of the Huasteca language. If other than the latter, it
has a place in the present part of the work. If not, it comes, more
properly, amongst the Maya tongues.
_Matlazinga._--Mentioned by Prichard as being spoken in the valley of
Toluca in Mexico.
_Cuitlateca._--Mentioned by Prichard as being spoken in the diocese of
Mexico.
_The Mokorosi._--This term is noticed because I find, in Jülg, a
"Vocabolario de la Lengua Mocorosi. Mexico, 1599."
_The Capita._--This term is noticed because _an Arte de la Lengua
Capita_ (Mexico, 1737), is mentioned in Jülg, accompanied with the
notice that it represents a language (or dialect) of the north of
Mexico.
THE OTOMI.
_Localities._--N.E. parts of Mechoacan, Head-waters of the
River Santiago.
_Dialects._--1. Otomi Proper. 2. Mazahui.
Casas Grandes occur in all the parts lately enumerated.
A great complication in the philological ethnography, is introduced by
the Otomi dialects.
In a dissertation of Don Emmanuel Naxera's,[157] the author gives
reasons for considering the Otomi to be a remarkable exception to the
general character of the American languages. It is so far from being
_polysynthetic_ that it is _monosyllabic_. A fact like this was not
likely to be underrated. The vicinity of the Otomi area to the Aztek,
the semi-Asiatic character of the Mexican civilization, the analogies
between it and the Japanese, were all circumstances likely to bring the
populations of the Chinese type into the field of comparison. Hence the
Otomi, after being in the first place disconnected with the American
family of languages, ran the chance of being _specially, and to the
exclusion of the other tongues of the New World_, connected with the
Asiatic; and, herein, with those of the Seriform tribes and nations.
With his accustomed caution, Gallatin satisfies himself with saying
what others have thought upon the matter, more especially the author of
the dissertation in question; evidently, in his own mind, admitting no
more than an _analogy_, not an _affinity_, with the Chinese.
The present writer doubts much whether even the _facts_ of the case are
yet ascertained, much less the true appreciation of their import.
1. He thinks that it has yet to be determined whether the comparative
absence (if real) of inflections has arisen from the loss of forms
previously existing, or from the nondevelopment of them _in toto_.
In the latter case only the language would be in the predicament of
the Seriform tongues, or _aptotic_; whereas in the former its parallel
would be the English, an _anaptotic_ language.
2. He thinks that the whole aspect of the question might be materially
altered by changing the manner of putting it; _i.e._ by asking not
whether the Otomi differs from the other American languages in being
monosyllabic rather than polysynthetic, but by inquiring whether the
other American tongues may not agree with the Otomi in being more
monosyllabic than is generally supposed.
This latter point is one of great importance;--the fact of two such
extreme forms of language as the _monosyllabic_ and _polysynthetic_
meeting has been shown by Schoolcraft in his remarks upon the structure
of the Algonkin languages; the _à priori_ likelihood of such a
phænomenon being very great. The details of the transition itself,
however, we see but imperfectly. That they are to be found, however, in
the comparative philology of the Seriform tongues is undoubted. Here,
even the difference, so important in the American tongues, between
the animate and inanimate plural is foreshadowed; whilst the other
so-called peculiarity of the polysynthetic tongues--the incorporation
of the pronoun expressing the object with the verb, is only a fuller
development of the principle which gives us, in the common languages
of Europe, the reflective and middle forms. In the Icelandic _kallast_
(_=kalla sig=calls himself_, originally _kalla-sc_), the incorporation
of the name of the object is as truly a part of the grammar as it is in
any American tongue whatsoever.
Again, more than one philologist has suggested that many American
agglutinations are (like such forms as _je l'aime_, if written
_jelaime_), instances of what may be called a mere printer's
polysyntheticism, _i.e._ points of spelling rather than of real
language.
Such are fragments of the criticism which breaks down two classes of
differences at once; those between the Otomi and the other languages
of America, and those between the American and non-American tongues in
general.
On the other hand, it should be added that if, irrespective of
such criticism, the Otomi language be, in its vocables, wholly
_un_-American, the evidence in favour of its philological isolation is
just as good as if, over and above the fact of its being monosyllabic,
the transition from monosyllabicism to polysyntheticism were a
philological impossibility; still more so, if its affinities are with
any other language, _e.g._ the Chinese.
Now, upon this point I have made three series of comparisons.
1. The Otomi with the Seriform languages, _en masse_.
2. The same words from another American language (the Maya) with the
same Seriform languages.
3. The Otomi and a variety of other American languages.
Of these the first two are as follows:--
(1)
_English_, man
Otomi, _nanyehe_
Kuanchua, _nan_
Canton, _nam_
Tonkin, _nam_
_English_, woman
Otomi, _nitsu_
.... _nsu_
Kuanchua, _niu_
Canton, _niu_
Tonkin, _nu_
_English_, son
Otomi, _batsi_
.... _iso_
Kuanchua, _dsu_
Canton, _dzi_
Mian, _sa_
Maplu, _possa_
Play, _aposo_
.... _naputhæ_
Passuko, _posaho_
_English_, hand
Otomi, _ye_
Siuanlo, _he_
Cochin China, _ua_=_arm_
_English_, foot
Otomi, _gua_
Pey, _ha_=_leg_
Pape, _ha, ho_=_do._
Kuanchua, _kio_
Canton, _koh_
Moitay, _kcho_
_English_, bird
Otomi, _ttzintey_
Maya, _chechetch_
Tonkin, _tcheni_
Cochin China, _tching_
_English_, sun
Otomi, _hiadi_
Canton, _yat_
_English_, moon
Otomi, _rzana_
Siuanlo, _dzan_
Teina, _son_
_English_, star
Otomi, _tze_
Tonkin, _sao_
Cochin China, _sao_
Maplu, _shia_
Play, _shâ_
.... _sha_
Passuko, _za_
Colaun, _assa_
_English_, water
Otomi, _dehe_
Tibet, _tchi_
Mian, _zhe_
Maplu, _ti_
Colaun, _tui_
_English_, stone
Otomi, _do_
Cochin China, _ta_
Tibet, _rto_
_English_, rain
Otomi, _ye_
Chuanchua, _yu_
Canton, _yu_
Colaun, _yu_
_English_, fish
Otomi, _hua_
Chuanchua, _yu_
Canton, _yu_
Tonkin, _ka_
Cochin China, _ka_
Play, _ya_
Moan, _ka_
_English_, good
Otomi, _manho_
Teilung, _wanu_
_English_, bad
Otomi, _hing_
.... _hio_
Chuanchua, _o_
Tonkin, _hu_
Play, _gyia_
_English_, great
Otomi, _nah_
.... _nde_
.... _nohoc_
Chinese, _ta, da_
Anam, _dai_
Play, _do, uddo_
Pey, _nio_
_English_, small
Otomi, _ttygi_
Passuko, _tchcka_
_English_, eat
Otomi, _tze tza_
Chinese, _shi_
Tibet, _shie_
Mian, _tsha_
Myamma, _sa_
_English_, sleep
Otomi, _aha_
Chuanchua, _wo, uo_
(2)
_English_, son
Maya, _lakpal_
.... _palal_=_children_
Myamma, _lugala_
Teilung, _lukwun_
_English_, head
Maya, _pol_, _hool_
Kalaun, _mollu_
_English_, mouth
Maya, _chi_
Chuanchua, _keu_
Canton, _hou_
Tonkin, _kau_
Cochin China, _kau_
Tibet, _ka_
_English_, hand
Maya, _cab_
Huasteca, _cubac_
Maplu, _tchoobah_=_arm_
Play, _tchoobah_=_do._
Passuko, _tchoobawh_=_do._
_English_, foot
Maya, _uoc_, _oc_
Chuanchua, _kio_
Canton, _kon_
Moitay, _cho_
_English_, sun
Maya, _kin_
Colaun, _koni_
Moan, _knua_
Teiya, _kawan_
Teilung, _kangun_
Pey, _kanguan_
_English_, moon
Maya, _u_
Chuanchua, _yue_
_English_, star
Maya, _ek_
Mean, _kie_
Myamma, _kyi_
_English_, water
Maya, _ha_
Myamma, _ya_
_English_, rain
Maya, _chauc_
Maplu, _tchatchung_
Passuko, _tatchu_
_English_, small
Maya, _mehen_
Tonkin, _mon_
_English_, eat
Maya, _hanal_
Tonkin, _an_
Play, _ang_
_English_, bird
Maya, _chechitch_
Tonkin, _tchim_
_English_, fish
Maya, _ca_
Tonkin, _ka_
_English_, great
Maya, _noh_
Pey, _nio_
The third, so far from isolating the Otomi from the other languages
of America, exhibits more than an average number of miscellaneous
affinities, especially with the languages of California.
As to the Chinese and the other Seriform tongues, the question is not
_how like they are to the Otomi_, but _how much more like they are
to the Otomi than to the Maya_. And here the difference in favour of
the Otomi is even less than we expect; since (merely from the doctrine
of chances) two (or more) languages with short words will have a
greater number of similarities (real or accidental) than two (or more)
dissyllabic or polysyllabic languages.
So far, then, from isolating the Otomi as much as Naxera has done, I am
disinclined to adopt, to their full extent, the far more moderate views
of Molina and Gallatin; admitting at the same time that, of all the
tongues of the New World, its structure, from being either anaptotic or
imperfectly agglutinate, is the most remarkable.
The rude and imperfect civilization of the Otomis has often been
contrasted with the better developed character of the--
MEXICANS (ASTEK).
Strictly speaking, this is a geographical rather than an ethnological
term; perhaps it is more political than geographical. It means, as
nearly as can be, the kingdom of Montezuma, as it was found by the
Spanish conquerors of the fifteenth century. This seems, historically
speaking, to have consisted of several states, more or less
incorporated with that of the sovereign city; incorporated either in
the way of confederation, as was the case with Tescuco, or as subject
nations like the more distant dependencies. In the consolidation of
the Mexican empire, I see nothing that differs _in kind_, from the
confederacies of the Indians of the Algonkin, Sioux, and Cherokee
families, although _in degree_, it had attained a higher development
than has yet appeared; and I think that whoever will take the trouble
to compare Strachey's[158] account of Virginia, where the empire of
Powhattan had, at the time of the colonization, attained its height,
with Prescott's Mexico, will find reason for breaking down that
over-broad line of demarcation which is so frequently drawn between the
Mexicans and the other Americans.
I think, too, that the social peculiarities of the Mexicans of
Montezuma are not more remarkable than the external conditions of
climate, soil, and land-and-sea relations; for it must be remembered
that, as determining influences, towards the state in which they were
found by Cortez, we have--
1. The contiguity of two oceans.
2. The range of temperature arising from the differences of altitude
produced by the existence of great elevation, combined with an
intertropical latitude, and the consequent variety of products.
3. The absence of the conditions of a hunter-state; the range of the
buffalo not extending so far as the Anahuac.
4. The abundance of minerals.
Surely these are sufficient predisposing causes for a very considerable
amount of difference in the social and civilizational development.
South of Mexico we have several languages of a small and one of a large
area. The former are as follows:--
_Mixteca_--Spoken in Oaxaca.
_Zapoteca_--Ditto.
_Popoluca_--Ditto.
_Chiapa_--Spoken in Chiapa.
_Zoques_--Spoken on the sea-coast, about Tobasco.
_Tzendales_--Spoken from Comitan to Palenque.
_Lacandona_--Chiapa.
_Chonchona_--Ditto.
_Mazateca_--Ditto.
_The Mam_--Guatemala, in the province of Vera Paz.
The _Pochonchi_--_Chorti_--_Quiche_--Spoken in Guatemala. Allied
languages, or dialects.--Gallatin.
_Kachiquel_--Ibid.
_Sinca_--Guatemala, on the Pacific, from Escuintla to the Rio des
Esclavos.
_Utlateca_--Guatemala.
_Subtugil_--Ditto.
_Chorotega_--Nicaragua.
_Chontal_--Ditto.
_Orotina_--Ditto.
Respecting the locality of the last three languages there is, _at
least_, a tradition that, over and above the original population,
there was also, at the time of the conquest, a colony of _Mexicans_ in
Nicaragua. I say, _at least a tradition_, because it is stated that the
so-called Pipil Indians, on the coast of the Pacific, speak a Mexican
dialect, and also that the remains of Mexican art in Nicaragua are both
numerous and definite; in which case the evidence is improved: still it
is by no means conclusive.
Such are the minor groups, all of uncertain value, for central
America, _i.e._ for the parts between Mexico and the Isthmus, with two
exceptions.
THE MAYA.
_Divisions._--1. The Maya Proper. 2. The Huasteca.
_Localities._--1. The Maya Proper in Yucatan. 2. The Huasteca,
in the parts about Tampico.
_Area._--Discontinuous.
The discontinuity of the Maya area is effected by the interposition of
Totonaca and other languages; the discovery of the community of origin
between populations so different as those of Yucatan and country round
Tampico being one of the valuable notices of the Mithridates.
The value of the Maya-Huasteca (or Huasteca-Maya) group, is wholly
undetermined. Probably it should extend to the inclusion of the
Poconchi and several other tongues of Guatemala.
* * * * *
The further we approach the narrowest part of the Isthmus the
more fragmentary is our ethnology. It loses, however, none of its
importance, since it is by the way of the Isthmus that we find the most
direct geographical transition from North to South America.
And here the division must be made between--_a_, those Indians who seem
to have partaken of a civilization of the Mexican type,--and _b_, those
who do not.
The former alternative was probably the case (more or less) with all
the divisions already enumerated; the latter with the Indians of
Panama, the islands, and the Moskito Coast.
The following is a notice of a tribe on the sea-coast, at present
either extinct or incorporated with some other, but well known to the
old buccaneers. [159] "The next day we got ashore in one of them [the
islands] in hopes of getting some corn, but met with none but a few
poor wretches, who had been stripped of all by the privateers, who
also frequently made them their slaves; for they are very fit for that
purpose, being of a low stature but strong limbed; for the rest they
are of a dark olive colour, with round faces, black hair, and small
eyes of the same colour: with eyebrows hanging over their eyes, low
foreheads, short, thick, and flat noses, full lips, and short chins.
They have a peculiar fashion of cutting holes in the lips of the boys
whilst yet infants, which they keep open with small pegs till they
are fourteen or fifteen years of age; then they put in them something
resembling a long beard made of tortoise-shell. Both boys and girls
have holes bored in their ears, which by degrees they stretch to the
bigness of a crown-piece, and wear in them round and smooth pieces of
wood, so that their ears seem wood, unless only in a small skin. As
they have very little feet (notwithstanding they are bare-footed), so
the females take a great pride in their legs, which they tie very hard
from the ankle to the beginning of the calf with a piece of calico,
which renders their calfs very round and beautiful. They have no other
clothing but a clout about their middle."
The nearest remaining representatives of the aborigines thus described
are the--
MOSKITO INDIANS.
_Locality._--The Moskito Coast.
_Language._--Peculiar.
Like the Indians of the original territory of the United States and
Canada, the Europeans with which the Moskito Indians come in contact
are of English, rather than Spanish, extraction; besides which, there
is a considerable intermixture of Negro blood.
The language, for which we have a fair amount of data, has fewer
miscellaneous affinities than any hitherto examined. Still, this is
nothing more than what its geographical position leads us to expect.
The nearest languages of which we have specimens are those of Guatemala
on one side, and the northern part of South America on the other. For
the contiguous areas of Honduras, San Salvador, and Costa Rica we have
no specimens.
The Isthmus of Panama leads us from North to South America. Here the
first tribe of importance which presents itself is--
THE MUYSCA.
_Locality._--New Granada. Extinct.
_Language._--Peculiar; known, however, only from a few words
collected by the Abbate Gilii.--See _Mithridates_.
_Civilization._--The same (or nearly the same) with that of
Mexico and Peru.
1. Besides the Muysca, however, there were, most probably, two or three
mutually unintelligible languages spoken in the Isthmus of Darien, and
the following ten (all now extinct), in New Grenada. 1. The Agnala; 2.
the Caivana; 3. the Chimeca; 4. the Kurumene; 5. the Gorrane; 6. the
Guaraepoana; 7. the Guarica; 8. the Natagaima; 9. the Cueca; and 10.
the Chiaczake.--_Mithridates_.
We now follow the line of the Andes, omitting for the present the
consideration of their eastern declivity, and limiting ourselves to the
mountain-range itself and the narrow strip between it and the Pacific.
This brings us, probably, through the districts of the 1. Masteles;
2. Chorri; 3, Pichilumbuy; and, 4. Quillacingæ, to the country of the
ancient
QUIXOS (QUITOS).
_Locality._--Quito.
At the present moment, and even in the sixteenth century, the language
of Quito was the Quichua. It is considered, however, although I have
not investigated the evidence, that the aboriginal languages of
the country, spoken before the conquest of the Incas, belonged to
a different class of tongues; and that the Quiteno dialect of the
Peruvian is a recent introduction.
Be this as it may, the population which now comes next is--
THE QUICHUA.
_Locality._--From the Equator to 28° south latitude
_discontinuously_; the Quichua area being interrupted about 15°
south latitude by the Aymaras. Limited almost exclusively to
the plateau of the Andes and to its _western_ slope.
_Numbers_, according to D'Orbigny, 934,707 pure, 458,572 mixed.
THE AYMARA.
_Locality._--From 15° to 20° south latitude. The parts around
the Lake Titicaca, and the ruins of Tiaguanaco. Conterminous
with and (almost?) surrounded by the Quichuas.
_Numbers_, according to D'Orbigny, 372,397 pure, 188,237 mixed.
YUNGA.
_Locality._--The valley of Cincha, in the diocese of Truxillo.
Extinct.
_Synonym._(?)--Mochika. Perhaps the name for a separate dialect.
PUQUINA.
_Locality._--The diocese of La Paz. Extinct.
Probably these, with the Quixos, may represent the earlier population
of the Andes anterior to the spread of the Peruvian Incas of the
Quichua stock.
THE ATACAMAS.
_Locality._--The Provinces of Taracapa and Atacama.
Conterminous with the Aymaras, Quichuas; and Moluché.
_Synonyms._--Olipes, Llipi.
_Numbers_, according to D'Orbigny, 7348 pure, 2170 mixed.
THE CHANGOS.
_Locality._--The Coast of Peru, from 22° to 24° south latitude,
conterminous with the Moluché.
_Numbers_, according to D'Orbigny, 1000.
Thus far we have followed the line of the Western Andes in the
direction from north to south, along a tract forming the narrow line
between the Cordilleras and the Pacific, a tract that, politically
and historically speaking, nearly coincides with the empire of the
_Peruvian Incas_, as it was found by the Spanish conquerors under
Pizarro. For the _history_ of this remarkable empire the reader is
referred to Prescott's History of Peru; the criticism that applies the
facts therein found, being, in a great degree, the criticism which
applies to similar civilization of Mexico.
In Chili we find the north-western branch of one of the great and
definite divisions of the South American population, which may be
called Chileno, Patagonian, Fuegian, Chileno-Patagonian, &c. as seems
most convenient; the main fact requisite to be remembered being, that
it comprises the population of three areas. 1. Chili; 2. Patagonia; 3.
Tierra del Fuego.
Although for this group of Indians we have no general and collective
names, the subordinate branches are conveniently denominated,
_Moluché_, _Puelché_, _Huilliché_.
MOLUCHÉ.
_Locality._--(roughly speaking)--Chili. The word
_Molu_=_Western,_. _Molu-che_=_Western People_.
_Synonym._--Chileno, Araucanian.
PUELCHÉ.
_Locality._--(roughly speaking)--south of the Chaco, and east
of the Andes, as far as the Atlantic. The parts east of Chili.
The word _Puel_=_Eastern_. _Puel-che_=_Eastern People_.
_Synonym._--Pampa Indians.
HUILLICHÉ.
_Locality._--Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.
_Divisions._--_a._ Patagonians. _b._ Fuegians.
_Extracts respecting the physical appearance of the
Patagonians_:--
1. "One of them, who afterwards appeared to be chief, came
towards me; he was of gigantic stature, and seemed to realise
the tales of monsters in a human shape; he had the skin of some
wild beast thrown over his shoulders, as a Scotch Highlander
wears his plaid, and was painted so as to make the most hideous
appearance I ever beheld. Round one eye was a large circle of
white; a circle of black surrounded the other, and the rest
of his body was streaked with paint of different colours. I
did not measure him; but if I may judge of his height by the
proportion of his stature to my own, it could not be less than
seven feet."--_Byron_.
2. "They have a fine shape; among those whom we saw not one
was below five feet ten inches and a quarter (English), nor
above six feet two inches and a half in height. Their gigantic
appearance arises from their prodigiously broad shoulders, the
size of their heads, and the thickness of all their limbs. They
are robust and well fed; their nerves are braced, and their
muscles strong, and sufficiently hard, &c."--_Bougainville_.
3. "The medium height of the males of these southern tribes
is about five feet eleven inches. The women are not so tall,
but are in proportion broader and stouter: they are generally
plain-featured. The head is long, broad and flat, and the
forehead low, with the hair growing within an inch of the
eyebrows, which are bare; the eyes are often placed obliquely,
and have but little expression; the nose is generally rather
flat and turned up, but we noticed several with that feature
straight and sometimes aquiline; the mouth is wide, with
prominent lips, and the chin is rather large; the jaws are
broad, and give the face a square appearance; the neck is short
and thick; the shoulders are broad; the chest is broad and very
full; but the arm, particularly the forearm, is small, as are
also the foot and leg; the body long, large, and fat, but not
corpulent. Such was the appearance of those who came under my
observation."--_King_.
The previous extracts have been given because the great size of the
Patagonians has been noticed by most of the voyagers who have described
them--in some cases with considerable exaggeration. Illegitimate
inferences, moreover, have been drawn from their supposed contrast to
the Fuegians. These last, more undersized than over-sized, and ill-fed
fish-eaters, like the Eskimo and Hottentot, have been separated too
far from the populations nearest to them, and have been considered, by
even good writers, as sufficiently distinct from the Indians of the
Continent to form a separate division. Nay more, so much has been made
of their sallow complexion that, in some cases, the Fuegian has been
placed among the _Black_ sections of the human species, _i.e._ amongst
the Kelænonesians.
Nevertheless, it is doubtful whether the extreme sections of the group
in question exhibit greater contrasts in physical appearance than those
which the difference of their physical and social conditions would
lead us to expect; since the mountain range of the southern Andes,
the nomadic extension of the Pampas, and the insular localities of
the Chonos Archipelago, and the Tierra del Fuego, account for full
as much difference as we find--to say nothing of the difference of
latitude between Cape Horn and the Peruvian frontier of Chili, in
the way of climate. Add to this the opposition between the vicinity
of a semi-civilized kingdom like that of Peru on the north, and
the absolute isolation of the Tierra del Fuego on the south, as
influences which seriously affect the phænomena of the social and
civilizational developments. That the typical features of the so-called
copper-coloured Indian of America become lost as we approach Cape Horn,
is a fact of more importance than the height or size of individual
families. The Fuegian is Eskimo in appearance, and the Patagonian
approaches the Fuegian.
In Chili we find special notice of a preeminently light-haired and
blue-eyed population--the Boroanos.[160]
[Illustration: Fig. 14.]
Having now reached the _Ultima Thule_ of the New World we may look back
and ask how far the general phænomena and problems connected with the
ethnology of South, resemble those of North America: they do so in many
respects. There are the same physical divisions of elevated table-land,
of open pasture, of steppe, and of forest; the same low levels along
similar large rivers, and the same swamps on the sea-shore. And so it
is with the distribution of tribes and races. Large areas, like those
of the Algonkins and Iroquois, are conterminous with groups of unfixed
and almost isolated languages: so that what we have found in Mexico, as
opposed to Canada, we shall find in Central South America, as opposed
to Brazil and Peru.
Still there are important points of difference. South America, like
Africa, lies not only between the tropics, but under the equator. Like
Africa, too, only farther than Africa, it extends towards the Antarctic
Circle; so that hence we may call the natives of Tierra del Fuego
either the Eskimos of the south, or the Hottentots of the west.
In respect to the abundance and value of its ethnological materials,
South America, especially for its interior, is one of the dark spots
of the world--it is better known than Central Africa, and better known
than New Guinea: and saying this we have said all.
And here it may be well to indicate an ethnological _method_. In
Tierra del Fuego we have one of the six extreme points of population;
_i.e._ points from which no population has been supposed to have been
determined elsewhere; Easter Island, Van Dieman's Land, the Cape of
Good Hope, Lapland, and Ireland, being the other five. In working the
problem as to the original centre of population--the birthplace of the
human kind--it is these six points with which we should begin, and so
seek their point of convergence. This is of two kinds, _geographical_
and _philological_. The first is that part of the earth's surface
where the distance from each is equal (or where it nearest approaches
equality); the second, the locality of that language which has, at
one and the same time, the greatest likeness to the Teapi,[161] the
Tasmanian, the Fuegian, the Hottentot, the Lapponic, and the Gaelic.
Of course such centres would be conventional, and liable to the
influence of disturbing causes. Still they involve a principle that
is both safe and scientific; and, if the land were one vast circular
island, in the midst of the ocean, and the changes that affect language
had taken place at a uniform rate throughout the domain of speech, such
a state of things would supply a _conventional ethnological_ centre.
Such a conventional centre would be the mean point between the
_geographical_ and the _philological_ ones.
* * * * *
That the Chileno, Patagonian, and Fuegian populations are sections of
a single stock I have no doubt. Whether, however, this stock may not
contain other branches is uncertain.
* * * * *
There are three frontiers to the northern part of the area in
question--the western, the central, and the eastern. The western has
been already noticed: it is the country of the Changos, Atacamas, and
other portions of the old Peruvian empire. Nevertheless it is probable,
that the population may be Chileno, and still more likely that it may
be transitional to the Peruvian and Moluché groups.
The central division has yet to be studied in detail; since we have yet
to learn at what part of Central South America the Pampa population
changes for that of the Gran Chaco,[162] and of what nature this
change is. Nay, the Southern Indians of the Gran Chaco may, like the
southern members of the Peruvian empire, be either Patagonian (or
Pampa-Patagonian) or transitional.
The eastern portion of the division in question is the parts about the
mouth of the River Plata.
The population, which I suppose to have been conterminous with the
Patagonians (_i.e._ the Puelché portion of them) is that of--
THE CHARRUAS.
Of the language I have seen no vocabulary. In physical appearance the
Charruas approach the Patagonians; and equally akin are they to the
fiercer tribes of that division in their habits and characters.
The Charrua population--for we are now within the territory of the
Spanish Republic, and in areas where the displacement of the aborigines
has been the consequence of contact with the European--is known only in
fragments; whole sections of it being, at the present moment, either
extinct or incorporated. The original divisions, however, were as
follows:--
1. The Charruas Proper; 2. the Chayos; 3. the Chanás; 4. the Guenoas;
5. the Martedanes; 6. the Niboanes; 7. the Yaros; 8. the Minoanes;
9. the Caaiguas; 10. the Bagaez; 11. the Tapés. Of these the Chanás
and Niboanes inhabited, at the arrival of the Spaniards, the islands
of the Uruguay, at the junction of the Rio Negro. The Guenoas and
Martedanes connected themselves with the Portuguese of the Colonia del
Sacramiento, and were at enmity with the Yaros and Minoanes. The Chayos
are the first that disappear from history, probably from having become
amalgamated with the Yaros.
The Charruas proper, from the time of Solis to the year 1831, have
lived the life of a nation of warriors, with their hand against every
man, and every man's hand against them. Uninterrupted as was their
hostility to the Spaniards, it was equally so against the other
aborigines; so much so, that in no case do we find a common alliance
against the common enemy to have existed;--on the contrary, the
war against the Mamaluco, the Tupi, and the Arachanes, were wars of
extermination. And so was the war against the Spaniards; except that
the Spaniards were the exterminators. In 1831 the President of Uraguay,
Rivera, destroyed the Charruas root and branch; so that at the present
moment a few enslaved individuals are the only remains of that once
terrible nation.
From eighty to one hundred families lived under the direction of a
Tubicchó, or semi-hereditary chief, and when danger threatened, the
Tubicchós met and chose amongst themselves a leader. Whoever is chosen
commands the obedience of the rest--the election is half counsel, half
feast. Chicha is drunk; wounds are exhibited; exploits are recounted:
the most worthy is selected from his peers.
After this fires are lighted as beacons, and the warriors of tribes
meet from all parts. When they can make the attack, they do it by
night, and at the full-moon. How they treat their captives is a
matter upon which there is a conflict in the evidence. Ruy Diaz de
Guzman denies that they are cruel to their prisoners. I have no wish
to disturb Ruy Diaz de Guzman's evidence. Others, however, have
controverted it. Against the fact of their being cannibals there is
the same, and (perhaps) better testimony. Where they taste human flesh
at all, it is done in the spirit of vengeance, and not to satisfy
appetite. They tasted of the body of Solis; and they had good reason to
hate him.
Their chief ornaments are the tattoo and the feathers of the ostrich;
and the favourite colour for their incisions is blue.
Now I believe that this savage semi-heroic character of the Charruas
is a fair sample of the wilder and more unsubdued Indians of Chili,
Patagonia, and the Gran Chaco; also, that it is equally true of the
Araucanians as described by Ercilla, and the Pampa Indians of Sir E.
Head. And what is this but a repetition of the same features which we
see in the corresponding part of North America? Here, when we have got
beyond the tropics, we find the Algonkin, Sioux, and Iroquois warriors,
conterminous with, and (as the present writer believes) passing into
the feebler Eskimo--these latter bearing the same relation to their
southern neighbours as the Fuegians do to the northern ones.
Like the Paduca area for North America, the Pampas and the parts to the
north of them are preeminently the country of the horse--so that the
ethnology of Mongolia and Tartary partially reappears here.
* * * * *
In looking back to consider what parts of South America have been
described, we find that the long but narrow strip of the western coast
bounded by the Andes and the Pacific, has been nearly (perhaps wholly)
distributed between three stocks--the Muysca, the Peruvian, and the
Chileno-Patagonian. I say _perhaps wholly_, because the Atacamas and
Changos are probably referable to one of these two latter divisions.
Again--it is likely that future researches may throw these three great
groups into one; at least such is the inference to be drawn from a
comparison of the Patagonian and Peruvian languages.
To a certain extent, the southern part of the peninsula is disposed
of along with the western; since it is safe to say that as far as 30°
south latitude (perhaps farther) the Chileno-Patagonian stock, like
the Eskimo and Athabaskan, stretches _across_ the breadth as well as
_along_ the side of the continent.
The parts still standing over--two-thirds or more of the whole
peninsula--are those bounded by the ocean, the Andes, and 30° south
latitude.
Premising that of these three boundaries the last is artificial and
conventional, whilst the two former are natural, I shall take first in
order those areas which, being geographical or political rather than
ethnological, exhibit the phænomenon, so often met with already, of
numerous groups within narrow compasses. This being done, the remaining
part of the continent will exhibit the contrast of the wide extension
of single families.
* * * * *
For the miscellaneous and imperfectly described sections of the South
American population about to be noticed, the chain of the Andes,
in its extension from Panama to Cape Horn, and in its remarkable
parallelism to the coast of the Pacific, taken along with the three
great water-systems of the Orinoko, the Amazons, and the La Plata, is
the great geographical point of prominence.
Herefrom, about 20° south latitude, a western extension of mountains
and highlands separates the water-system of the Amazons on the North
from that of the Rio de la Plata on the South.
Distinguishing, then--
1. The Indians of the water-system of the Amazons, from--
2. The Indians of the water-system of the Plata, and both from--
3. The Indians of the water-system of the Orinoco--the first section of
the first division consists of the--
I.
INDIANS OF THE MISSIONS.
The distinction here is so far from being ethnological that it
is scarcely geographical. Political, however, as it is, it is
convenient--since the term itself indicates what we shall find, viz., a
more or less imperfect Christianity throughout.
A.
_Indians of the Mission of Moxos._
MOXOS.
_Localities._--_a._ Missions of Carmen de Moxos, Concepcion de
Moxos, San Joaquin de Moxos.
_b._ Loreto de Moxos, Trinidad, San Xavier, San Ignacio.
_c._ To the east of the Missions of Concepcion and Carmen, near
the river Guaporé.
_Divisions._--_a._ Muchojéonès.
_b._ Baurès.
_c._ Moxos Proper.
_Numbers._--
Muchojéonès of Carmen 230
Christian Baurès 4,178
Pagan Baurès 1,000
Moxos 8,212
------
Total 13,620
ITONAMA.
_Locality._--North-east of the province of Moxos. Missions of
Magdalena and San Ramon.
_Name._--Native.
_Numbers_ in 1830.--At Magdalena, 2,831, at San Ramon, 1,984.
Total, 4,815. All Christian.
_Conterminous_ with the _Iténès_, _Baurès_, _Canichanas_,
_Moxas_.
CANICHANA.
_Present locality._--The Mission of San Pedro.
_Name._--Native.
_Numbers_ in 1830, 1939. All Christian.
MOVIMA.
_Present locality._--Mission of Santa Anna.
_Original locality._--Banks of the Yacuma.
_Conterminous_ with the Moxos, Canichanas, and Cayuvavas.
_Name._--Native.
_Numbers_ in 1830, 1238. All Christian.
_Language._--Between the Movima and the Moxas the language is
the only important distinction.
CAYUVAVA.
_Present locality._--Mission of Exaltacion, at the northern
part of the river Mamoré. Originally conterminous with the
Movimas, Iténès, the Maropas, and Pacaguaras.
_Numbers_ in 1831, 2073. All Christian.
_Language._--Between the Cayuvava and the Moxas the language is
the only important difference.
ITÈ (ITÈNÉS).
_Locality._--The junction of the Iténès and Mamoré.
_Name._--Native.
_Probable number._--From 1,000 to 1,200.
PACAGUARA.
_Locality._--The junction of the Beni and Mamoré.
SAPIBOCONI.
_Locality._--The province of Moxos.
The Sapiboconi are mentioned by Hervas, and, from him, in the
Mithridates. They are not, however, mentioned by D'Orbigny, and are
probably extinct. Their language is evidently different from any known
tongue of either Moxos or Chiquitos; and judging from the comparison
of the Mithridates, consisting only of seven words, it seems to be
Quichuan rather than aught else.
ENGLISH. SAPIBOCONI. QUICHUA.
_Head_ emata matti
_Lightning_ ilapa illapo.
_Stone_ tumu rumi.
_Year_ mara mara.
B.
_Indians of the Mission of Chiquitos._
CHIQUITOS.
_Locality._--Centre of the Province of Chiquito.
_Name._--Spanish.
_Tribes_, both existing and extinct, numerous.
_Numbers_ in 1830, 14,925. All Christianized.
_Conterminous_ with the Samucos, Guanos, Guatos, Tobas,
Siriones, Guarayos, Saravecas, Otukés, Tapiis, Covarecas,
Paioconecas, Tapacuras.
SARAVÉCA.
_Present locality._--The Mission of Santa Ana, and Casalvalco.
_Original locality._--North-eastern limits of the Chiquito
tribes.
_Numbers._--At Santa Ana, 250; at La Reduction de Casalvalco,
100. All Christianized.
Except by language, scarcely distinguishable from the Chiquitos.
OTUKÉS.
_Present locality._--The Mission of Santo-Corazon.
_Original locality._--North-eastern parts of Chiquitos, on the
frontiers of Brazil.
_Numbers._--150. All Christians.
Except by language, scarcely distinguishable from the Chiquitos.
COVARECA.
_Present locality._--The Mission of Santa Ana.
_Original locality._--The neighbourhood of the Saravecas and
Curuminacas.
_Numbers._--About 50.
_Language._--Extinct, or almost extinct. Out of a few words
collected by D'Orbigny, one-third Otuké.
CURUMINACA.
_Original locality._--North-east of the province of Chiquitos,
between the Saravecas and the Otukés.
_Present locality._--With Saravecas, at Santa Ana and
Casalvalco.
_Numbers._--100 at Santa Ana, 50 at Casalvalco. All Christian.
_Language._--Almost or wholly extinct. Out of a few words
collected by D'Orbigny, five out of fourteen resembled the
Otuké.
CURAVÉ.
_Present locality._--The Mission of Santa Corazon.
_Original locality._--The neighbourhood of the Saravecas and
Curuminacas.
_Numbers._--50.
_Language._--Extinct. Said to have been peculiar. If so, the
only important distinction between them and the other Chiquitos.
TAPII.
_Present locality._--The Mission of St. Jago de Chiquitos.
_Original locality._--The neighbourhood of the Otukés.
_Numbers._--50.
_Language._--Extinct. Said to have been peculiar. If so, the
only important distinction between them and the other Chiquitos.
CURUCANECA.
_Present locality._--Mission of San Rafael.
_Original locality._--That of the Saravecas, Otukés, &c.
_Numbers_ in 1832, about 50.
_Language._--Extinct. Said to have been peculiar. If so, the
only important distinction between them and the other Chiquitos.
CORABECA.
This nation was conducted by the Jesuits to the Mission of San Rafael;
its original locality having been to the south of that settlement,
on the borders of the Gran Chaco. Here they became unmanageable, and
escaped to the woods--it is supposed to those of their original home.
At present, the numbers were put by D'Orbigny's informants at 100:
their language being said to be peculiar.
PAIOCONECA.
_Present locality of the Christian Paioconecas._--The Mission
of Conception.
_Original locality._--The head-waters of the Rio Blanco
and Rio Verde; 16° south latitude, 63° west latitude from
Paris. Hither, it is supposed, some of the more intractable
Paioconecas of Concepcion have escaped.
_Conterminous_ with the Chiquitos, Saravecas, and the
Chapacuras of Moxos.
_Numbers_ of the Paioconecas of Concepcion, 360.
_Particular Tribe._--Paunacas, 250 in number.
SAMUCU.
_Localities._--South and south-east portions of the province of
Chiquitos, on the limits of the Gran Chaco.
_Conterminous_ with the Guanos, Guatos, Curaves, Xarayes,
Otukés, Saravecas, Curuminacas, Paunacas, and Paioconecas.
_Name._--That of a particular tribe extended to the whole
nation. Other Samucu tribes, still existing, are the Morotocos,
the Potureros, and the Guaranocos.
_Habitat._--Forests, subject to inundations, when they retire
to the hills.
The last three or four families have illustrated a common phænomenon in
the ethnology of these parts; indeed, of many other parts of America as
well, especially the United States.
It by no means follows that the existing locality of any section of
the aboriginal population is the real natural and original one. On
the contrary, wherever we find them Christianized, or semi-civilized,
the chance is in favour of their having been moved from the original
habitat to some so-called _Reserve_ or _Mission_, and _vice versâ_.
Now the Indians of the _Reserves_ and _Missions_ are almost always
modificated in character as well as frequently mixed in blood. On
the other hand, although less typical in the way of ethnological
characteristics they are the best known, on account of the greater
opportunities of intercourse; the laborious and successful Jesuit
Missionaries of Spanish America being the chief authorities.
II.
THE INDIANS OF THE CHACO.
Politically the Chaco, or Gran Chaco, is the tract nominally belonging
to the inland and northern republics of the so-called Argentine
Confederation, rather than to Bolivia; whilst geographically it is
the water-system of the Paraguay and Upper La Plata, rather than of
the Amazons. Ethnologically it is characterized by being the area
of a civilization, which even when compared with that of Moxos and
Chiquitos, is imperfect,--of a still more imperfect and partial
Christianity, and of tribes which are at once nomadic, warlike, and
independent; approaching, in their moral characters, the Charruas and
Patagonians rather than the Peruvian.
The Indians of this part are either equestrian and nomadic, or else
partially settled in villages; this latter being generally the case
where the forests are densest, and where the river-sides afford tracts
of alluvial (and often half inundated) soil. Our knowledge of them
is preeminently scanty; still such vocabularies as are known exhibit
miscellaneous affinities with the languages of other tribes of South
America in general.
THE ABIPONIANS.
_Divisions._--1. Abiponians Proper. 2. Mbocobis and Tobas. 3.
Lenguas. 4. Payaguas. 5. Mataguayos. 6. Mbayas.
_Sub-divisions._--Of the Mataguayos. The Chaès (Qu.? Guanas),
the Yoes, the Matacos, Begosos, Chunipis, and Oeolis.
_Localities._--_a._ Of the Abiponians, the central parts of
the Chaco, conterminous with _b_, the Mbocobis and Tobas
conterminous with the Araucanians of Chili. _c._ Of the
Lenguas, the central parts of the Chaco. _d._ Of the Payaguas,
the banks of the Paraguay as far as its junction with the
Parana, _e._ Of the Mataguayos, the parts between the Pilcomayo
and Vermejo. _f._ Of the Mbayas, the eastern shore of the
Paraguay.
_The Guayanas._--I am unable to say how far this is the same tribe as
the Chanès and Guanas.
_The Calchaquis._--In the time of Dobrizhofer, nearly extinct at
present, most likely wholly so.--Equestrian.
_Malbalaes, Mataras, Palomos, Mogosnas, Oregones, Aquilotes,
Churumates, Ojotades, Tanos, Quamalcas,_--probably extinct; at
least they are placed by Dobrizhofer in the same category with the
Calchaquis. Like the Calchaquis, also, they were equestrian.
_Natekebits._--Equestrian. Probably Abiponian.
_Amokebits._--Ditto.
_Yapetalecas._--Ditto.
Oekakakalots.--Ditto.
_The Lules._--Pedestrian; speaking the same language with
_The Vileles_ and--
_The Ysistines._--Pedestrian.
_The Tonocote._--Converted and partially settled in towns.
_The Homoampas_, the _Ocoles_, the _Pazaines_,--Christianized.
_The Caypotades_ and the _Ygaronos_, like the _Zamucus_, removed to the
Missions.
* * * * *
III.
BRAZILIAN TRIBES _NOT GUARANI_.
Explanatory of the words _not Guarani_, it is necessary to state that
in Brazil begins a distribution of nations and tribes which, tested
by the evidence of language, present the same phænomenon which is
exhibited by the Algonkins of North America, _i.e._ a single area
of language covering a vast space, in contrast with numerous areas
covering a small one; a phænomenon which will be repeated when we
reach Guiana and Essequibo. To clear, therefore, the ground, the
_non-Guarini_ Brazilians will be disposed of first.
THE BOTOCUDOS.
_Synonym._--Aimorés, Guaymarés.
_Native name._--Engcraecknung.
_Locality._--The Sierra dos Aimorés, between the rivers Pardo
and Doce, from 18° to 20° south latitude.
_Divisions._--1. The Gherens. 2. The Kinimures.
_Language._--Peculiar.
Inhabitants of shady forests, the Botocudos are light-coloured or
yellow-coloured cannibals, with oblique eyes.
THE CANARINS.
_Locality._--A small tribe very little known, between the river
Mucury and the river Caravellas, in the Comarca de Porto Seguro.
THE GOITACAS.
_Synonyms._--Goyatacaz, Waytaquases.
_Called by the Portuguese._--Coroados=tonsured. By the
Coropos--Chakwibu.
Divisions.--1. Coroados or Goïtacas Proper. 2. Puris. 3.
Goaïnases(?) 4. Cariyos(?).
_Sub-divisions._--Of the Goïtacas. _a._ Goitacamope. _b._
Goïtaca-asu. _c._ Goïtacá-Iacorito.
_Locality._--The rivers Macabé, Cabapuana, and Xopoti for the
Goïtacas. The upper part of the river Paraiba, and the interior
of the province of Esperito Santo for the Puris.
The evidence that the Goaïnases, inhabitants of subterranean caves, and
more incompletely known than the partially-civilized Goïtacas, belong
to this group is inconclusive. So is the evidence as to the Cariyos.
That the Puris speak a language closely akin to the Coroados may be
seen in the Atlas Ethnologique.
The unsubdued remnants of the Cariyos, "still wander about in small
bodies in the woods of Sierra dos Orgaos and in the meadows of the
province of San Paulo. Descendants of them, settled in villages, are
probably found in the Mission of Aldea da Escada, in the environs
of Macabé, Ilha Grande, and the islands of San Sebastian and San
Catharina."--_Von Martius._
THE MACHACARI-CAMACAN (_of Balbi_).
_Divisions._--1. The Machacari. 2. The Patacho. 3. The Camacan.
4. The Malali.
_Sub-divisions._--(?) _a._ Of the Machacari--the Machacari
Proper and the Macuari. _b._ Of the Camacan--the Camacan
Proper, the Menieng, and the Cutachós.
_Localities._--Of the Machacaris, the Rio Belmonte, formerly
the Rio Mucury.--Of the Macuani (Maconi), originally the woody
mountains on the boundaries of Minas Geraes, Porto Seguro, and
Bahia; at present, the neighbourhood of Caravellas.--Of the
Patacho, the river Mucury, and the head-waters of the rivers
Pardo and Contas.--Of the Camacan, Bahia, between the rivers de
Contas and Pardo.--Of the Menieng, a domiciled section of the
Camacan, the Villa de Belmonte.--Of the Malali, Minas Geraes,
on the Rio Senchy Pequeno, a northern tributary of the river
Doce.
_Synonyms_ of the Camacans--Mongoyós, Mongxocos, or Mangajas.
This is a class taken from the Atlas Ethnologique of Balbi, wherein
we find a short specimen of the language or dialect of each nation
enumerated as belonging to it.
Besides these, however, there is, in the same area, _i.e._ the parts
about the watershed of the rivers Doce, Pardo Da Contas, &c., on one
side, and that of the river San Francisco on the other.
THE COROPOS(?).
_Locality._--Living along with the Coroados, on the river
Xipoto.
_Language._--Placed by Balbi with the Coroados, by Spix and
Martius with the Macuani.
The discrepancy between the evidence of the two authors just named,
explains the note of interrogation, and induces me to leave the Coropos
as an unplaced tribe.
THE CHACRIABAS(?).
_Original locality._--The river Preto, in Pernambuco.
_Present locality._--In the district of Desemboque, in Goyaz.
_Numbers_ in 1830, about 800.
In the paper of Von Martius, the Chacriabas, although placed
geographically in the province of Goyaz, are stated to be, "_probably_
at first a part of the same nation with the Malali."
THE KIRIRI.
_Divisions._--1. Kiriri Proper. 2. Sabujah.
_Locality._--Formerly in the interior of the province of Bahia,
now _settled in_ villages in Caranqueyo, and Villa de Pedra
Branca.
THE CAPOJOS (CAPOXOS).
_Locality._--Mountains between Minas Geraes and Porto Seguro.
Migratory.
THE PANHAMI.
_Locality._--Head-waters of the river Mucury, on the Sierra das
Esmeraldas. Migratory.
THE CUMANACHÓS.
_Locality._--Conterminous with the Capojos.
THE CACHINESES.
_Locality._--Minas Geraes, on the Sierra Mantiquiera. Probably
either extinct or incorporated.
THE ARARIS.
_Locality._--Minas Geraes, on the river Preto. Probably either
extinct or incorporated.
THE CHUMETÓS.
THE PITTÁS.
_Locality._--Rio de Janeiro, at Valença. Present existence
doubtful.
THE VOTURONGS (VOTUROES).
THE TACTAYAS.
THE CAMEŚ.
_Locality._--The province of San Paolo. Probably conterminous
with the Charruas and the tribes of the Chaco.
The next area which will be noticed is the province of Goyaz, lying
to the west of the watershed which separates the system of the river
Tocantins from that of the river San Francisco, a tract watered by the
first-named of these two rivers, and also by the river Araguaya; its
southern part belonging to the system of the river Plata.
THE GÉS AND TIMBIRAS.
_Probable divisions._--1. The Gés Proper. 2. The Crans.
_Sub-divisions_, _a._ of the Gés.--The Norogua-Gés, the
Apina-Gés, the Canacata-Gés, the Mannacob-Gés, the Poncata-Gés,
the Pacacab-Gés, the Ao-Gés, the Cricata-Gés.
_b._ Of the Crans.--The Saccame-Crans, the Corrume-Crans,
the Crurecame-Crans, the Aponegi-Crans, the Poni-Crans, the
Purecame-Crans, the Paragramma-Crans, the Macame-Crans, the
Sape-Crans, and the Jocamè-Crans.
_Area._--Northern part of Goyaz, on each side of the river
Tocantins.
_Synonym._--Of the Crans.--Timbiras, Embiras, or Imbiras.
Other tribes of the province of Goyaz, wholly unknown in respect to
their ethnological affinities, are--
1. _The Goyaz(?)._--These gave the name to the province. Extinct, or
incorporated.
2. _The Anicun._--Extinct, or incorporated.
3. _The Cayapos(?)._--In 1830, about 800 in number, on the river
Grande, a feeder of the river Parana.
4. _The Bororos._--On the head-waters of the Araguya. Falling into two
divisions, the Coroados and the Barbadoes of the Portuguese.
5. _The Aroes._
6. _The Tapirakés._
7. _The Chimbiwás._
8. _The Guapindayás._
9. _The Javaés._--Extinct.
10. _The Chavantes._
11. _The Cherentes(?)_
12. _The Pochetys._--Cannibals.
13. _The Carayas(?)._
14. _The Cortys._
15. _The Tapacoas._
The watershed of the rivers San Francisco and Parahyba, comprising part
of the provinces of Piauhy, Maranham is the area of--1. The Acroas; 2.
the Masacaras; 3. the Jaicos; 4. the Pimenteiras (Pimento Indians, the
native name being unknown); 5. the Garanhuns; 6. the Ceococes; 7. the
Romaris; 8. the Acconans; 9. the Carapotos; 10. the Pannaty.
The whole ethnography here is most obscure. The Acroa, probably
represent a large class. In Martius's paper they fall into two
divisions, the Acroa-assu (Great), and the Acroa-ming (Little) Acroa.
Besides this, however, separate mention is made of the _Acrayás_, with
the remark that they are probably the same as the Acroa. If so, three
fresh tribes become Acroa; viz., the Aracujás, the Pontás, and the
Goghés--these being specially stated to be _Acrayá_.
Again, in the "Atlas Ethnologique" we have a _Ge_ or _Geic_ vocabulary.
It is marked, however, with a note of interrogation(?), which casts
a shade over the light it would otherwise give. As it is, however,
it has considerable affinity to the Timbiras, a fact which, perhaps,
identifies it with the Gés, though it complicates the ethnology still
more.
The table-land which contains the head-waters of the river Tabajos,
amid the primeval forests of the Mata Grosso, is the Campos dos
Parecis, or the Plain of the Parecis. This is a convenient centre for
the complicated ethnology of the area next in question, an area bounded
(there or thereabouts) by the rivers Amazons, Madera, and Xingu, with
the Tapajos in the middle of it.
_Southward and Westward._--Here the Brazilian populations come
in contact with those of Paraguay, the Chaco, and the Mission of
Chiquitos; so that probably the ethnology is, partially at least, the
same as for those areas.
Here, too, the list of tribes (all unfixed in respect to their
ethnology) is as follows:--1. The Caupeses; 2. the Pacalekes
(Flat-heads); 3. the Guaxis; 4. the Cabijis; 5. the Red Cabijis; 6.
the Ababas; 7. the Puchacas; 8. the Guajejus; 9. the Mequens; 10. the
Patitins; 11. the Aricorones; 12. the Lambys; 13. the Tumarares; 14.
the Coturiás; 15. the Pacas.
_Eastward and Northward._--1. The Maturares; 2. Mambares; 3. the
Uyapas; 4. the Mambriacas; 5. the Tamares; 6. the Sarumás; 7. the
Ubaivas; 8. the Jacuriunas; 9. the Juajajas; 10. the Bacuris; 11. the
Camarares; 12. the Quariteres; 13. the Baccahyris; 14. the Junienas;
15. the Cuchipos, probably extinct.
The Parecis formerly the predominant nation of the Mata Grosso is now
nearly extinct, and from want of _data_, its ethnological import is
undetermined. It is probable, however, that _at least_, the Cabijis,
the Mambares, and the Baccahirys, a tribe of Goyaz, are, or were,
Pareci.
The southern bank of the Amazons, including the _lower_ portions of
the rivers Tocantins, Xingu, and Tabajos, a line coinciding with the
northern boundary of the province of Para, is even more of a _terra
incognita_ than the Mata Grosso, the list of tribes whereof contain no
less than fifty-two names. Of these, but three will be noticed.
THE MUNDRUCUS.
_Locality._--Between the rivers Mauhé and the Tabajos.
_Synonym._--Paighize=Decapitators; so-called by their
neighbours.
_Language._--Known by a vocabulary, with general, but without
particular, affinities.
THE MAUHÉS.
_Locality._--The rivers Mauhé and Furo Trana.
_Divisions._--_a._ The Tatus (=Armadillo Indians) _b._ The
Tasiwas. _c._ The Jurupari Pareira (Devil's Indians). _d._
The Mucuings (named from an insect). _e._ The Jubaras. _f._
The Writapwuas. _g._ The Guaribas (Roaring Ape Indians). _h._
The Inambus (from a bird so-called). _i._ The Jawareté (Ounce
Indians). _j._ The Saucanés. _k._ Pira-Pereiras (Fish Indians).
The Caribunas are placed by V. Martius in this list, with the remark
that they are probably Caribs. If so, the rest are, probably, Caribs
also.
The Caribunas are also said to be monorchides, but whether artificially
or naturally, is unexplained.
THE MURUS.
_Original locality._--The upper part of the river Madera.
_Present locality._--The lower part of ditto. Migratory.
_Language._--Known by a vocabulary. With general, but without
particular affinities.
And now come the parts over which hangs a darker obscurity than
that which envelopes the ethnology of the rest of Brazil, viz. the
water-system of the river Negro, and that part of the Amazons which
lies east of the Madera. Geographically, this falls into three
divisions--
1. The parts between the Rivers Madera and Ucayale.
2. The parts north of the Amazons, and _west_ of the river Negro.
3. The parts north of the Amazons, and _east_ of the river Negro.
1. _The parts between the Rivers Madera and Ucayale._--Here the known
frontier westwards is that of the Quichua area.
_The Puru-Purus._--Not known in detail, but said to have pie-bald
skins. Settled on the Lower Puru.
_The Yameos._--Speaking a language which, from a Paternoster in Hervas,
seems to be peculiar. Inhabitants of the river Yavari, and conterminous
with a tribe which politically belongs to Peru, and which (perhaps)
brings the Brazilian tribes in contact with the Quichuan. This is--
_The Mainas._--Speaking a language which, from a Paternoster in Hervas,
seems to be peculiar.
_The Chimanos._--On the upper Yavari, speaking an apparently peculiar
language, but one with miscellaneous affinities.
Thirty-three other tribes are enumerated as inhabiting the area.
2. _The parts north of the river Amazons and west of the river
Negro._--Here the known frontier northwards is that of the tribes of
the water-system of the Orinoko, hereafter to be noticed.
For one of these, out of forty, we have a vocabulary of the
CORETU.
_Locality._--The Upper Apuré.
_Language._--With general, but without particular affinities.
The Yupuas, on the Totá, a feeder of the Apuré, are said, by V.
Martius, to be Coretu.