his travels across South America from the shores of the Pacific to those
of the Atlantic, is accompanied by several sketches representing Antis
Indians and some wandering hordes which belong to the same group; and we
have reproduced a few of these drawings in our pages, the first two
(figs. 181 and 182) being types of the heads of these people. We also
derive from the same source the following details as to this race.
The Antis is of medium stature and well-proportioned, with rounded
limbs. He paints his cheeks and the part round his eyes with a red dye,
extracted from the rocou plant, and also colours those parts of his body
exposed to the air with the black of genipa. His covering consists of a
long, sack-shaped frock, woven by the women, as is also the wallet, in
the shape of a hand bag, carried by him across his shoulder, and
containing his toilet articles, namely:--a comb made with the thorns of
the Chouta palm; some rocou in paste; half a genipa apple; a bit of
looking-glass framed in wood; a ball of thread; a scrap of wax; pincers
for extracting hairs, formed of two mussel-shells; a snuff-box made from
a snail’s shell, and containing very finely ground tobacco gathered
green; an apparatus for grating the snuff, made of the ends of reeds or
two arm bones of a monkey, soldered together with black wax at an acute
angle; sometimes, a knife, scissors, fish-hooks, and needles of
European manufacture.
[Illustration: 181.--AN ANTIS INDIAN.]
Both sexes wear their hair hanging down like a horse’s tail, and cut
straight across just over the eyes. The only trinket they carry is a
piece of silver money flattened between two stones, which they pierce
with a hole and hang from the cartilage of their nostrils. For ornaments
they have necklaces of glass beads, cedar and styrax berries, skins of
birds of brilliant plumage, tucana’s beaks, tapir’s claws, and even
vanilla husks strung upon a thread.
[Illustration: 182.--AN ANTIS INDIAN.]
The Antis almost always build their dwellings on the banks of a
water-course, isolated and half hidden by a screen of vegetation. The
huts are low and dirty, and pervaded by a smell like that of wild
beasts, for the air can scarcely circulate in them. In the fine season
of the year sheds take the place of closed-up huts (fig. 183).
The weapons used by the Antis are clubs and bows and arrows. Fishermen
capture their prey in the running streams with arrows barbed at the
ends, or having three prongs like a trident. Other darts, with
palm-points or bamboo-heads, are employed by the hunter for birds and
quadrupeds.
The Antis occasionally poison the waters of the creeks and bays by means
of the _Menispermum cocculus_. The fish become instantaneously
intoxicated; they first struggle, then rise belly uppermost, and come
floating on the surface, where they are easily taken with the hand (fig.
184).
The earthenware of this people is coarsely manufactured, and is painted
and glazed. They live in families, or in separate couples, and have no
law beyond their own caprice. They do not elect chiefs, except in time
of war, and to lead them against an enemy. The girls are marriageable at
twelve years of age, and accept any husband who seeks them, if he has
previously made some present to their parents. They prepare their lord
and master’s food, weave his clothes, look after and gather in the crops
of rice, manioc, maize, and other cereals; carry his baggage on a
journey, follow him to battle, and pick up the arrows which he has
discharged; they also accompany him in the chase or when fishing, paddle
his canoe, and bring back to their dwelling the booty gained from an
enemy, and the game or fish which has been killed; and yet,
notwithstanding this severe work and continual bondage, the women are
always cheerful.
[Illustration: 183.--SUMMER SHED OF THE ANTIS.]
They use a large earthen vessel to cook the fish caught in the nearest
stream, or the game killed in the adjoining forest.
[Illustration: 184.--ANTIS INDIANS FISHING.]
When one of this nation dies, his relatives and friends assemble in his
abode, seize the corpse (which is wrapped in the loose sack-like frock
usually worn,) by the head and feet, and throw it into the river. They
then wreck the dwelling, break the deceased’s bow, arrows, and pottery,
scatter the ashes of his hearth, devastate his crops, cut down to the
ground the trees which he has planted, and finally set fire to his hut.
The place is thenceforth reputed impure, and is shunned by all
passers-by; vegetation very soon reasserts its sway, and the dead is for
ever effaced from the memory of the living.
[Illustration: 185.--PERUVIAN INTERPRETER.]
These people who thus treat their dead so badly, profess an equal
disdain for the aged, for whom they reserve the refuse of their food,
their worn-out rags, and the worst place at the hearth.
Their religion is a jumble of theogonies, in which however are
recognizable a notion of the existence of a supreme God, the idea of the
two principles of good and evil, and finally, a belief in reward or
punishment on leaving this life.
The manners of these tribes are, as may be seen, a somewhat singular
medley; free will is the ruling law and, as it were, the wisdom of their
race, which lives unfettered in the bosom of nature.
The Antis Indians have a soft smooth idiom, which they speak with
extreme volubility in a low, gentle tone that never varies.
* * * * *
_Araucanians._--These tribes spread themselves over the western slopes
of the Andes, from 30 degrees south latitude to the extremity of Tierra
del Fuego, and also occupy the upper valleys and plains situate to the
east of the Cordilleras.
The Araucanians constitute two nations, namely, the people who properly
bear that name, indomitable warriors, whose heroism is celebrated in the
history of the Spanish conquest of Peru: and the _Pecherays_, who
inhabit the most southern link of the American mountain chain.
According to A. d’Orbigny, both these races present a great similitude
as regards their physical characteristics, which consist of a head that
is large in proportion to the body, a round face, prominent cheekbones,
a broad mouth, thick lips, a short, flat nose, wide nostrils, a narrow
retiring forehead, horizontal eyes, and a thin beard.
Fig. 186 is a representation, after Pritchard, of one of those
Araucanian Indians who may be considered as forming the least barbarous
of the independent native tribes of South America.
These people do not, in fact, lead the nomadic existence of Indians.
Being protected by thick forests from the attacks and invasions of the
Americans, they build what are real houses with wood and iron, and
their customs denote a rudimentary civilization.
A Périgueux attorney has rendered the Araucanian nation celebrated in
France. He had succeeded in getting himself chosen as its king, and when
chased away by the Peruvians came to relate his Odyssey in Europe,
returning afterwards to reconquer his unstable throne. Orélie, the First
of the name, has according to rumour recovered at present his lofty
position among the Indians of Araucania. We wish him a tranquil reign.
[Illustration: 186.--ARAUCANIAN.]
The _Pecherays_ inhabit the coast of Tierra del Fuego and both shores of
the Straits of Magellan. The life they lead and the ice covering all the
interior of the hilly country they occupy, force them to remain
exclusively on the borders of the sea.
Their colour is olive or tawny; they are well built but of clumsy
figure, and their legs bowed, from continually sitting cross-legged,
give them an unsteady gait. Their pleasant natural smile gives
indication of an obliging disposition.
Being essentially nomadic, they do not form themselves into communities,
but move about in small numbers, by groups of two or three families,
living by hunting and fishing, and changing their resting-place as soon
as they have exhausted the animals and shell-fish of the neighbourhood.
Dwelling in a region which is split up into a multitude of islands, they
have become navigators, and continually traverse every shore of Tierra
del Fuego as well as of the countries situated to the east of the
strait. They build large boats, twelve to fifteen feet long and three
feet broad, from the bark of trees, with no other implements than shells
or hatchets made of flint.
[Illustration: 187.--PECHERAY HUTS.]
Their huts (fig. 187) are covered over with earth or sealskins and some
fine morning the whole family will abandon them and take to their canoes
with their numerous dogs. The women ply their oars, while the men hold
themselves in readiness to pierce any fish they perceive, with a dart
pointed by a sharpened stone. When in this way they arrive at another
island, the women, having placed their little vessel in safety, start
in search of shell-fish and the men go hunting with the sling or the bow.
A short stay is followed by a fresh departure.
These poor people are thus incessantly exposed to the dangers of the sea
and the inclemency of the seasons, and yet they are, it may be said,
without clothing. The men’s shoulders are barely covered with a scrap of
sealskin, whilst the whole apparel of the women consists in a little
apron of the same material.
Notwithstanding this rude existence, the Pecherays display some
coquetry. They load their necks, arms, and legs with gewgaws and shells,
and paint their bodies, and oftener their faces, with different designs
in red, white, and black. The men occasionally ornament their heads with
bunches of feathers. All wear a kind of boot made of sealskin.
Like all other tribes who subsist by hunting, the Pecherays have among
themselves frequent quarrels, and even petty wars, that last only a
short time but are continually renewed.
They share their food with their faithful companions, the dogs; it
consists of cooked or raw shell-fish, birds, fish, and seals, and they
eat the fat of the latter raw. They do not, like the inhabitants of the
North Pole, pass the most rigorous period of the winter underground, but
pursue their labours in the open air, protecting themselves as best they
can against the cold which prevails on these shores, notwithstanding the
deceitful name of Tierra del Fuego. This “Land of Fire,” by reason of
its proximity to the South Pole, is, during the greater part of the
year, a region of ice.
The women are subjected to the roughest labours. They row, fish, build
the cabins, and plunge into the sea, even during the most intense cold,
in their search for the shell-fish attached to the rocks.
The language of the Pecherays resembles that of the Patagonians and the
Puelches in sound, and that of the Araucanians in form. Their weapons
and their religion, as well as the paintings on their faces, are also
those of these three neighbouring nations.
PAMPEAN FAMILY.
The rather numerous tribes of South America who compose this family are
frequently of tall stature, with arched and prominent foreheads
overhanging horizontal eyes which are sometimes contracted at the outer
angle. They inhabit the immense plains or _Pampas_, situated at the foot
of the eastern slope of the Andes. They rear great numbers of horses,
and consequently the men, like the tribes who roam over the steppes of
Asia, are nearly always mounted.
The peoples comprised in this family are: the _Patagonians_, properly so
called; the _Puelches_, or the tribes of the Pampas to the south of the
La Plata river; the _Charruas_, in the vicinity of Uruguay; the _Tobas_,
_Lenguas_, and _Machicuys_, who occupy the greater part of Chaco; the
_Moxos_, the _Chiquitos_, and the _Mataguayos_; and finally the famous
_Abipones_; the centaurs of the New World. We can only speak of some of
these groups.
* * * * *
_Patagonians._--Under this name we include, besides the Patagonians
proper, several other nomadic races resembling them, who are found, some
to the north, and others to the south, of the La Plata. The latter
wander over the pampas which stretch from that river as far as the
Straits of Magellan; while the northern tribes, who bear a physical
resemblance to the genuine Patagonians, inhabit that portion of the
country comprised between the Paraguay river and the last spurs of the
Cordilleras, and which stretches northward as far as the twentieth
degree of latitude, including the inland plains of the province of
Chaco.
The Patagonians are the nomads of the New World. They furnish the
horsemen who scour its vast arid tracts, living under tents of skins, or
who hide in its forests, in huts covered with bark and thatch. Haughty
and unconquered warriors, they despise agriculture and the arts of
civilization, and have always resisted the Spanish arms.
These savages have darker skins than most of those in South America.
Their complexion is an olive-brown; and among the men composing them we
find the tallest stature as well as the most athletic and robust frames.
The tribes dwelling furthest south are the tallest, and the height of
the others diminishes as the Chaco region is approached.
As has been stated in the introduction to this work, the stature of this
people has been heretofore greatly exaggerated. M. Alcide d’Orbigny,
who resided for seven months among many distinct divisions of the
Patagonians, measured several individuals in each. He assures us that
the tallest of all was only five feet eleven inches in height, and that
the average is not above five feet four.
M. Victor de Rochas, in the account he has given of his voyage to
Magellan’s Straits, has proved in a similar manner that the stature of
the Patagonians is by no means extraordinary. He found them possessed of
a brown complexion; coarse straight black hair, little beard; serious
countenances--those of the men being manly and haughty, and the women’s
mild and good--and regular but coarse features. The hands and feet of
the females were small.
Broad, robust bodies, stout limbs, and vigorous constitutions
characterise all the tribes in question, the women as well as the men.
The Patagonians proper have large heads and wide flat faces with
prominent cheek-bones.
Among the nations of Chaco, which we shall speak of further on, the eyes
are small, horizontal, and sometimes slightly contracted at the outer
corner; the nose is short, flat and broad, with open nostrils; the mouth
big, the chin short, and the lips thick and prominent; they have arched
eyebrows, little beard, long straight black hair, and gloomy
countenances, frequently of ferocious aspect.
Though the languages of these races are essentially distinct, they have
a certain analogy between themselves; all are harsh, guttural, and
difficult of pronunciation.
The details which follow are derived from the narrative of a traveller,
M. Guinard, who spent three years in captivity among the Patagonians.
Fate threw him into the hands of the tribe of the Poyuches, who wander
along the southern bank of the Rio Negro, from the neighbourhood of
Pacheco Island.
Whether these nomadic Indians live in the vicinity of the Spanish
Americans or in the solitudes of Patagonia, beneath the outlying woody
spurs of the Cordilleras, or on the bare, wild soil of the Pampas, they
lead identically the same life. Their occupations are the chase, tending
their domestic animals, horsemanship, and the use of the lance, the
sling, and the lasso.
Their dwellings consist of hide tents, carried by these savages from
place to place in their migrations. Their costume is composed of a piece
of some sort of stuff with a hole in the middle to pass the head
through, and their waist is girt by another fragment of smaller size. A
cloth rag is tied round their head, separating the hair in front, and
allowing it to fall in long waves over the shoulders. They carefully
pluck the hair from every part of their bodies, without even sparing the
eyebrows. Their faces are painted with volcanic earths which the
Araucanians bring them, the colours varying according to taste, but red,
blue, black, and white have the preference. The women wear a frock with
holes for their heads, arms, and legs; they pull out their hair and
eyebrows like the men, and paint their faces, the strange and hard
expression of which is enhanced by ornaments of coarse beads. Bracelets
and square ear-rings complete their toilette. They can throw the lance
and the lasso with as much ease as the men, and ride on horseback like
them. M. Guinard learned how to manage the horses and use the weapons of
this people, for they made him join in their nandu and _guanaco_ hunts.
[Illustration: 188.--PATAGONIAN.]
The chief occupation of these Indians is, in fact, the chase, and they
devote themselves to it all through the year. The _Chen-elches_, one of
the Patagonian tribes, who have no horses, pursue their game on foot.
[Illustration: 189.--A PATAGONIAN HORSE SACRIFICE.]
On their return from hunting the Patagonians abandon themselves to
gambling and debauchery. They cheat at play and become intoxicated to
madness, when they fight among themselves with fury. Two religious
festivals are observed by them during the year, on which occasions they
dance and indulge in fantastic cavalcades.
A custom of piercing their children’s ears exists among these people,
and the ceremony which then takes place is analogous to that of baptism.
The child is laid on a horse, which has been thrown down by the chief of
the family or tribe, and a hole is solemnly bored through the little
lobe of his ear.
Let us add that the existence of a new-born infant is submitted to the
consideration of the father and mother, who decide upon its life or
death. Should they think fit to get rid of it, it is smothered, and its
body carried a short distance, and then abandoned to wild dogs and birds
of prey. If the poor little one is judged worthy to live, its mother
nurses it until it is three years old, and at four years of age its ears
are solemnly pierced, as described above.
The Patagonians in their religious ceremonials, sacrifice to the Deity a
young horse and an ox given by the richest among them. When these
animals have been thrown on the ground, with their heads turned towards
the east, a man rips open the victim (fig. 189), tears out the heart and
sticks it, still palpitating, on the end of a spear. The eager and
curious crowd, with eyes fixed on the blood flowing from the gash, draw
auguries, which are almost always to their own advantage, and then
retire to their abodes, under the belief that God will favour their
undertakings.
Marriage among these nations is a traffic, a barter of various articles
and animals for a wife. The woman, moreover, is burdened with work,
whilst the man takes his ease, whenever he is not hunting or engaged in
minding the cattle.
The Patagonian who dies in his own home is buried with pomp. His body,
covered with his handsomest ornaments, and with his weapons laid beside
it, is stretched on a winding-sheet of skins. They then wrap it in these
skins and tie it on the back of his favourite horse, whose left leg they
break. All the women of the tribe join the wives of the deceased and
utter piercing shrieks. The men, having painted their hands and faces
black, escort the body as far as the place of burial, where horses and
sheep are sacrificed to serve as food for the dead during his journey
into the next world.
* * * * *
_Tobas_, _Lenguas_, and _Machicuys_.--These three tribes, which must, as
we have said, be included in the Pampean family, are termed collectively
the Indians of the Grand Chaco, or Great Desert. It will not be
uninteresting, in order to give an example of the customs of the wild
South American races, to quote here some pages in which an account of
his visit to the Grand Chaco nations is related by Dr. Demersay in his
travels in Paraguay.
“Reduced at the present day to very small numbers and, indeed, almost
extinct, the remnant of the Lengua nation,” says Dr. Demersay, “lives to
the north of the river Pilcomayo, in union and amalgamated with the
Emmages and Machicuys, within a short distance of the Quartel. Their
actual enemies are the Tobas, who are allied to the Pitiligas, Chunipis
and Aguilots, and who constitute a numerous horde on the other side of
the Pilcomayo.
“The remnants of the Lenguas are more especially joined and mingled with
the Machicuys: in fact, they no longer form more than a dozen families,
and the Mascoyian cacique is theirs as well.
“There are _payes_ or doctors, among the Lenguas, who administer nothing
to a sick person beyond water or fruit, and who practise suction with
the mouth for wounds and sore places. They interlard this operation with
juggleries and songs, accompanied by gourds (_porongos_), shaken in the
invalid’s ears. These porongos are filled with little stones, and make a
deafening clatter. The payes are also sorcerers, and read the future as
well as heal the sick.
“Some girls, but the custom is not general, tattoo themselves in an
indelible way at the age of puberty, an event which is always marked by
rejoicing. This festival consists of a family gathering, during which
the men intoxicate themselves with brandy, if they can obtain some by
barter, or with a fermented liquor (_chicha_) extracted from the fruit
of the _algarobo_.
“The tattooing of the women consists of four narrow and parallel blue
lines, which descend from the top of the forehead to the end of the
nose, but are not continued on the upper lip, as well as of irregular
rings traced on the cheeks and chin as far as the temples.
[Illustration: 190.--A BOLIVIAN CHIEF.]
“Both sexes pierce their ears when extremely young, and pass through
them a bit of wood, the width of which they keep incessantly increasing,
so that towards forty years of age the holes are of enormous dimensions.
I measured several of these orifices, and found their average length to
be two inches and a half, whilst their diameter was somewhat less
considerable. The pieces of wood are solid, irregularly rounded, and
about an inch and three-quarters in thickness at their widest part. The
Lenguas often replace them by a long fragment of the bark of a tree,
rolled spirally like a wire spring. This ear-ring is called a _barbote_.
“The Lenguas comb their hair, which they cut at the top of the forehead,
forming a lock which is drawn backwards, passing over the left ear,
until it falls into the mass collected and tied behind with a riband or
a woollen string. This body of hair, which is always black, straight,
and generally very fine and even silky, then falls between the
shoulders. The women do not always dress their hair in this way; I saw
many who allowed it to hang in loose disorder. Moreover, though they may
sometimes comb it, no one can say that these people take care of their
hair; their extreme filthiness argues to the contrary, for nothing can
possibly be seen dirtier than this nation, which in this respect closely
resembles the others.
“The weapons of the Lenguas consist of a bow and arrows, which they
carry behind their backs bound up in a hide; they have also an axe,
called by them _achagy_, borne in a similar manner. They carry in their
hand a _mahana_, or staff, made of hard, heavy wood; and to these is
also added a spear tipped with iron, and they sometimes have the _bolas_
and the lasso. They are excellent horsemen, riding barebacked with their
wife and children, all on the same animal, and all, women and men,
sitting in the same way. They use no bit, contenting themselves with a
piece of stick; they make reins from the fibres of the _caraguata_.
“Their olive brown colour, darker than that of the Tobas, their
prominent cheek-bones, small eyes, broad flat faces, slightly depressed
noses, wide mouths, and large lips, give to the countenance of these
savages a peculiar look which is not a little enhanced by a pair of ears
that come down to the base of the neck, and with some individuals as far
as the collar bone. The Lenguas, like all Indians, become hideous as
they grow old.
“A few weeks had passed since my excursion in this direction, when, as I
was returning to Assumption from a fresh journey into the interior of
the country, I heard that the Quartel had been the object of a
completely unforeseen attack on the part of the Chaco tribes, and that,
after an encounter in which two Indians had lost their lives, the troops
had been able to recover the stolen cattle and to take some prisoners,
who were immediately sent on to the capital, where they were confided to
the keeping of the guard at the cavalry barrack near the arsenal and
port. A more favourable opportunity could not have offered for
continuing and completing my ethnological studies, so the next day I
hastened to the building.
“On arriving there I found a dozen Indians loaded with irons, seated
here and there in the centre of a narrow court. They were covered with
dirty European garments, in tattered _ponchos_, or draped in antique
fashion with wretched blankets. Two boys, one eight and the other
fifteen years old, were among the prisoners, and all seemed sad and
dejected. They preserved a profound silence, which I had some trouble to
make them break.
“Side by side with the Lenguas, whom I had seen at the Quartel, there
were some Tobas and Machicuys; but although known to the first, my
interpreter questioned them in vain as to the motive of their attack.
“The Tobas are generally of tall and erect stature. I measured three of
them, and found their height to be respectively, 5 feet 10¼ inches, 5
feet 8½ inches, and 5 feet 6¼ inches. Their muscular system is
developed, and their well-formed limbs, like those of all the other
nations of the Chaco, are terminated by hands and feet which would cause
envy to an European.
“They have an ordinary forehead, which is not retreating; lively eyes,
larger than those of the Lenguas, and narrow thin eyebrows. The iris is
black, and they do not pluck out their eyelashes. Their long regular
nose is rounded at the end, where it becomes slightly enlarged, and
their mouth, which is a little turned up at the angles, is better
proportioned and smaller than that of the Lenguas, and is furnished with
fine teeth, which are preserved to a very advanced age. They are also
without prominent cheek-bones, and their faces are not so broad as that
of the other nation.
[Illustration: 191.--A BOAT ON THE RIO NEGRO.]
“The Tobas seem to have renounced the use of the barbote, which at the
time of Azara they still wore, and none of them had any scar on the
lower lip. Their ears were not pierced. They allow their hair to grow,
letting it float freely without being tied; a few, however, cut it
straight across the forehead, a habit which is even practised by some of
the women.
“The colour of their skin is an olive brown, not so dark as that of the
Lenguas, and contains no yellow tint; but I confess to the great
difficulty there is in expressing shades so varied in hue.
“Nothing could draw the prisoners from their taciturnity; their
countenances remained impassive, cold, and serious during all our
questioning. A winning smile and interesting face are attributed by some
travellers to the women while still young; but their features
deteriorate at an early age, and, like the men, they grow into repulsive
ugliness. Their breasts, which are of moderate size and well formed at
first, lengthen to such an extent as to enable them to suckle the
children carried on their backs.
“The Toba nation occupies, or, to speak more accurately, overruns a
considerable extent of the Chaco plains. We meet its members on the
banks of the Pilcomayo, from its mouth to the first spurs of the Andes,
where they come in contact with the Chiriguanos, with whom they are
often at war.
“Being usually nomadic, the Tobas occupy themselves in fishing and
hunting; their weapons consist of arrows, _makanas_, long spears with
iron points, and the _bolas_. Some of their tribes, more settled in
their habits, add the produce of agriculture to that of the chase, by
cultivating maize, manioc, and potatoes.
“The children of both sexes wear no covering; men and women roll a piece
of cloth round their loins, or envelope themselves in a cloak made from
the skins of wild animals. Necklaces and bracelets of glass beads or
small shells form the ornaments of the females, while in some tribes the
men twine round their bodies long white rows of beads, composed of
little fragments of shells rounded like buttons, and strung together at
regular intervals.”
* * * * *
_Machicuys._--Dr. Demersay does not share the opinion expressed by M.
d’Orbigny that the Machicuys may be nothing more than a tribe of the
Tobas, whose language they perhaps speak. According to the first-named
traveller, the tongues of the two nations are different, and other
distinctions separate them.
“The Machicuys,” says Dr. Demersay, “are more sedentary in their habits,
are greater tillers of the soil, and are endowed with less fierce
manners than the Lenguas, but they resemble them in the extraordinary
dimensions of the lobe of the ears as well as in their weapons and
method of fighting. Azara says that they differ in the shape of their
barbote, which is said to resemble that of the Charruas. To reiterate an
observation we have already made, we say that none of the Machicuys we
have seen showed any marks of the opening intended for the reception of
this savage ornament, which they are abandoning, after the example of
the Brazilian Botocudos, whilst certain tribes of the ancient continent
religiously preserve it. In the same way the Berrys, a black nation on
the borders of the Saubat, a tributary on the right bank of the Nile,
pierce their lower lip, in order to insert a piece of crystal more than
an inch long.
“In height, formation, and proportions the Machicuys are similar to the
Lenguas, and like them they have small eyes, broad faces, large mouths,
flat noses, and wide nostrils. Their hair is allowed to hang loosely,
and its thick curls partly cover their faces and fall on their
shoulders.
“The language of these nations, like that of all the Indians of the
Chaco, is strongly accentuated and full of sounds that require an effort
to be forced from the nose and throat; it contains double consonants
extremely difficult to pronounce.”
* * * * *
_Moxos_ and _Chiquitos_.--The interior and, to some extent, central
regions of South America lying north of the Chaco, have been called by
the Spaniards the “Provinces of the Moxos and Chiquitos,” from the names
of the two principal families of Indian race living in these countries.
The Moxos inhabit vast plains, subject to frequent inundations and
overrun by immense streams, on which they are constantly obliged to
navigate in their boats. They are the ichthyophagists of the river
districts of the interior.
The land of the Chiquitos is a succession of mountains inconsiderable in
height, covered with forests and intersected by numerous small rivers.
They are husbandmen and have fixed abodes.
[Illustration: 192.--EXAMINADOR OF CHILI.]
The Chiquitos live in clans, each of which has its own little village.
The men go about naked, but the women wear a flowing garment, which they
like to ornament. These Indians are gifted with a happy disposition and
amiable manners; they are sociable, hospitable, inclined to gaiety, and
passionately fond of dancing and music. They have become permanently
converted to Christianity. Their physical characteristics include a
large and spherical head, almost always circular, a round, full face,
prominent cheekbones, a low, arched forehead, a short nose, slightly
flattened and with narrow nostrils, small horizontal eyes, full of
expression and vivacity, thin lips, fine teeth, a mediocre mouth, little
beard, and long black, glossy hair, which does not whiten in extreme old
age, but grows yellow.
The manners of the Moxos are strongly analogous to those of the
Chiquitos. Their colour is an olive brown, and their stature of the
average height. They have not very vigorous limbs, their nose is short
and not very broad, their mouth of medium size, their lips and
cheekbones but little prominent; their face is oval or round, and their
countenances mild and rather merry. This race dwells on the confines of
Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil.
Before the conquest these tribes were established on the banks of the
rivers and lakes. They were fishers, hunters, and more especially
agriculturists. The chase was a relaxation for them; fishing a
necessity; husbandry afforded them provisions and drinks. Their customs,
however, were barbarous. Superstition made a Moxos sacrifice his wife in
case she miscarried, and his children if they happened to be twins. The
mother rid herself of her offspring _if it wearied her_. Marriage could
be dissolved at the will of the parties to it, and polygamy was
frequent. These Indians were all, more or less, warriors; but tradition
and writings have only preserved for us the memorials of one single
nation, the members of which were cannibals and devoured their
prisoners. The counsels of the missionaries have modified the manners of
this people, without removing all its savage usages.
Both the Moxos and the Chiquitos have broad shoulders, extremely full
chests, and most robust bodies.
Each of these two races includes a certain number of hordes which we see
no necessity for alluding to particularly here, for their half wild
habits resemble those of the tribes we have just commented on; and for
similar reasons we shall pass over in silence the other races ranked in
the Pampean family, and whose names have been enumerated in a preceding
page.
GUARANY FAMILY.
The _Guarany Family_ is spread over an immense space, from the Rio de La
Plata as far as the Caribbean Sea. Its principal characteristics consist
of a yellowish complexion, a little tinged with red, a middle stature, a
very heavy frame, a but slightly arched and prominent forehead, oblique
eyes turned up at the outer angle, a short, narrow nose, a
moderate-sized mouth, thin lips, cheekbones without much prominence, a
round, full face, effeminate features, and a pleasing countenance.
D’Orbigny has established two divisions only in this family, namely, the
_Guaranis_ and the _Botocudos_.
* * * * *
_Guaranis._--At the period of the discovery of South America, all that
portion of the continent lying to the east of the Paraguay and of a line
drawn from the sources of that river to the delta of the Orinoco, was
inhabited by numberless indigenous nations, belonging to two great
families. One of these families was that of the Guaranis, diffused over
the whole of Paraguay, and allied with the wild tribes of Brazil; the
other included the races occupying the more northern provinces, and
extending to the gulf of Mexico. The Indians appertaining to both these
families strongly resemble each other in features as well as complexion,
and d’Orbigny attributes to them the same physical type, one marked by a
yellowish colour, medium height, foreheads that do not recede, and eyes
frequently oblique and always raised at the outer angle.
The entirely exceptional aptitude which the Guarany nation has evinced
for entering on the path of social improvement, renders it one of the
most interesting in South America. The _Southern Guaranis_, or natives
of Paraguay, include at the same time the tribes who have submitted to
the sway of the missions, in the establishments which the Jesuits have
formed in the country, and others who still roam in freedom throughout
the forests of that province. Besides the Guaranis, properly so called
who are all Christians, and inhabit thirty-two rather extensive villages
situated on the borders of the Parana, the Paraguay, and the Uruguay
rivers, there exists a certain number of wild hordes belonging to the
same race, who remain hidden in the depths of the woods. These tribes
bear names derived in most instances from those of the rivers or
mountains in whose vicinity they dwell, and among the principal of them
are mentioned the _Topas_, _Tobatinguas_, _Cayuguas_, _Gadiguès_,
_Magachs_, etc.
M. Demersay, who has visited the Jesuit establishments in Paraguay, also
traversed the forests inhabited by the wild races of which we are
speaking, and the results of his observations were published by him in
the “Tour du Monde” in 1865. We shall avail ourselves here of those
parts of his narrative which refer to the savage nations of Paraguay.
“The history of the American races,” says M. Demersay, “might be
comprised in a few pages. Some have accepted the semi-servitude which
the conquerors imposed on them; the others, more rebellious, preferred
to struggle, and have been destroyed; those who still struggle will also
perish. The nations which chose subjection rather than death, have, by
mingling their blood in strong proportions with that of the Europeans,
only disappeared as a race in order to enter as an integral and
sometimes dominant element into the American nationalities. The great
family of the Guaranis forms the most striking example of this intimate
fusion offered to the notice of the ethnologist.
“But in its midst, side by side with the unsubdued hordes of the Grand
Chaco, so remarkable for their fine proportions, there exists yet
another tribe, small in numbers, whose ranks grow thinner every day, and
which on the eve of its disappearance, has bequeathed intact to the
present generation, along with its complete independence, its creeds,
its customs, and the glorious traditions of its ancestors.
“At the time of their discovery, the _Payaguas_, as this valiant race is
called, were divided into two tribes, the _Gadiguès_ and the _Magachs_,
who lived on the banks and numerous islands of the Rio Paraguay, towards
21° and 25° S. latitude. Their dwelling places were by no means fixed;
masters of the river and jealous of its control, they started from Lake
Xarayes, and made distant excursions on the Parana as far as Corrientes
and Santa Fé on one side, and to Salto Chico on the other.
“A rather rational etymology which has been proposed for the name of
these Indians, is that of the two Guarany words ‘pai’ and ‘aguaà,’ which
signify, ‘tied to the oar,’ a meaning quite in unison with their
habits. In the term ‘Paraguay,’ applied as the denomination of the
river, before it became the name of the province, some have wished to
perceive a corruption of ‘Payagua,’ a likely enough derivation, and one
which seems to us highly admissible.
“Whatever there may be in this supposition, the value of which we shall
not discuss here, this unconquered and crafty nation was during two
centuries the most redoubtable adversary of the Spaniards. The writers
on the conquest, the works of Azara, the ‘Historical Essay’ of Funes,
and numerous documents preserved in the archives of Assumption, contain
a recital of their daring enterprises.
“. . . What their numbers were in the first half of the XVIth century it
is impossible to say with certainty; but the old narratives, which do
not seem on this point to deserve the reproach of exaggeration more than
once and with justice attributed to them, estimate them as no fewer than
several thousand combatants. In Azara’s time the entire tribe scarcely
reckoned a thousand souls, and at the present day it cannot count two
hundred.
“Their stature is remarkable, and unquestionably surpasses that of most
nations of the globe. The measurements of eight individuals, taken at
random, would justify the application of this epithet to the Payaguas,
as they gave me an average of 5ft. 9in. The women’s height is no less
striking: that of four females over twenty was--the first and second, 5
feet; the third, 5 feet 2 inches, and the fourth, 5 feet 3¾ inches; or
an average of 5 feet 1¼ inches. Many conclusions may be drawn from this
double series of measurements. On comparing the average stature of the
Payaguas with that of mankind in general, which physiologists agree in
fixing at about 5 feet 6 inches, it will be seen that the difference in
favour of the former is no less than 3 inches. And further, if we place
in comparison the measurements taken by accurate travellers of the races
which pass for the tallest on the globe, of the Patagonians for
instance, we find that their average height as stated by M. d’Orbigny is
5 feet 7 inches. Consequently the Payaguas actually surpass by two
inches the height of a race which has from time immemorial been regarded
as fabulously tall.
“The Payaguas are invariably lanky, none but the women ever showing
signs of corpulence. Their shoulders are broad and the muscles of their
chests, arms, and backs display a development produced by constant use
of the oar, for they live in their canoes; but, as a species of
compensation, the predominance of the proportions of the upper limbs
causes the lower extremities to appear slight and meagre.
[Illustration: 193.--A PARAGUAYAN MESSENGER.]
“Their skin, smooth and soft to the touch, like that of the natives of
the New Continent, is of an olive-brown shade, which it would be
difficult to define more accurately. It seems somewhat lighter than that
of the Guaranis, and does not exhibit the same yellowish or Mongolian
tints.
“The Payaguas carry their massive heads erect, and have an abundant
supply of long, straight, or slightly curly hair, which they cut across
the foreheads, and never comb, allowing it to grow and fall about them
in disorder. The young warriors alone partly gather it at the back of
the crown where it is tied by a little red string, or by a strap cut
from a monkey skin. A similar custom obtains among the Guatos of Cuyaba,
who, we may say incidentally, have more resemblance to this nation than
to the Guaranis, though a learned classification has placed them side by
side with the latter. Their small, keen eyes, a little contracted but
not turned up at the outer angle, have an expression of cunning and
shrewdness, and the lines of the long slightly rounded nose recall the
Caucasian conformation to the mind. Their cheekbones are but little
prominent; their lower lip protrudes beyond the upper, thus imparting to
their grave and impressive countenances an expression of scornful pride,
well in keeping with the character of this unsubdued race.
“The women when young are well-proportioned without being slight, but
they fatten early, their features become deformed, and their figures
grow squat and dumpy. To atone for this, however, their hands and feet
always retain a remarkable smallness, although they walk barefooted and
take no care whatever of their persons. I have also observed this
delicate formation, a distinction which European ladies covet so much,
among the tribes of the Chaco, who are, with the Payaguas, the finest in
America. Their hair is allowed to float about the shoulders and is never
confined.
“A young girl on emerging from childhood undergoes tattooing. By means
of a thorn and the fruit of the genipa, a bluish streak, about half an
inch wide, is drawn perpendicularly across the forehead and down the
nose as far as the upper lip; and when she marries this stripe is
prolonged over the under lip to below the chin. Its shades vary from
violet to a slate-coloured blue, and its marks are indelible. Some women
add other lines to this, as well as designs traced with the flaming tint
of the _urucu_; this latter fashion, however, though general half a
century ago, and which Azara describes minutely, has become more and
more uncommon.
“The Payaguas go about naked in their tents (_toldos_), but out of doors
they wear a small cotton garment encircling them from the pit of the
stomach to just below the knee. This piece of cloth which they lap round
their bodies in the style of the _chiripa_ of the creoles, is one of the
few productions of their ingenuity. Its manufacture devolves upon the
women, and they make it with no other help than that of their fingers,
without using either shuttle or loom. Some others content themselves
with a short shirt, devoid of collar or sleeves, rather like the _tipoy_
of the Guarany. Nevertheless the use of clothing seems to become every
day more familiar to all of them; and amongst those I saw roaming
through the streets of Assumption not one was satisfied, as in former
times, with covering his limbs with paintings representing vests and
breeches.
“Other ancient customs have also disappeared, such as that which the men
had of wearing, as the case might be, either the _barbote_ or a little
silver rod analogous to the _tembeta_ of the wild Guaranis or Cayaguas.
Others are only resumed at rare intervals or at certain epochs, on which
solemn occasions long tufts of feathers fixed on the top of the head are
seen to reappear, and all manner of fanciful patterns tattooed in bright
colours on face, arm, and breast; as well as necklaces of beads or
shells, and lastly bracelets of the claws of _capivaras_, rolled round
wrist and ankle. But the tradition of this elaborate ornamentation has
been religiously preserved by the _paye_ or medicine-man of the tribe.
“The Payaguas live on the left bank of the Rio Paraguay. They never take
up their abode on the opposite side, where the Indians of Chaco, with
whom they are always at war, would not be slow to attack them. Their
principal hut (_tolderia_) is erected on the river’s edge, and consists
of a large oblong cabin from twelve to fifteen feet high, and made with
bamboos laid on forked poles and covered over with unplaited cane mats.
Jaguar or capivaras’ skins are spread on the ground for beds, and
weapons and fishing and household utensils hang on the posts sustaining
the frail roofing of the dwelling, or lie pell-mell with earthen
vessels, in a corner.
“. . . The very limited occupation of this people constitutes
nevertheless their sole resource, for they are perfectly ignorant of
husbandry, and cultivate neither maize, potatoes, nor tobacco. They are
fishermen, spend their lives on the water, and become early in life very
expert sailors. Sometimes they are to be seen in the stern of a canoe,
letting it float with the current while watching their lines; at
another, standing upright in a row, they bend to their oars in good time
and make the little craft fly along with the swiftness of an arrow.
Their boats are from five to a little over six feet in length, and
between two and a half to three feet wide; they are hollowed from the
trunk of a _timbo_, and terminate in a long tapering point at each end.
[Illustration: 194.--BRAZILIAN NEGRO.]
“Their paddles are sharpened like lances, and form in their hands very
formidable weapons, to which must be added bows and arrows, as well as
the _macana_. They are cruel in warfare, and grant no quarter except to
women and children. Their method of fighting shows no peculiarity. They
attack the Indians of the Chaco by falling upon them unawares and
endeavouring to surprise them, but they take good care not to move far
from the rivers, for those tribes of famous horsemen would soon overcome
them in the open country.
[Illustration: 195.--INDIAN WOMAN OF BRAZIL.]
“This nation, as the reader has doubtless surmised, lives in a state of
absolute liberty and complete independence of the government of the
Paraguayan Republic, which imposes neither tax nor statute labour upon
it, but on the contrary pays the Payaguas for any services that are
exacted of them, whether as messengers on the river or as guides in the
expeditions directed against the wild hordes that wander along the right
bank.
“. . . Being desirous to become acquainted with, and to be able to
sketch at my ease, in the midst of all the savage luxury of his garb,
the individual who was entrusted with these functions, I contrived to
get him to come to my house arrayed in the emblems of his high dignity
and accompanied by some other Indians. The promise of a certain quantity
of his beloved liquor, coupled with the prospect of an evening’s
drunkenness, speedily got the better of his reluctance.
“On the day named the paye came to see me. He was an old man, somewhat
bent with years, but with nothing repulsive in his countenance,
notwithstanding the disfiguration of the features, which is always
premature and so remarkable among the natives. His hair was still black
and confined in a fillet bordered with beadwork, over which was a tuft
of feathers, while nandu plumes waved behind his head; a necklace of
bivalve shells was on his neck, and from it hung, as a trophy, a whistle
made from the arm-bone of an enemy. He was quite naked beneath his
sleeveless and collarless vest which consisted of two jaguar-skins, and
wore strings of capivaras’ claws round his ankles. Finally, his right
hand contained an elongated gourd, and he held in his left a long tube
of hard wood, which I had some difficulty in recognizing as a pipe.
“The curtain rises. The sorcerer gave the pipe to his companion, whose
duty consisted in lighting it, and, taking it again, inhaled several
puffs which he blew noisily into the calabash through the orifice bored
in it; then, without removing it from his lips, he began shouting,
sometimes slowly and sometimes rapidly, uttering alternately the
syllables ‘ta, ta’, and ‘to, to, to’, with extraordinary, inexpressible,
reiterations of voice and piercing yells. He gave way at the same time
to violent contortions, and executed a measured series of leaps, now on
one foot, and now on both joined together. This performance did not last
any length of time, and on a pretext of fatigue he was not long without
coming to a stand-still. A bumper was indispensable in order to set him
on his legs again, and the monotonous chant immediately recommenced.
“My drawings being finished, I at last broke up the sitting to the
general satisfaction of my guests, and dismissed them, having first
purchased his pipe and whistle from the paye. The former article was
made of hard and heavy wood and covered with regular tracings engraved
on the surface with a good deal of skill. It was about a foot and a half
long, ornamented with gilt nails, and pierced by a tube which was
widened at one end and terminated at the other by a mouth-piece. This
pipe is also to be found among other neighbouring nations, as well as
among the Tobas and Matacos on the banks of the Pilcomayo. It gives an
idea of those enormous cigars made from a roll of palm or tobacco
leaves, which played so important a part in Brazil, in the ceremonies of
the Tupinambas, and among the Caraibs of the Antilles, on all occasions
when the question of peace or war had to be decided, when the shades of
ancestors were to be conjured up, etc., and which the first navigators
mistook for torches.”
[Illustration: 196.--NATIVE OF MANAOS, BRAZIL.]
* * * * *
The _Western Guaranis_ include the tribes known by the names of
Guarayis, Chiriguanos, and Cirionos, the first of which have been
converted by the Jesuits. Between the province of the Chiquitos and that
of the Moxos there are still some hordes of wild Guarayis. The
uncivilized Chiriguanos are barbarians, very formidable to their
neighbours. The natives of a hundred and sixty villages of the Andes,
comprised between the great Chaco river and that of Mapayo, in the
province of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, speak the Guarany language in all
its purity. The barbarous Cirionos, among whom a dialect of that tongue
is in use, dwell to the north of Santa Cruz.
The _Eastern Guaranis of Brazil_ include the Brazilian aborigines. The
general language of the country does not seem to differ more from
Guarany, than Portuguese does from Spanish. The _Caryis_, _Tameyi_,
_Tapinaquis_, _Timmimnes_, _Tabayaris_, _Tupinambis_, _Apontis_,
_Tapigoas_, and several other tribes occupy the maritime districts
situated to the south of the mouth of the Amazon, speaking the _Tupi_
tongue with little or no alteration.
During their voyage to Brazil, of which an account was published in the
“Tour du Monde,” in 1868, M. and Madame Agassiz visited many Indian
tribes, and examined their habitations in the midst of the woods. We
extract a few pages from their description.
“We arrive at the _sitio_,” writes Madame Agassiz, “and disembark. These
dwellings are usually located on the banks of a lake or river, within a
stone’s throw of the shore in order that fishing and bathing may be
better within reach. But this one was more retired, being placed at the
extremity of a pretty by-path winding beneath the trees, and on the
summit of a little hill, the slopes of which at the other side plunged
into a broad and deep ravine through which flowed a rivulet. The ground
beyond rose undulating in uneven lines, on which an eye accustomed to
the uniformly flat country of the upper Amazon cannot rest without
pleasure. Wait for the time of the rains, and the brook, swollen by the
increase of the river, will almost bathe the foot of the house, which,
from the top of the little eminence, at present commands the valley and
the embanked bed of the tiny stream. Great, consequently, is the
difference between the appearance of the same places in the dry and the
wet seasons. The residence consists of several buildings, the most
remarkable of which is a long open hall in which the _brancas_ (whites)
of Manaos and of the neighbourhood dance when they come, as is not
infrequent, to spend the night at the sitio, in high festivity.
[Illustration: 197.--BRAZILIAN NEGRESSES.]
“I learned these particulars from the old Indian lady who did me the
honours of the house. A low wall, from three to four feet in height,
skirted this shed. At its sides and along the whole length were placed
raised wooden seats, and both ends were closed from floor to roof by
thick blinds made of glittering palm-leaves, as fine as they were
handsome, and of a pretty straw colour. In a corner we found an immense
embroidery loom (Penelope’s was doubtless like it), which was occupied
at the moment by a hammock of palm fibre, an unfinished work of the
‘senhora dona’, or mistress of the house, who allowed me to see the way
in which she used the machine. She squatted herself on a little low
bench, in front of the frame, and showed me that the two rows of cross
threads were separated by a thick piece of polished wood in the shape of
a flat rule. The shuttle is thrown between these two threads and the
woof is drawn close by a sharp blow of the thick rule. I was then led to
admire some hammocks of various colours and textures which were being
arranged for the accommodation of the visitors, and whilst the men set
off to bathe in the brook, I went through the rest of the lodge with our
hostess and her daughter, a very pretty Indian. The direction of
everything devolves on the elder of the two ladies; the master is
absent, as he holds a captain’s commission in the army operating against
Paraguay.
[Illustration: 198.--BRAZILIAN DWELLING.]
“On the same carefully-kept piece of ground where the hall I have
described is situated, there are several _casinhas_ or small buildings,
more or less close to each other, which are covered with thatch, and
merely consist of a single apartment (fig. 198). Then comes a larger
cottage, with earthen walls and bare floor, containing two or three
rooms, and with a wooden verandah in front. This is the private abode of
the senhora. A little lower down the hill is the manioc sifting-house,
with all its apparatus. No place could be better kept than the courtyard
of this sitio, where two or three negresses have just been set to work
with brooms of thin branches in their hands.
[Illustration: 199.--NEGROS OF BAHIA.]
“The manioc and cocoa plantation surrounds these buildings, with a few
coffee trees peeping out here and there. There is a difficulty in
judging of the extent of these farms, as they are irregular, and
comprise a certain variety of plants; manioc, cocoa, coffee, and even
cotton being cultivated together in confusion. But this part of the
estate, like all the rest of the establishment, seemed larger and better
cared for than those usually seen. As we were departing, our Indian
hostess brought me a nice basket filled with eggs and _abacatys_, or
alligator’s pears, according to the local name. We returned home just in
time for the ten o’clock meal, which draws everyone together, both
idlers and workers. The sportsmen had returned from the forest, laden
with tucanas, parrots, paroquets, and a great variety of other birds,
while the fishermen brought fresh treasures for M. Agassiz.
“We left the dinner-table, and while taking coffee under the trees, the
president proposed an excursion on the lake at sunset. . . . . The
little craft glided between the glowing sunset and the glitter of the
deep sheet of water, seeming to borrow its hues from each. It rapidly
drew near, and was soon quite close, when a burst of joyous shouts broke
forth, and was merrily responded to by us. Then side by side the two
boats descended the stream together, the guitar passing from one to the
other, as Brazilian songs alternated with Indian airs. Nothing could
possibly be imagined bearing the national impress more strongly marked,
more deeply imbued with tropical tints, more characteristic, in fine,
than this scene on the lake. When we arrived at the landing-place the
rosy and gold-tinged mists had become transformed into a mass of white
or ashen-grey vapour, the last rays of the sun were fled, and the moon
was shining at its full. In ascending the gentle slope of the hill,
someone suggested a dance on the grass, and the young Indian girls
formed a quadrille. Although civilization had mingled its usages with
their native customs, there were yet many original traits in their
movements, and this conventional dance was deprived of much of its
artificial character. At length we returned to the house, where dancing
and singing recommenced, whilst groups seated on the ground here and
there laughed and chatted, all, men and women, smoking with the same
gusto. The use of tobacco, almost universal among females of the lower
class, is not altogether confined to them. More than one senhora
delights to puff her cigarette as she rocks in her hammock during the
warm hours of the day.” Fig. 200 represents some natives of French
Guyana, who closely resemble the Brazilian negroes we have just
mentioned.
[Illustration: 200.--NATIVES OF FRENCH GUYANA.]
* * * * *
The _Ouragas_ are affiliated to the Brazilio-Guarany race, with a few
other tribes very closely allied to them. They form one of the nations
most widely spread over the northern parts of South America. They were
formerly in possession of the banks and islands of the Amazon river for
a distance of five hundred miles from the mouth of the Rio Nabo.
The Caribbee race has a close affinity to the Guarany. The Indians who
have given their name to this group, one of the most numerous and
extensively scattered of the southern continent, are those celebrated
Caribs who in the sixteenth century occupied all the islands from Porto
Rico to Trinidad, and the whole of the Atlantic coast comprised between
the mouth of the Orinoco and that of the Amazon, that is to say, as far
as the Brazilian frontier.
* * * * *
The _Tamanacs_ belong to the same family, and live on the right bank of
the Orinoco, but their numbers are at the present day greatly reduced.
The same remark applies to the _Arawacs_ or _Araocas_, to the
_Guaranns_, who are said to build their houses upon trees, to the
_Guayquerias_, _Cumanogots_, _Phariagots_, _Chaymas_, &c. Humboldt has
written of the latter:--
“The expression of countenance of the Chaymas, without being harsh and
fierce, has in it something sedate and gloomy. The forehead is small and
but little prominent; the eyes are black, sunken, and lengthy, being
neither so obliquely set nor so small as those of the Mongolian race.
Yet the corners perceptibly slant upwards towards the temples; the
eyebrows are black or dark brown, thin, and not much arched; the lids
fringed with very long eyelashes; and their habit of drooping them, as
if heavy with languor, softens the women’s look and makes the eye thus
veiled appear smaller than it really is.”
The Botocudos (fig. 201) who dwell round the Rio Doce, in Brazil, have
been cannibals, and are still to the present day the most savage of all
Americans. They wear collars of human teeth as ornaments. Perpetually
wandering and completely naked, they take a pleasure in adding to their
natural ugliness, and impart a more repulsive appearance to their
countenances by a habit they have of slitting their under lip and ears,
in order to introduce “barbotes” into the openings thus made.
[Illustration: 201.--BOTOCUDOS.]
In his “Travels in Brazil,” M. Biard saw some Botocudos. One, who seemed
to him to be the chief, carried, like his companions, in an opening in
the lower lip, a “barbote” consisting of a bit of wood somewhat larger
than a five-shilling piece. He made use of this projection as a little
table, cutting up on it, with the traveller’s knife, a morsel of smoked
meat which had then only to be slipped into his mouth. This method of
utilizing the lip as a table struck M. Biard as thoroughly original. The
comrades of this Botocudos had also large pieces of wood in the lobes of
their ears.
CHAPTER II.
NORTHERN BRANCH.
The members of the _North American Branch_ present more decided
differences among themselves than those in the southern division, so far
as race is concerned, but their characteristics are merged one in the
other. Nevertheless, the populations inhabiting respectively the south,
the north-east, and the north-west can be considered as forming so many
distinct families, which we shall pass in review in succession.
SOUTHERN FAMILY.
The southern family of the Northern Branch still preserves much
resemblance to the families of the southern branch which we have just
been considering. The complexion of its members is rather fair, the
forehead depressed, and the figure tolerably well proportioned.
This group embraces a great number of tribes speaking different
languages, peculiar to the central part of the northern continent. The
principal among these nations are the _Aztecs_, or primitive Mexicans,
and the _Moya_ and _Lenca_ Indians.
* * * * *
_Aztecs._--When the Spaniards landed in Mexico, they found there a
people whose customs were far removed from those of savage life. They
were very expert in the practice of different useful and ornamental
arts, and their knowledge was rather extensive, but thorough cruelty
could always be laid to their charge.
The Aztecs were intelligent and hard-working cultivators. They knew how
to work mines, prepare metals, and set precious stones as ornaments.
Superb monuments had been erected by them, and they possessed a written
language which preserved the memorials of their history. Those who dwelt
in the region of the present Mexico were advanced in the sciences; they
were profoundly imbued with the sentiment of religion; and their sacred
ceremonies were full of pomp, but accompanied by expiatory sacrifices
revolting in their barbarism. They carried their annals back to very
remote antiquity. These annals were traced in historical paintings, the
traditional explanation of which was imparted by the natives to some of
their conquerors, as well as to a few Spanish and Italian ecclesiastics.
[Illustration: 202.--INDIAN OF THE MEXICAN COAST.]
The principal events recorded in these archives relate to the
migrations of three different nations, who, leaving the distant regions
of the north-west, arrived successively in Anahuac. They were the
_Toltecs_, _Chichimecas_, and _Nahuatlacas_, divided into seven distinct
tribes, one of which was that of the Aztecs, or Mexicans. The country
whence the first of these people came was called Huehuetlapallan, and
they commenced their exodus in the year 544 of our era. Pestilence
decimated them in 1051, and they then wandered southwards, but a few
remained at Tula. The Chichimecas, a barbarous race, arrived in Mexico
in the year 1070, and the incursion of the Nahuatlacas, who spoke the
same language as the Toltecs, took place very soon afterwards. The
Aztecs, or Mexicans, separated themselves from the other nations, and in
1325 they founded Mexico. In a word, the former inhabitants of Mexico
were immigrants from a country situated towards the north, on the
central plateau of Anahuac, and their successive migrations had
continued during several centuries long prior to the discovery of
America by the Europeans.
[Illustration: 203, 204.--INDIANS OF THE MEXICAN COAST.]
The ancient portraits of the Aztecs and the faces of some of their
divinities are remarkable for the depression of the forehead, from which
results the smallness of the facial angle--a peculiarity which appears
to have belonged to the handsome type of the race.
The aboriginal Mexicans of our own time are of good stature and well
proportioned in all their limbs. They have narrow foreheads, black eyes,
white, well-set, regular teeth, thick, coarse, and glossy black hair,
thin beards, and are in general without any hairs on their legs, thighs,
or arms. Their skin is olive coloured, and many fine young women may be
seen among them with extremely light complexions. Their senses are very
acute, more especially that of sight, which they enjoy unimpaired to the
most advanced age.
The native Indians forming part of the Mexican population are
characterized by a broad face and flat nose, recalling somewhat the
lineaments of the Mongolian cast of countenance. They may be judged of
from Figs. 202, 203, 204, and 205, which represent aborigines of the
interior and coast of Mexico.
M. Roudé, who has published the narrative of his travels in the state of
Chihuahua, brought back accurate drawings illustrative of the usages and
customs of the population of the Mexican capital.
The ladies envelope themselves very gracefully in their _rebosso_, with
which they cover the head, partly hiding the face, and only allowing
their eyes to be seen. Among the wealthy this _rebosso_ is generally of
black or white silk, embroidered with designs in bright and gaudy
colours. Women of the lower classes wear a _rebosso_ of blue wool dotted
with little white squares. Their petticoat is short, and its lower part
embroidered with worsted work. The favourite colour for this latter
garment among common people is glaring red.
[Illustration: 205.--MEXICAN INDIAN WOMAN.]
The men’s costume (fig. 206) is richer and more varied than that of the
women. On Sundays it is laced with silver; white trowsers are
indispensable, and they are covered by another pair made of leather,
open along the sides from the waist downwards, and ornamented with a
row of silver buttons. A China crape sash is wound round the waist, and
the vest is of deerskin or velvet with silver embroidery. The sombrero
has a very broad brim, is made of straw or felt, and decorated with a
thick twisted band of black velvet or of silver gilt lace. The _sarapé_
is spangled with striking colours and with varied patterns, and the men
possess a special talent for draping themselves gracefully in it.
[Illustration: 206.--MEXICAN PICADOR.]
The place above all others where the popular life of the inhabitants of
Mexico should be studied is in the markets (fig. 207). There may you see
Indians, creoles, and foreigners, beggars in rags and rich citizens,
black frock coats, embroidered deerskin jackets, threadbare uniforms,
soldiers, muleteers, porters, monks of all shades, shod and shoeless
Carmelites, all elbowing each other fraternally. There Basil throws the
lengthening shadow of his fantastic head-gear on the wall of the
neighbouring church; there dealers in hats, poultry, or wooden trays
offer their wares to buyers; there pretty fruit and flower girls, tidy
servant maids of some decent house, or winsome _Chinas_ with sparkling
eyes, pass to and fro draped in their rebossos. They bear on the
upturned palms of the left hand, on a level with the shoulder, and in
the most artistic manner, a basket full of green plants, or the graceful
red earthenware _cantaro_ painted and glazed, and filled with water.
Through this noisy crowd the water-carrier (_aguador_), clothed in
leather, treads his way with short steps, bearing on his back an
enormous red earthen jar, fastened by means of two handles and a broad
strap to his forehead, which is protected by a little cap of leather;
another band passing across the top of the crown supports a second and
much smaller pitcher, hanging before him at his knees.
[Illustration: 207.--THE ROLDAU BRIDGE MARKET, MEXICO.]
If a person wishes to become acquainted with Mexico, it is among the
lower orders that he must study the country. The people are good; eager
for knowledge, notwithstanding the want of instruction, and full of
energy in spite of their long bondage. He need be on his guard against
the higher classes only, a small minority spoiled by the priests, whose
influence is all-powerful. The ignorance of the monks, who swarm in this
land, is doubled by an intolerable vanity that inspires them with
antipathy to all progress.
[Illustration: 208.--MEXICAN HATTER.]
The people of Mexico are very simple in their habits. Broth (_pilchero_)
and the national dish, _frijoles_ (beans), form the ordinary fare of the
middle class, to which a stew of spiced duck is sometimes added. They
allay their thirst with pure water, contained in an immense glass, which
holds from one to two quarts. This flagon is placed in the centre of
the table, and is the only one that appears on the board, from which
decanters and bottles, and very often even knives and forks, are
banished. Each in turn steeps his lips in this cup, returning it to its
place or passing it to his neighbour. Besides, Mexicans in general do
not drink except at the end of the meal. In the evening the circle is
swelled by a few friends; guitars are taken down from the wall, and some
simple ballads are sung to mournful airs, or they dance to the same
measure.
[Illustration: 209.--MEXICAN HAWKER.]
* * * * *
The Aztecs, or primitive Mexicans, like their predecessors, the Toltecs,
were, as we have said, strangers in Anahuac. Before their arrival this
plateau had been inhabited by different races, some of which had
acquired a certain degree of civilization, whilst others were utterly
barbarous. The Aztecs spread themselves extensively in Central America.
The _Olmecas_ are mentioned among the most ancient tribes, and they are
supposed to have peopled the West India Islands and South America. This
nation shared the soil of Mexico with the _Xicalaucas_, _Coras_,
_Tepanecas_, _Tarascas_, _Mixtecas_, _Tzapotecas_, and the _Othomis_.
The last named and the _Totonacs_ were two barbarous races occupying the
country near Lake Tezcuco, previously to the coming of the Chichimecas.
Whilst all the other known languages of America are polysyllabic, that
of the Othomis is monosyllabic.
Farther to the north, and beyond the northern frontiers of the Mexican
empire, dwelt the _Huaxtecas_. The _Tarascas_ inhabited the wide and
fertile regions of Mechoacan, to the north of Mexico, and were always
independent of that kingdom. Their sonorous and harmonious tongue
differed from all the others. In civilization and the arts they advanced
side by side with the Mexicans, who were never able to subdue them; but
their king submitted without resistance to the rule of the Spaniards.
* * * * *
_Moyas_ and _Lencas_.--These are tribes which still live in a wild state
in the forests situated between the Isthmus of Panama and that of
Thuantépec, but an inquiry into their manners and customs would offer no
features of interest. The life of savage nations exhibits an uniformity
which greatly abridges our task.
NORTH-EASTERN FAMILY.
In the fifteenth century the North-eastern family occupied that immense
expanse of North America which is comprised between the Atlantic Ocean
and the Rocky Mountains, but all its nations are now reduced to a few
far from numerous tribes, confined to the west of the Mississippi.
The distinguishing qualities of the red race are strongly marked among
these groups. A complexion of a light cinnamon-colour, a lengthened
head, a long and aquiline nose, horizontal eyes, a depressed forehead, a
robust constitution, and a tall stature constitute their principal
physical characteristics, to which must be added senses sharpened to an
extraordinary degree. They have a habit of painting their bodies, and
especially their faces, red. Their disposition is proud and independent,
and they support pain with stoical courage.
Almost all these Indian tribes have already disappeared in consequence
of the furious war waged upon them by the Europeans. Those that lived in
olden times on the declivities of the mountains facing the Atlantic are
very nearly extinct. Among such are the Hurons, Iroquois, Algonquins,
and the Natchez, rendered famous by Chateaubriand, and the Mohicans,
whom Cooper has immortalized.
We cannot speak detailedly here of these different nations, but in order
to give an idea of them we shall open Chateaubriand’s “Voyage en
Amérique,” and, having quoted a few lines from it, we will make the
reader acquainted with the pith of the observations made in our own day
in these same countries by contemporary travellers.
Speaking of the Muscogulges and the Simnioles, Chateaubriand writes in
the following terms:--
“The Simnioles and the Muscogulges are rather tall in stature: and, by
an extraordinary contrast, their wives are the smallest race of women
known in America; they seldom depass a height of four feet two or three
inches; their hands and feet resemble those of an European girl nine or
ten years old. But nature has compensated them for this kind of
injustice: their figure is elegant and graceful; their eyes are black,
extremely long, and full of languor and modesty. They lower their
eyelids with a sort of voluptuous bashfulness; if a person did not see
them when they speak, he would believe himself listening to children
uttering only half-formed words.”
The great writer passed along the borders of the lake to which its name
has been given by the Iroquois colony of the _Onondagas_, and visited
the “Sachem” of that people:--
“He was,” says Chateaubriand, “an old Iroquois in the strictest sense of
the word. His person preserved the memory of the former customs and
bygone times of the desert: large, pinked ears, pearl hanging from the
nose, face streaked with various colours, little tuft of hair on the top
of the head, blue tunic, cloak of skins, leathern belt, with its
scalping-knife and tomahawk, tattooed arm, mocassins on his feet, and a
porcelain necklace in his hand.”
The following is the sketch of an Iroquois:--
“He was of lofty stature, with broad chest, muscular legs, and sinewy
arms. His large round eyes sparkled with independence; his whole mien
was that of a hero. Shining on his forehead might be seen high
combinations of thought and exalted sentiments of soul. This fearless
man was not in the least astonished at firearms when for the first time
they were used against him; he stood firm to the whistling of bullets
and the roar of cannon as if he had been hearing both all his life, and
appeared to heed them no more than he would a storm. As soon as he could
procure himself a musket, he used it better than an European. He did not
abandon for it his tomahawk, his knife, or his bow and arrows, but added
to them the carbine, pistol, poniard, and axe, and seemed never to
possess arms sufficient for his valour. Doubly arrayed in the murderous
weapons of Europe and America, with his head decked with bunches of
feathers, his ears pinked, his face smeared black, his arms dyed in
blood, this noble champion of the New World became as formidable to
behold, as he was to contend against, on the shore which he defended
foot by foot against the foreigner.”
With this terrible portrait Chateaubriand contrasts the blithe
countenance of the Huron, who had nothing in common with the Iroquois
but language:--
“The gay, sprightly, and volatile Huron, of rash, dazzling valour, and
tall, elegant figure, had the air of being born to be the ally of the
French.”
We now come to travellers of our own day. Fig. 210 is a sketch of the
costumes of the wild Indians dwelling at the foot of the Rocky Mountains
in Missouri, and who bear the name of Creeks.
[Illustration: 210.--CREEK INDIANS.]
In his travels through the United States and Canada, M. H. Deville had
an opportunity of visiting an establishment of Iroquois. These savages
were remarkable for their reddish colour and coarse features. They wore
round hats with broad brims, and robed themselves in Spanish fashion in
a piece of dark cloth.
The manufacture of the native coverings for the legs and feet forms the
principal occupation of the women, and under the pretext of purchasing
some of their handiwork M. Deville entered several Iroquois dwellings.
Divested of the thick mantle worn by them out of doors, the women had
assumed a long, coloured smock-frock with tight-fitting pantaloons that
reached to the ankles, and their varnished shoes allowed coarse worsted
stockings to be seen. Earrings and a gold necklace constituted their
chief ornament. Their hair is drawn up to the top of the head and tied
there in a knot. To say that their features are agreeable would be
untrue, but in early youth their figures are rather handsome. Work,
order, and cleanliness reign in their household. Their brothers and
husbands are wood-cutters, steersmen, or conductors of rafts.
The same traveller met with some _Chippeway_ Indians on the heights of
Lake Pepin. Their stature was tall, but they had coarse features, and a
skin of a very dark reddish colour. Half their face was covered by a
thick layer of vermilion extending as far as their hair, which was
plaited over the crown. They wore long leather gaiters, tied at the
sides by innumerable thongs, and over a sort of tattered blouse was
thrown a large woollen blanket, which completely covered them. One
individual, armed with a long steel blade shaped like a dagger, had
stuck his pipe in his hair.
In his “Voyage dans les Mauvaises Terres du Nebraska,” M. de Girardin
(of Maine-et-Loire) describes his journey across part of the Missouri
basin occupied by some free and wild Indians.
He brought back with him sketches and illustrations of those tribes, the
principal among which are the _Blackfeet_, and the _Dacotas_, or
_Sioux_, and was present at a grand council of the latter nation, The
chiefs of the various clans, clad in their most brilliant costumes,
harangued the warriors, whilst a score of young braves, without any
other covering than a thick coat of vermilion or ochre, made their
steeds curvet and executed numberless fanciful manœuvres. The horses
were painted yellow, red, and white, and had their long tails decked
with bright-coloured feathers.
[Illustration: 211.--ENCAMPMENT OF SIOUX INDIANS.]
An immense tent, composed of five or six lodges of bison-skins, was
erected in the centre of the camp. The chiefs and principal warriors
formed a circle, in the midst of which the agent, the governor of Fort
St. Pierre, and his interpreters were stationed. According to Indian
custom, the grand chief lit the calumet of peace, a magnificent pipe of
red stone, the stem of which was a yard long and adorned with feathers
of every hue. After some impassioned orations the council refused the
travellers permission to pass over their territory in order to reach
that of the Blackfeet.
Fig. 211 represents the encampment of these Indians visited by M. de
Girardin: fig. 212 is a sketch of one of their horsemen, and fig. 213 a
likeness of a Sioux warrior, all from the pencil of the same gentleman.
M. de Girardin happened to go to another camp, that of an old chief of
the same tribe. It consisted of five or six tents, conical in shape, and
made of bison-skins. Remarkable for their whiteness and cleanliness
these habitations were covered with odd paintings which portrayed
warriors smoking the calumet, horses, stags, and dogs. Numerous freshly
scalped locks were hanging at the end of long poles. At the side of each
tent, a kind of tripod supported quivers, shields of ox-hide, and spears
embellished with brilliant plumage. A few young warriors of strongly
marked features, with aquiline noses and herculean forms, but hideously
daubed in black and white paint, were engaged in firing arrows at a ball
which was rolled along the ground or thrown into the air.
[Illustration: 212.--SIOUX WARRIOR.]
The chiefs made the travellers seat themselves on skins of bears and
bisons, and conversed with the interpreter, whilst M. de Girardin
remained exposed to the curiosity of the young folks, women, and
children. The girls ventured so far as to search his pockets and extract
from them his knife, pencils, and notebook. The most inquisitive, a fine
girl with very soft eyes and magnificent teeth, perceiving he had a long
beard wished to assure herself that he was not shaggy all over like a
bear, when the traveller took it into his head to put a little powder
into the hand of the pretty inquisitor and lit it by means of a glass
lens, an incident which gave a tremendous fright to the assemblage.
[Illustration: 213.--A SIOUX CHIEF.]
During a journey to the north-east of America in 1867, M. L. Simonin had
an opportunity of visiting a Sioux village, and we avail ourselves of a
few of his descriptions. It consisted of about a hundred huts, made with
poles and bison skins, or pieces of stitched cloth. The entrance to them
was by a low narrow hole covered over with a beaver skin. A fire blazed
in the centre of each hovel, and around it were pots and kettles for the
repast. The smoke which escaped at the top rendered this abode
intolerable. Beds, mattresses, cooking utensils, quarters of wild bison,
some raw, others dried and smoked, were scattered here and there.
Half-naked children, girls and boys, scampered about outside, as well as
troops of dogs that constituted at once their protectors, their vigilant
sentinels, and their food.
M. Simonin went inside many of the huts, where warriors were silently
playing cards, using leaden balls for stakes. Others, accompanied by the
noise of discordant singing and tambourines, were playing at a game
resembling the Italian “mora,” the score of which was marked with arrows
stuck in the ground. Some tents, in which sorcery, or “great medicine,”
was being practised, were prohibited to the visitor. The women were
sitting in a ring round some of the wigwams, doing needle-work,
ornamenting necklaces or mocassins with beads, or tracing patterns on
bison skins.
Some old matrons were preparing hides stretched on stakes, by rubbing
them with freestone and steel chisels set in bone handles. The squaws of
the Sioux, on whom, moreover, all domestic cares fall, are far from
handsome. They are the slaves of the man who purchases them for a horse
or the skin of a bison. The great Sioux nation numbers about
thirty-five thousand individuals.
The same gentleman from whom we have just been quoting, was enabled to
make some observations among the _Crows_, a tribe of Prairie Indians who
are neighbours of the Sioux. Their features are broadly marked, their
stature gigantic, and their frames athletic, while, according to M.
Simonin, their majestic countenances recall the types of the Roman
Cæsars as we see them delineated on antique medals.
The traveller was admitted into the hut of the chiefs, where the
“Sachems” were seated in a circle, and as he touched their hands
successively, they uttered a guttural “a hou,” a sound which serves as a
salutation among the Red Skins. He smoked the calumet.
These men had their cheeks tattooed in vermilion. They were scarcely
covered; one had a woollen blanket, the next a buffalo hide or the
incomplete uniform of an officer, while the upper part of another’s body
was naked. Several wore collars or eardrops of shells or animals’ teeth.
Hanging from the neck of one was a silver medal bearing the effigy of a
President of the United States, which he had received when he went on a
mission to Washington in 1853; and a horse, rudely carved in the same
metal, adorned the breast of another of their number.
M. Simonin was afterwards present at a council of the Crow Indians, but
we do not intend to give any report of this conference of savages, of
which, however, the reader may form some idea by casting a glance at
fig. 214.
In dealing with the relations existing between the wild Indians of North
America and the civilized inhabitants, that is to say, the Americans of
the United States, M. Simonin enters into some interesting reflections
which we believe we ought to reproduce.
“A singular race,” says M. Simonin, “is that of the Red Skins, among
whom Nature has so lavishly apportioned the finest land existing on the
globe, a rich alluvial soil, deep, level, and well watered; still this
race has not yet emerged from the primitive stage which must be
everywhere traversed by humanity at the outset--the stage of hunters and
nomads, the age of stone! If the Whites had not brought them iron, the
Indians would still use flint weapons, like man before the Deluge, who
sheltered himself in caverns and was contemporary in Europe with the
mammoth. Beyond the chase and war, the wild tribes of North America shun
work; women, among them, perform all labour. What a contrast to the
toiling, busy population around them, whose respect for women is so
profound! This population hems them in, completely surrounds them at the
present day, and all is over with the Red Skins if they do not consent
to retire into the land reserved for them.
[Illustration: 214.--CROW INDIANS IN COUNCIL.]
“And even there will industry and the arts spring up? How poorly the Red
race is gifted for music and singing is well known: the fine arts have
remained in infancy among them; and writing, unless it consists in rude
pictorial images, is utterly unknown. They barely know how to trace a
few bead patterns on skins, and although these designs are undoubtedly
often happily grouped and the colours blended with a certain harmony,
that is all. Industry, apart from a coarse preparation of victuals and
the tanning of hides and dressing of furs, is also entirely null. The
Indian is less advanced than the African negro, who knows at least how
to weave cloths and dye them. The Navajoes, alone, manufacture some
coverings with wool.
“The free Indians of the Prairies, scattered between the Missouri and
the Rocky Mountains, may be reckoned at about a hundred thousand, while
all the Indians of North America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, are
estimated at four times that number. These calculations may possibly be
slightly defective, statistics or any accurate census being quite
wanting. The Red men themselves never give more than a notation of their
tents or lodges, but the assemblage of individuals contained in each of
these differs according to the tribe, and sometimes in the same tribe;
hence the impossibility of any mathematically exact computation.
“In the north of the Prairies the great family of the Sioux numbering
thirty-five thousand is remarkable above all others. The Crows,
Bigbellies, Blackfeet, &c., who occupy Idaho and Montana, form, when
taken altogether, a smaller population than the Sioux--probably about
twenty thousand. In the centre and south, the Pawnees, Arapahoes,
Shiennes, Yutes, Kayoways, Comanches, Apaches, &c., united, certainly
exceed forty thousand in number. The territories of Nebraska, Kansas,
Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico are those which these hordes overrun.
The Pawnees are cantoned in Nebraska, in the neighbourhood of the
Pacific Railway, and the Yutes in the ‘parks’ of Colorado.
“These races possess many characteristics in common; they are nomadic,
that is to say, they occupy no fixed place, live by fishing, or above
all by hunting, and follow the wild buffalo in its migrations
everywhere.
“A thoroughly democratic régime and a sort of communism control the
relations of members of the same tribe with each other. The chiefs are
nominated by election, and for a period, but are sometimes hereditary.
The most courageous, he who has taken the greatest number of scalps in
war or has slain most bisons, the performer of some brilliant exploit or
a man of superior eloquence, all these have the right to be chosen
chiefs. As long as he conducts himself well a chief retains his
position; if he incur the least blame his successor is appointed. Chiefs
lead the tribes to battle, and are consulted on occasions of difficulty,
as are also the old men. The braves are the lieutenants of the chiefs,
and hold second command in war. There is no judge in the tribes, and
each one administers justice for himself and applies the law at his own
liking.
“All these nations hunt and make war in the same manner, on horseback;
with spear, bow and arrows, in default of revolvers and muskets, and
using a buckler as a defence against the enemy’s blows. They scalp their
dead foe and deck themselves with his locks; pillage and destroy his
property, carry away his women and children captives, and frequently
subject the vanquished, above all any white man falling into their
hands, to horrible tortures before putting him to death.
“The squaws to whom the prisoner is abandoned exhibit the most revolting
cruelty towards him, tearing out the eyes, tongue, and nails of their
victim; burning him, chopping off a hand to-day, and a foot to-morrow.
When the captive is well tortured, a coal fire is lighted on his stomach
and a yelling dance performed round him. Almost all Red Skins commit
these atrocities phlegmatically towards the Whites when engaged in a
struggle with them.
“Tribes often make war among themselves on the smallest pretext, for a
herd of bisons they are pursuing, or a prairie where they wish to encamp
alone. They have not indeed any place reserved, but they sometimes wish
to keep one so, to the exclusion of every other occupant. Nor is it
uncommon for the same tribe to split itself into two hostile clans. A
few years ago the Ogallallas when maddened by whisky fought among
themselves with guns, and have been broken up ever since into two
bands, one of which, the ‘Ugly-Faces,’ is commanded by Red Cloud, and
the other, by Big-Mouth and Pawnee-Killer.
[Illustration: 215.--PAWNEE INDIANS.]
“The languages of all the tribes are distinct; but perhaps a linguist
would recognize among them some common roots, in the same way as in our
own day they have been found to exist between European tongues and those
of India. These languages all obey the same grammatical mechanism; they
are ‘agglutinative,’ or ‘polysynthetic,’ and not ‘analytic’ or
‘inflected,’ that is to say, the words can be combined with each other
to form a single word expressing a complete idea; but relation, gender,
number, etc., are not indicated by modifications of the substantive. I
pass over the other characteristics which distinguish agglutinative from
inflected languages. The dialects of the Red Skins have not, or seem not
to have, any affinity in the different terms of their vocabulary, which
is, besides, often very limited.
“In order to comprehend each other the tribes have adopted by common
accord a language of signs and gestures which approximates to that of
the deaf and dumb. In this way all the Indians are capable of a mutual
understanding, and a Yute, for instance, can converse without difficulty
for several hours with an Arrapahoe, or the latter with a Sioux.
“The Whites are not acquainted with the languages of the Prairie
Indians, or know them very badly. Frequently, there is but one
interpreter for the same tongue, often a very poor one, merely
understanding the idiom he has translated, not speaking it. Many, _à
fortiori_, are not able to write the language which they interpret.
Neither Dr. Mathews, John Richard, nor Pierre Chêne could spell for me
in English characters the names of the Crow chiefs. How would it be in
the case of the Arrapahoes or Apaches, whose strongly guttural speech is
only accentuated by the tips of the lips?
“In all this it must be understood that I speak only of the tribes of
the Prairies, and not of those who lived in olden times on the
declivities of the mountains overlooking the Atlantic or skirting the
Mississippi. The majority of the latter are, as is known, extinct, the
Algonquins, Hurons, Iroquois, Natchez and Mohicans, and it is also well
to avow that France has contributed in a large measure to their
disappearance.
“The residue of these tribes, which I shall term Atlantic--Delawares,
Cherokees, Seminoles, Osages, and Creeks--is now cantoned in the
reserves, especially in the Indian Territory, where little by little the
Red Skins are losing their distinctive characteristics. Histories and
authentic documents regarding all these races are extant, whilst only
very little is known up to the present concerning those of the Prairies.
The greater part of the legends and traditions with which people endow
them are only due to the invention of travellers.
[Illustration: 216.--A CHAYENE (SHIENNES) CHIEF.]
“It is towards a new territory analogous to the one just mentioned, and
bordering upon it, that the Commissioners of the Union have recently
pushed back the five great nations of the south; while they intend to
indicate a reserve of the same kind in the north of Dacota to the Crows
and the Sioux, if they find them well disposed to accept it.
“And then, people may say, what will become of the Indians? For this is
the question which every one asks when he hears the Red Skins spoken of.
If the Prairie tribes go into the reserves, the same will happen to them
which has befallen those of the Atlantic borders; little by little they
will lose their customs, their wild habits; they will yield insensibly
to the sedentary and agricultural life, and, step by step--last phase,
of which the first example remains to be seen--their country will pass
from the rank of a territory to that of a state. Arrived at this final
stage the Indian will be altogether blended with the White; after a few
generations he will not perhaps be more distinguishable from him than
the Frank is discernible from the Gaul among us, or the Norman from the
Saxon in England.
“But if the Indian does not submit; if he will not consent to be
cantoned in the reserves? Then must ensue a death-struggle between two
races differing in colour and customs, a merciless war of which,
unfortunately, so many examples have already been seen on the same
American soil. Where are now the Hurons, Iroquois, and Natchez, who
amazed our ancestors? The Algonquins, who had no limits to their
territory, where and how many are they to-day? All have gradually
disappeared by disease or warfare.
“The war which will break out this time will be short, and it will be
final, for in it the Indian will finally sink. He has on his side
neither science nor numbers. Undoubtedly, by his ambushes, by his
flights, by his isolated and totally unforeseen attacks, he bewilders
scientific warfare, and the most able strategists of the United States,
with General Sherman at their head, have been beaten by the Indians, who
have gained no small share of glory against the Whites. But the next war
will be no longer one of regulars but of volunteers. The pioneers of the
territories will arm themselves, and if the Red man demands tooth for
tooth, eye for eye, the Whites will inflict upon him the inflexible
penalty of retaliation, and the Indian will disappear for ever.”
[Illustration: 217.--A YUTE CHIEF.]
In the narrative of his travels from the Mississippi to the coasts of
the Pacific Ocean, made in 1853, M. Mollhausen has given various details
concerning the remnants of the nearly extinct Atlantic tribes.
The _Choctaws_, to the number of twenty-two thousand souls, are spread
over the regions bordering on Arkansas on the east, the plains inhabited
by the _Chicksaws_ on the south, and those occupied by the _Creeks_ on
the west, while their neighbours to the north are the _Cherokees_.
The vast plains which adjoin the Choctaw territories, are used for the
pastimes of the Indians, and especially for their game of ball or
tennis. The Choctaws, Chicksaws, Creeks, and Cherokees are passionately
attached to this amusement. A challenge borne by two able performers
usually gives rise to the festival, and having arranged the day for the
contest, the players dispatch their heralds to all quarters. These
emissaries are tattooed horsemen, accoutred in a fantastic style.
Carrying a ceremonial racket, they repair from village to village and
hut to hut, proclaiming throughout the entire tribe the names of the
individuals who have proposed the match, and making known the day of the
struggle and the place of meeting. As each of the actors is accompanied
by his relatives, half the nation is often found assembled at the
appointed locality on the eve of the solemn day, some to take part in
the fray, and the others to bet upon the result. This game (fig. 218) is
a tremendous tussle, a general scrimmage in which almost the whole tribe
is engaged.
Between the Canadian border and Arkansas, sprinkled with flourishing
farms, is the fertile domain of the Creek Indians. It is not so long
since the warriors there covered themselves with whimsical tattooing;
but progress has to-day penetrated into these savannas, and these same
Indians to-day read a newspaper printed in their language.
Like the Choctaws, the Creeks formerly inhabited Alabama and
Mississippi, which they ceded for a pecuniary consideration to the
American government. Their numbers do not amount to more than twenty-two
thousand.
A similar estimate may be made of the _Cherokees_, who have abandoned
New Georgia for higher Arkansas.
Further off are the _Shawnees_, a nation which is reduced to about
fourteen hundred members, and yet was once one of the most powerful in
North America. They were the first to oppose resistance to the
encroachments of civilization, and hunted from everywhere have strewn
the bones of their warriors along their route.
[Illustration: 218.--CHOCTAW INDIANS PLAYING BALL.]
The _Delawares_, who have diminished to the insignificant total of eight
hundred individuals, originally inhabited the eastern parts of the
States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Their fate resembled
that of the Shawnees; being ever obliged to subdue new territories which
they were afterwards compelled to yield to the government. Driven from
the plains which contained the tombs of their forefathers, deceived and
betrayed by the strangers, the Delaware Indians have repelled Christian
missionaries. Placed at the extreme limits of civilization, on the very
border of virgin nature, they devote themselves fearlessly to their
adventurous propensities. They go to hunt the grizzly bear in
California, the buffalo on the plains of Nebraska, the elk at the
sources of the Yellowstone, and the mustang in Texas, scalping a few
crowns on their way. A Delaware only requires to see a piece of land
once, in order to be able to recognize it after the lapse of years, no
matter from what side he may approach it; and wherever he sets his foot
for the first time, a glance suffices to enable him to discover the spot
where water should be sought for. These Indians are admirable guides,
and on their services, which cannot be too dearly paid for, the
existence of a whole caravan often depends.
* * * * *
_Comanches._--The great and valiant nation of the Comanche Indians,
which is divided into three tribes, overruns in every direction the vast
expanse of the Prairies: outside those green savannahs they would be
unable to live. Those of the north and of the centre are ever hunting
the buffalo, and the flesh of that animal constitutes almost their sole
sustenance. From the most tender childhood till advanced age they are in
the saddle, and a whip and bridle render the Comanche the most expert,
agile, and independent of men. They gallop in thousands over the
Prairies hanging to the sides of their steeds, and directing their
arrows and spears with marvellous skill at their mark. They plume
themselves on being robbers, attack the establishments of the Whites,
lead men, women, and children away prisoners, and carry off the cattle.
Fig. 219 represents two Comanche Indians; fig. 220, one of their
encampments, and fig. 221, a buffalo hunt among the same tribe.
_Apaches._--The _Apache_ nation is one of the most numerous of New
Mexico, including many tribes, several of which are not even known by
name.
[Illustration: 219.--COMANCHE INDIANS.]
The _Navajoes_ belong to this group. They are the only Indians of New
Mexico who keep large flocks of sheep and pursue a pastoral life. They
know how to weave the wool of their flocks, of which they manufacture
thick blankets fit to compete with the productions of the west, twisting
bright colours into these rugs in a way that imparts to them a very
original appearance. Their deerskin leggings are made with the utmost
care, and have thick soles and a pointed end, shaped like a beak, a
necessary precaution against the thorny cactus plants with which the
soil bristles. Their head-gear consists of a leathern cap in the form of
a helmet, adorned by a bunch of cock’s, eagle’s, or vulture’s feathers.
In addition to bows and arrows, they carry long lances which they handle
very skilfully as they dash along on their fleet steeds.
[Illustration: 220.--A COMANCHE CAMP.]
In the last rank of the Apache nation are to be placed the tribes of the
_Cosninos_ and _Vampays_, thievish, savage, and suspicious hordes with
which it has been found impossible to establish any relations, and who
are natives of the mountains of San Francisco. Cedar-berries, the fruit
of a species of pine-tree, and the grass and root of a Mexican plant,
constitute their means of subsistence, for they are wretched hunters.
[Illustration: 221.--A BUFFALO HUNT.]
Within sight of the Rio Colorado M. Mollhausen encountered some Indians
belonging to the three tribes of the _Chimehwebs_, _Cutchanas_ and
_Pah-Utah_s, who bear a resemblance to each other. Their complexion was
dark in colour, their faces striped with bistre, and their black hair
hung down their backs in locks which were confined with wet clay. They
were of fine stature, and perfectly naked but for a waistband. They
bounded forward like deer to meet the travellers, and their expression
of countenance was frank, kind, and merry. Their women on the contrary
were small, thickset, and clumsy, but their large black eyes and
pleasant manners gave them a certain charm.
The travellers also fell in with the _Mohawk Indians_ (fig. 222), men of
herculean forms who were tattooed from the roots of the hair to the sole
of the foot in blue, red, white and yellow, and with eyes that glowed
like coals under this layer of paint. Most of them wore vulture’s,
magpie’s, or swan’s feathers on the top of their heads, and carried
large bows and spears in their hands.
Mr. Catlin made numerous excursions among the Indian tribes of the
plains of Columbia and Upper Missouri, and we shall quote presently his
remarks concerning the _Nayas_ and _Flat-Heads_.
Both these nations dwell to the west of the Rocky Mountains, occupying
all the country situated round Lower Columbia and Vancouver’s Island.
The latter tribe derives its name from the singular custom which exists
among them of flattening their children’s heads at their birth.
The Flat-Heads (fig. 223) live in a region where very little in the way
of food is to be found except fish, and their lives are spent in
canoes. The artificial deformity which constitutes the national
characteristic is to be found more especially among the women, with whom
it is almost universal; but it is only a question of fashion, and does
not appear to have any perceptible effect on the functions of the
organs, for persons whose heads have been compressed seem as intelligent
as those who have not undergone this strange operation.
[Illustration: 222.--MOHAWK INDIANS.]
Mr. Catlin says:--
“In the course of the year 1853 I found myself on board the Sally Anne,
a little vessel flying the star-spangled flag, which having made a few
trading cruises along the coast of Kamtschatka and Russian America, was
on her way to land in British Columbia several passengers who had been
attracted thither by the reputation of the auriferous deposits newly
discovered in that country.
“On the third day from our entry into Queen Charlotte’s Sound, the long
and magnificent strait separating Vancouver’s Island from the continent,
we got into the long-boat to go on shore, and arrived at the village of
the Nayas. The Indians had been informed of our visit and were all
assembled in their huts; the chief, a very dignified man, being seated
in his wigwam, with lighted pipe, ready to receive us. We squatted
ourselves on mats spread upon the ground, and whilst the pipe was being
passed round--this is the first ceremony on such occasions--hundreds of
native dogs--half wolves,--which had followed in our track, completely
invaded the approaches to the wigwam, barking and howling in the
shrillest and most mournful manner. The sentinel whom the chief had
stationed at the door to prevent anyone entering without permission,
discharged an arrow at the leader of the band, piercing him to the
heart, a proceeding which calmed the rest of the pack, which was then
dispersed with many blows of oars by the Indian women. We were not a
little embarrassed at having no other way of expressing our thoughts
than by signs, yet we seemed to understand each other perfectly, and we
gathered that the chief had sent to a village at no great distance in
search of an interpreter who ought very soon to arrive. I recommended my
companions not to breathe a word before his arrival as to our object in
visiting the locality, and in the meantime did not myself lose an
instant in endeavouring to rouse the interest of our hosts.
“I motioned to Cæsar to bring me the portfolio, and having seated myself
beside the chief, opened it before him, while I gave an explanation of
each portrait; he expressed no great surprise, and yet took an evident
pleasure in examining them. I showed him several chiefs of the Amazons,
as well as others of the Sioux, Osages, and Pawnees. The last likeness
was a full-length one of Cæsar, on seeing which he could not restrain
himself from bursting into the most tremendous fits of laughter, and
turning towards the subject of it who was sitting opposite, signed to
him to approach, gave him a grasp of the hand and made him place himself
beside him. These drawings excited great animation in the assemblage;
three or four under-chiefs were anxious to see them, and the chief’s
wife and their young daughter came close to us for the same purpose.
[Illustration: 223.--FLAT-HEAD INDIANS.]
“One detail of their toilette attracted Cæsar’s attention: a man had a
round slip of wood inserted in his under lip and the chief’s daughter
also carried a similar ornament. Like Cæsar, my companions were ignorant
of this strange and incredible custom, and contemplated the Indians thus
adorned, with the utmost astonishment.
“The chief’s daughter wore a magnificent mantle of mountain-sheep’s wool
and wild-dog’s hair, marvellously interwoven with handsome colours in
the most intricate and curious patterns, and bordered all round with a
fringe eighteen inches deep. The making of this robe had occupied three
women during a year, and its value was that of five horses. The bowl of
the pipe which the chief passed round, was of hard clay, black as jet
and highly polished, and both it and the stem were embellished with
sketches of men and animals carved in the most ingenious manner. I have
seen several of these pipes, and have had many in my possession, with
their eccentric designs representing the garments, canoes, oars,
gaiters, and even the full-length likenesses of their owners. These
designs of the Nayas are different from all those we saw among the other
tribes of the continent. The same ornaments are found on their spoons,
vases and clubs; on their earthenware, of which they make a great
quantity; and on everything else manufactured by them. Up to the present
these figures are inexplicable hieroglyphics to us, but they possess
great interest for archæologists and etymologists.
“I did not find in this Naya Chief the same superstitious dread which
the Indians of the Amazon and of other parts in the south of America
evinced when I asked them to have their portraits taken; on the contrary
he said of his own accord to me: ‘If you think any of us worthy of the
honour, or handsome enough to be painted, we are ready!’ I thanked him;
Cæsar went for my box of colours and my easel, and I began his likeness
and that of his daughter, for he had told me how much he loved this
child, adding that it was his rule to have her almost always with him,
and that he thought I should do well to draw them together, both on the
same canvas. I agreed to his request, telling him at the same time how
much I appreciated such natural and noble feelings on his part.
[Illustration: 224.--NAYA INDIANS.]
“. . . . As we neared the village a great crowd came to meet us, and I
noticed that the throng, especially the women, attached themselves to
the steps of Cæsar as he marched solemnly along, his tall figure drawn
up to its full height, and with the portfolio on his back. So large were
the numbers for so small a village, that I asked the interpreter to
explain what this signified. He told me that the news of our arrival and
the attraction of the dance which was sure to take place in the evening
had drawn and would still draw a vast concourse of Indians from the
adjoining districts. At sunset we partook of a meal of venison in the
chief’s wigwam, and afterwards set ourselves to smoke until night came
on. Then in the midst of dreadful yelling, barking, and singing, we saw
about a dozen flaming torches approaching the hut in front of which the
dance of masks now began. Grotesque is an imperfect word to convey an
idea of the incredible eccentricities and buffoonery that took place
before us, and Cæsar was seized with such a fit of laughing as to be
almost choked. Picture to yourself, fifteen or twenty individuals, all
full-grown men, masked or tricked out in the most extraordinary guise,
while many spectators, placed in the first rank, were costumed in
similar style. A great medicine man was the conductor of the revels and
the most whimsical of all. He represented the ‘King of the Bustards,’
another was ‘Monarch of the Divers,’ a third, ‘Doctor of the Rabbits;’
and there were also the ‘Brother to the Devil,’ the ‘Thunder-Maker,’ the
‘White Rook,’ the ‘Night-travelling Bear,’ the ‘Soul of the Caribout,’
and so on, until the names of every animal and every bird were entirely
exhausted. The dancers’ masks, of which I procured several, are very
ingeniously made. They are cleverly hollowed from a solid block of wood
in such a way as to fit the face, and are held inside by a cross-strap
which is taken between the teeth, thus enabling the voice to be
counterfeited and disguised; they are covered, moreover, with odd
patterns in various colours. With the exception of that of the leader of
the dance, all these masks had a round piece of wood in the under lip,
to recall the singular custom which exists in the country.
Entertainments of this description are not confined to the Nayas, for I
have witnessed similar recreations in many other tribes in North as
well as South America.
[Illustration: 225.--A CROW CHIEF.]
“They also slit the cartilages and lobes of their ears, lengthen them,
and insert little billets as ornaments. Those in the lip are principally
worn by the women, though some of the men have adopted this fashion,
which becomes more and more in vogue among both sexes as the coast is
ascended northwards. The same may be said of the masks, which are to be
found as far as among the Aloutis. All the women have not the lip
pierced, and those who have do not carry the wooden ornament except on
certain occasions, at settled periods, when they don full dress. They
remove it when eating and sleeping or if they have to talk much, for
there are plenty of words which cannot be pronounced with this
inconvenient trinket.
“The lip is perforated at the earliest age, and the aperture thus
formed, though almost imperceptible at first when the ‘barbote’ is taken
out, is kept open and grows larger daily.”
The same traveller had the pleasure of again meeting the _Crows_, but as
we have already spoken of the Indians of this tribe, we shall content
ourselves with reproducing here his very picturesque costume of one of
their chiefs (fig. 225).
Mr. Catlin twice visited the _Mandan Indians_ in the course of the
summer of 1832. The solitary village in which they were collected, to
the number of two or three thousand, was on the left bank of the
Missouri, at a distance of about 1400 miles from the city of St. Louis.
Of medium stature, and comfortably clad in skins, all wore leathern
leggings and mocassins elegantly embroidered with porcupine silk dyed in
various colours.
Each man had his tunic and his mantle which he assumed or laid aside
according to the temperature, and every woman her robe of deer or
antelope skin. Many among them had a very fair skin, and their hair,
which was silvery gray from childhood to old age, their light blue eyes
and oval faces, doubtless testified to an infusion of white blood.
Almost all the men adopted a curious fashion, peculiar to this tribe;
their hair, long enough to reach the calf of their legs, was divided
into matted locks, flattened and separated by hardened birdlime or by
red or yellow clay.
NORTH-WESTERN FAMILY.
The Indian tribes composing the _North-Western family_ of the North
American Branch, are less warlike and cruel than those of the east. They
take no scalps. Their stature is not so tall, their face broader, their
eyes more sunken, and their complexion browner. M. d’Omalius d’Halloy
cites in this group the _Koliouges_ (from 60° to 50° N. lat.), the
_Wakisches_ or _Nootkans_ (Island of Nootka and neighbouring coasts),
the _Chinooks_ (mouth of the Oregon), and the _Tularenos_, or Indians of
California.
A detailed description of these different American tribes would be
devoid of interest; in fact, we should be only able to repeat with but
little alteration what has been said in previous pages concerning the
manners, habits, customs, &c., of the last remaining savages who still
people the interior of the North American forests.
In connection with the aboriginal inhabitants of California, we must
direct the reader’s attention to the fact, that the Californians have a
skin of such a deep reddish-brown that it seems black. This colour is
certainly exceptional among the primitive inhabitants of America, but
the characteristic is so pronounced in the present instance, that we
felt that we could not avoid pointing it out, although it may be opposed
to the classification which we have adopted, placing in the Red Race all
members of the human family proper to America. This exception is one of
the inconveniences of classification to which we must submit, without
however endeavouring to conceal it.
THE BLACK RACE.
The Black Race, as considered in the various peoples constituting its
type, is distinguished by its short and woolly hair, compressed skull,
flattened nose, prominent jaws, thick lips, bowed legs, and black or
dark brown skin. Its members are confined to the central and southern
regions of Africa and the southern parts of Asia and Oceania. The blacks
found in America are the descendants of African slaves transported into
the New World by Europeans.
The peoples belonging to the Black Race present great variations. Some
have the type altogether peculiar to the Race we have just
characterized, while others show a tendency to approach the Yellow and
the White Races. The inhabitants of Guinea and Congo are quite black,
but the Caffres are only excessively brown and resemble Abyssinians. The
Hottentots and Bushmen are yellowish, like the Chinese, though at the
same time possessing the features and physiognomy of the Negro.
As striking varieties are, therefore, observable in the Black Race as in
the White, and a rigorous classification of it is consequently very
difficult to establish; but as we coincide in that which has been
suggested by M. d’Omalius d’Halloy, we shall separate the Black Race
into two divisions, the _Western_ and the _Eastern_ Branches.
CHAPTER I.
WESTERN BRANCH.
We shall notice three families in the _Western_ Branch of the Black
Race, those of the Caffres, Hottentots, and Negroes. These general
groups comprise an immense number of tribes, many of them still unknown,
constituting a population of about fifty-two millions.
CAFFRE FAMILY.
The Caffres who inhabit the south-east of Africa form, so to speak, the
stepping-stone or intermedium between the brown and the black nations.
Their hair is woolly, but their complexion is not so dark nor their nose
so flat as those of a Negro. Possessing more aptitude for civilization
than the other black races, they are associated together in large
communities, each of which obeys a chief, and though half wandering in
their habits, occupy some very populous towns, of considerable extent,
and resembling vast camps. Their clothing is very scanty, being reduced
in the men’s case almost to a cloak, whilst the women are better covered
in leathern garments.
The Caffres have great herds of cattle and devote themselves to
agriculture. They cultivate maize, millet, beans and watermelons; make
bread and beer, and manufacture earthenware, are able to utilize metals,
employ iron and copper, and know how to turn both into tools and
ornaments. They believe in a Supreme Being as well as in the immortality
of the soul, but pervert their religious sentiments by divers
superstitions.
The various tribes of this great family possess physical characteristics
in common which are not to be found in other African nations. Caffres
are far taller and stronger; they have well-proportioned limbs, a brown
skin, black and woolly hair; the elevated forehead and the projecting
nose of the European with the thick lips of the Negro, and the high
prominent cheekbones of the Hottentot. Their language is sonorous,
sweet, and harmonious, with a rumbling in its pronunciation.
[Illustration: 226.--A CAFFRE.]
We class with this family:
1. The Southern Caffres, who include the Amakisas, Amathymbas, or
Tamboukis, Amapendas, and other tribes;
2. The Amazulas, Vatwas, and some other warlike wandering hordes who
have lately advanced southward into the interior;
3. The inhabitants of Delagoa Bay, who bear a closer resemblance to the
Negroes;
4. The Bechuanas and all the numerous tribes situated towards the north
and in the interior, speaking a language of their own, called
_Sichuana_.
[Illustration: 227.--NATIVE OF THE MOZAMBIQUE COAST.]
The Bechuana nations are the most advanced of these four groups. The
traveller Livingstone, who made a long stay in their country, has given
excellent descriptions of them in his “Expedition to the Zambesi.” They
have made progress in arts and civilization, inhabit large towns, have
well-built houses, till the soil, and know how to preserve one year’s
crop until the next. Their features tend towards an approach to those of
Europeans.
In the region of the _Tammahas_, not far from Marhow, a town of ten
thousand inhabitants, fields of corn several hundred acres in extent,
testify to a rather forward state of agriculture and industry.
The _Maratsi_ cultivate sugar and tobacco, make knives and razors,
construct their houses in masonry, and ornament them with pilasters and
mouldings.
We must also affiliate to the Caffres, the inhabitants of the Mozambique
coast, that is to say, that portion of the east coast of Africa between
the mouth of the Zambesi and Cape Delgado. Fig. 227 represents a typical
native of this district.
HOTTENTOT FAMILY.