Occupations--Sexual division and tabu--Tribal
manufactures--Arts and crafts--Drawing--Carving--Metals--Tools
and implements--No textile fabrics--Pottery--Basket
making--Hammocks--Cassava-squeezer and grater--Pestle and
mortar--Wooden vessels--Stone axes--Methods of felling
trees--Canoes--Rafts--Paddles.
Life in Amazonia to the man is occasionally strenuous, frequently a
veritable _dolce far niente_; to the woman it is a ceaseless round of
toilsome duties, broken only by the excitement of preparation for, and
participation in, a tribal dance. The division of occupations between
the sexes is possibly uneven, but very certainly strict. In many cases
it amounts to a tabu,[90] and as a rule the reason for this division is
either apparent or confessed. It is absolutely a question of sex. To men
appertain defensive measures, all that calls for physical strength and
skill, war, the chase, the manufacture of weapons, the preparation of
certain poisons and drinks, especially those that are used ceremonially.
Men paddle the canoes, except in extreme cases, when a sufficiency of men
is not forthcoming, and women perforce must lend their aid. They cut the
wood and build the houses. They climb the trees to gather fruit, clear
the plantations, and turn the soil. Woman is the housewife, the mother,
and the cook, but she is also the agriculturalist and the maker of all
purely domestic implements. She manufactures the hammocks, the rough
pottery, and most of the baskets, although it would not be considered
derogatory on the part of the man to lend a hand if necessary.
[Illustration: PLATE XXII.
WITOTO BASKETS OF SPLIT CANE AND FIBRE.]
Besides this sexual differentiation various tribes have their special
manufactures in which they excel their neighbours. The Menimehe are
known as great pottery workers. The Karahone are renowned for their
poisons. The Boro specialise on mat-making, plaiting, the manufacture
of ligatures, and the preparation of blow-pipes. The Witoto hammocks
are better than those of other tribes. Trade in any organised form is
non-existent, it is true, but articles pass, as I have already described,
irregularly by personal barter and exchange of gifts to other tribes;
and in this fashion the poison of the Karahone reaches tribes unknown
to the makers, and beads made in Birmingham filter down by many and
devious routes even to these isolated wilds. Over fifty years ago Wallace
estimated that some thousands of pounds’ worth of trade goods passed
up the Uaupes yearly,[91] and this accounts for the fact that tribes
north of the Japura are better supplied than those of the south. The
best articles for barter I found were axes, knives, combs--especially
scurf-combs--and Brummagem beads. Cloth and fowling-pieces are not valued
except in the Rubber Belt; the less sophisticated Indian of the backwoods
has no manner of use for them: cloth is less ornamental than paint, and
the scatter-gun only frightens the game and lessens the kill.
Indian arts and crafts are neither numerous nor particularly complex;
indeed arts--with the exception of music and dancing--are almost unknown.
There are no rock pictures in the Issa-Japura valleys, such as those
executed by the Indians in so many other parts of the Americas, but then
there are no rocks. I have occasionally among the Andoke and the Boro
seen pictures of a rude type on the supports of the houses, and on the
four large central posts of the big _maloka_; or these may be roughly
carved. There is carving also on some of the dancing staves. But these
people have no great use for colour and line beyond the ornamentation
of their bodies, and in a lesser degree of their pottery. They make no
attempt to use drawing for informative purposes. Elsewhere Indians have
shown themselves skilful map-makers,[92] but none of these tribes could
so much as draw a rough chart of their own district. Yet this district
to them represents the whole world. They do not realise that there can
be any other people but themselves and the half-dozen tribes or so who
happen to be in their immediate vicinity, and always regarded it as a
huge joke on my part when I talked of the sea and the vast countries
beyond.
[Illustration: PLATE XXIII.
BORO NECKLACE OF JAGUARS TEETH WITH INCISED PATTERNS
NECKLACE OF JAGUAR-TEETH, INCISED, AND FLUTE MADE OF HUMAN BONE]
One tribe of Witoto do possess a drawing on bark-cloth that is their
equivalent of a map of the world. This tribe when I visited them were
located near the source of the Karaparana, and the “map” was so very
exceptional an acquisition that it was known and talked about by far
distant tribes who had never seen either it or its possessors. In fact,
it was one of the wonders of the universe, to be bragged about to any
stranger who was ignorantly unaware of its existence. Nothing I could
offer would persuade these Witoto to part with their treasure, and
unfortunately I was unable to obtain a photograph of it. My too evident
interest aroused suspicion, and on this account I was unable to study it
clearly, as I saw it but for a moment, and that in a dark house before my
eyes were accustomed to the gloom. It was almost immediately hidden for
fear I should seize it. This map was made on beaten bark about two feet
square. The centre was divided into about a dozen squares. In each square
very crude human figures were represented fighting, planting, or hunting
in their own tribal territory. These were the “nations” of the world. The
dividing lines were of red vegetable pigment. The “nations,” so far as I
could see, were fighting amongst themselves. In the margin were the sun,
a moon, and many stars. I saw nothing to designate spirits or _Taife_.
So ancient was this map, handed down from generation to generation, that
divine origin or use was assumed. It was said to be the world in the
days when the Good Spirit appeared to man.[93]
Slight carvings, such as can be seen in the accompanying illustration,
are done at times on the teeth that they string for a necklace; and among
the Witoto I twice met with examples of figures carved in wood. The two
figures in the first instance, a nude man and woman, were life-size.
They were painted white with designs in black and red to represent the
paintings done for a dance. These figures were placed on either side of
the door jambs outside, and were the only two of the kind I ever saw or
heard of in the country. They were greatly prized by their owners, and
spoken of by neighbours as notable achievements. No one had any idea who
made them, or when they were made, and if questioned simply said they
always had been.
In the second instance the figure was a small female doll. It was in
the possession of the daughter of a chief of the Itoma Gurra tribe of
Witoto, a young girl, but who had arrived at maturity. The Indians said
the doll was for the children to play with, but such toys are extremely
scarce. This one was about eight inches high, and was made of some very
light wood, painted white, with the organs that denoted the sex marked in
red.[94] The toy was not regarded in any way as an idol, nor was there
any suggestion of magical powers attaching to it. To secure such a toy
is almost impossible, but this doll I did obtain. Unfortunately I showed
it to an Indian afterwards, who told me that his tribe made such things,
and that he could get me a pair to it. I gave him the toy, but never saw
him or the doll again. This was unusual. As a rule when an Indian says he
will do anything he keeps his word.
Smelting, or any description of metallurgy, cannot be looked for among
the inhabitants of a country so singularly devoid of all metalliferous
deposit or formation. Metal there is practically none in the aboriginal
homes of the natives, and whatever of it is received, be it but a
trousers-button, becomes at once an heirloom and a treasure. Their only
method of working metal when obtained is to heat and hammer it into
various forms and shapes for ornaments. Weapons and implements alike must
be contrived of other materials. In normal conditions man, without the
knowledge to work ore, turns to stone for substitute, but conditions in
Amazonia are, as has already been shown, abnormal. If there is no metal
neither is there any stone. It is so rare that it is looked upon as
almost sacred,[95] and implements fashioned of it are not made nowadays
by the tribes, but those in use are handed down from one generation
to another. North of the Japura, where quartz can be obtained, at
least by barter, it is used for knives, arrow-heads, spear-points, and
cassava-graters; but these Issa-Japura Indians have to content themselves
with wood and palm-spines, and have only their ancestral stone axes.[96]
These are constructed in true “prehistoric” manner; the stones have been
and are fastened to their wooden hafts with fibre lashings fixed by
vegetable pitch.[97] The Indian cannot say from whence they came, there
is no memory of their makers; they are, in fact, looked upon as veritable
gifts from the gods.
Wooden knives are constructed from such hardwood trees as the black
ironwood. These knives and stone axes will be used by Indians even more
in touch with civilisation than these tribes, possibly because the
Brummagem trade-goods knife and hatchet has been proved useless for
practical wear.
For boring purposes the Indians make an instrument like a bradawl T with
a capybara’s tooth, and a paca tooth is used for scraping. With these
simple implements the labour involved in producing such a weapon as the
blow-pipe is enormous. But these are all the tools the Indian craftsmen
possess.
Manufactures among the Issa-Japura tribes are not numerous. These Indians
have no textile fabrics; they neither spin nor weave; everything is done
by finger-work, and the local substitutes for woven goods are beaten
bark-cloth and netted or plaited palm-fibre. This, as a rule, is in its
natural colour, as very little dye is ever employed. There is no leather
working. The only use made of the skins of animals, I ever discovered,
was that some Menimehe tribes had large round shields of tapir hides,
two to five hides superimposed one on another;[98] the medicine-men make
garments of the same leather; while the medicine-pouch is often made of
the unshorn skin of the jaguar. Leather thongs are sometimes employed for
tying purposes, such as securing an axe-haft, and on the north of the
Japura to string a bow, but the ubiquitous fibre and liana are in more
general use.
Glass is unknown to the Indian, but every tribe makes its own pottery.
Earthenware pots are used by all Indians for cooking. The best are
manufactured by the Menimehe women, and are distinguished by the red and
black colouring. This is obtained by the use of certain juices extracted
from the bark of a tree. These handsome, well-finished pots are a great
article of barter, and are exchanged for other products of friendly
tribes. Thus they are to be found at far distances from where they are
made on the northern bank of the Japura. It amounts to a trade, distinct
if unorganised.
Pottery-making is the sole province of the women in any tribe,
earthenware appertaining to the culinary department which is their
special sphere. The pots, entirely made and shaped by hand, when finished
are beautifully symmetrical, though the Indian potters possess nothing
approximating to a wheel.[99] Squatting on the ground the women work
and mould the clay, and rub it between their hands into long cylinders
very much like plug tobacco. These are coiled round and round and kneaded
into a previously constructed shape; or the women will prepare a circular
hole in the ground and mould the clay into that. The plastic coils are
then worked round with any hard thing that is handy--a bone or a piece of
wood. When the vessel is built up to the size intended it is carefully
rubbed before it is set out to dry in the sun. Finally, hot ashes are
heaped over the pots, which are baked slowly and polished afterwards.
The clay used is commonly to be found on the river-banks, and with
it the Indians mix wood ashes, either to stiffen it or, as Crevaux
suggests,[100] to render the finished article more porous, so that its
contents are kept cool by evaporation. This pottery is known as caraipé
ware, from the fact that the ashes of the caraipé bark are preferred for
its manufacture.[101] In some districts vessels of even a very large size
are made of it,[102] but I never saw any big pots either imported or made
locally in the Issa-Japura valleys. The large vessels used for making
kawana by these tribes consist merely of huge strips of the inner bark of
the tree, riveted together with thorns or spines, and set upright on a
hard earthen surface; or else a section of a great tree trunk is hollowed
out to make a trough. Large flat plates to bake the cassava cakes on are
made of earthenware, but very often only wooden platters are used.
[Illustration: PLATE XXIV.
BORO CASSAVA-SQUEEZER.
(_a_) LOOP AT END]
Women are not the tribal potters alone; they are also the chief
basket-makers, though on occasions the men will make baskets. Both
Karahone and Boro Indians excel in basket-making, though all tribes are
skilful enough at it. If you give an Indian anything to carry he never
dreams of holding it in his hands if it will allow of other carriage.
He either winds a strip of bark-fibre round his head to make a sling in
which to place it, or, if it were anything that did not admit of easy
adjustment--as, for instance, fruit--he gathers some green palm leaves,
and in about five minutes has plaited them, on a foundation of two
rods, into a long and deep square basket, which is thrown away at the
end of the march. Such quickly made baskets are continually in use, but
the tribes also construct more elaborate ones that can be utilised for
more than immediate purposes. In every _maloka_ may be seen baskets of
plaited bark-fibre and of plaited cane,[103] usually white, but sometimes
with an interwoven and regular pattern in black cane. The Resigero make
bottle-shaped baskets as receptacles for edible ants. A large basket is
carried on the back, slung from the forehead with the customary band of
bark-fibre.
Quite as important as the pottery is the manufacture of hammocks.[104]
This again is done by the women of the tribes. It is woman’s, that is
to say light, work. All these tribes make them on the same principle
and in the same way, the only difference in the hammocks of different
tribes is the spacing of the cross-threads. This, according to Hamilton
Rice, is a tribal distinction, each group of tribes having an individual
spacing.[105] The material used is curana string or palm-fibre. To
prepare this the women take the pinnate leaflets of the Chambiri
palm[106] and fold over each strip at its broadest part. They grip it
tightly and shred it down with the thumb and forefinger. The fibre thus
procured is then twisted into a cord by rolling it tightly and hard
against the naked thigh.
To make a hammock a woman takes a length of this fibre string and turns
it round, backwards and forwards between two posts set in the earthen
floor of the _maloka_. Cross strings of the same material are then tied
at the regulation intervals and knotted across, from string to string, to
the opposite side. No implement of any kind is used; the two posts are
the only framework, and the whole construction is carried out entirely by
the women’s fingers without any artificial aid.
The cassava-squeezer, that essential complement to an Indian household,
is another plaited or basket-work article. The squeezer, which is common
to the Boro and all the tribes north or south, except the Witoto, the
Muenane, and the Nonuya, consists of a long cylinder with a loop at
both ends. One is attached to a rafter, and the other to a stout stick,
on which a woman sits, and thereby pulls upon the cylinder. The manioc
is inserted through the open end before the weight is applied, and the
elastic structure widens out to permit the soaked and grated roots to be
packed in, till it resembles nothing so much as a well-filled Christmas
stocking; but when pressure is brought to bear on the lower end the
cylinder gradually elongates, and thereby contracts, crushing the roots
to a pulp, from which the poisonous juice drains away.
The material used to make these squeezers appears to be a species of
cane, but is said to be the bark of a palm tree.[107] It is cut into
narrow strips and closely plaited into an elastic bottle some seven to
ten feet long, and not more than about six inches wide when open. Instead
of this cylinder the Witoto use a long web, a rectangular strip about ten
inches wide of plaited bark-fibre, about an inch wide. This they wind
round the grated manioc after the manner that putties are adjusted on
the leg. The tighter they twist the pliable web the greater the pressure
upon the crushed roots, and the juice is thus wrung out of them.
The grater that is used to scrape the manioc roots, before they are
placed in the squeezer, is a wooden implement made by the Indian women
themselves.[108] It is a flat oval. The one in the illustration measures
16½ inches by 5¾ inches. The wood is of a bamboo type set with short
black palm-spines about an eighth of an inch apart, thicker at one
end than the other, but arranged in no regular pattern. These spines
are fixed into the wood and project about an eighth of an inch above
it. Those in which quartz stones are inserted instead of spines are a
valuable commercial commodity north of the Japura.
[Illustration: PLATE XXV.
OKAINA GROUP
Note Coca pestle and mortar.
GROUP OF OKAINA WOMEN]
I never saw manioc crushed, as Robuchon described, with a pestle and
mortar; but these articles are in frequent use, especially for the
preparation of coca and tobacco, so they are items of importance in an
Indian inventory. A mortar is easily improvised from the hollowed trunk
of a tree, and such a small mortar, with a long heavy pounder, is shown
on the right of the photograph of a group of Okaina Indians. It is being
used to pound coca (Plate XXV.). The pestles are made of some heavy wood,
such as red wood or mahogany, and the lower trunk of the peach palm,[109]
or a block of ironwood makes a very solid mortar. The peach-palm trunk
is hollow, that is to say, it has a very hard shell filled with soft
pith that can be scraped out with little difficulty.[110] Some of these
mortars are of great size. Spruce gives the measurements as five to six
feet high, but none I saw were more than four feet.
Not only are mortars and troughs made from the tree trunks, but bark is
cut into long strips to make smaller vessels, shallow concave trays not
unlike the Arunta hardwood _pitchi_.[111] The method is ingenious by
which the bark is stripped from the trunk, or the tree is felled, for
the principle in each case is the same. Round the trunk of the selected
tree a number of small holes are made, or, if only a portion is to be
removed, the trunk is notched at the required distances. The edge of the
stone axe is inserted in the notch, and the slip of wood is levered up
with it until it splits away at the lower notch; or, if the tree is to be
felled, the holes are widened into grooves that are deepened round the
trunk till it gives way--a somewhat slow process, but a sure one.
In this fashion the Indians cut down the trees from which their boats are
to be made. A tree is felled, preferably a cedar,[112] and the trunk is
hollowed out for the length required, which varies, but may be as much
as 20 feet, though the breadth will not exceed 18 inches. To hollow the
trunk the Indians bore holes in the wood in order to secure the proper
thickness, and then slit off pieces with their stone axes. These are
kindled into a fire to which logs of wood are added. This burns out
the required cavity, and when the trunk is very hot the burning embers
are scraped away and the burnt trunk is forced apart, which is done by
gradually inserting longer logs that are hammered into place. This is
a job that needs to be done deftly and quickly, or the cooling wood
will soon either contract too much or break at the strain. The heat
also causes the ends to curve upwards, so that the bow and the stern of
the boat will rise higher than the centre. Such a “dug-out” is a heavy
concern, often with a specific gravity greater than that of water.
These boats belong to the community, and are not many in number. They are
never left on the bank, nor are they kept in the _maloka_, but are hidden
in the bush near the river-banks. The paddles, however, are kept in the
house, stored overhead on the rafters.
All the tribes of the Issa and Japura valleys make these rather clumsy
craft, but it is possible that the original idea is not indigenous, and
that the autochthonic boat is the temporary canoe made from the hollowed
trunk of the bulge-stemmed palm.[113] These canoes can be fashioned in
an hour or two. The soft pulp is removed easily with a knife, or even
may be crushed up with the fingers, but the bark is very hard, and the
bulging portion of the trunk is shaped already for the craft. The ends
are stiffened with clay, and the improvised canoe is ready for use, and
is quite sufficient for casual purposes--to cross a river when too deep
to ford or too wide to bridge,--and being of no permanent value it may be
left to drift away down-stream when used.[114]
Spruce mentions tribes who cannot make canoes, and have to construct
rafts to cross any main river;[115] but rafts are not used on the Issa
or Japura streams except by the rubber-workers. They make them of trunks
of light wood lashed with liana or withes, with a rail at the side, but
such a construction is unknown to those Indians who have not met with
the “civilized” invaders from the Rubber Belts. The Catanixi, so Wallace
states, make canoes of the bark of trees stripped off in one sheet,[116]
but I never saw anything approaching the “birch-bark” canoe, though
some of the “civilized” Indians use a _montaria_, a built boat that is
certainly not indigenous.
The canoes are propelled with paddles from four to five feet long, cut
from the solid block of wood, elongated in the blade, not rounded, as is
universal on the main Amazon river. They may be decorated with roughly
painted designs. Indians always paddle in unison, sometimes on alternate
sides, sometimes three together on one side and three on the other. They
face the way they are going, as one would in a “Canadian” or “Rob Roy,”
and the man in the bow steers. When two men paddle a large canoe both
will sit forward and paddle from the bow.