_Achis_, in eastern Guatemala, now extinct.
_Aguatecas_, in Aguacatan, Guatemala.
_Cakchiquels_, in central Guatemala.
_Chaneabals_, in eastern Chiapas.
_Chinantecos_ or _Cinantecos_, same as _Tzotzils_.
_Choles_, in Depart. Palenque, in Chiapas.
_Chortis_, in valley of Rio Montagua, near Copan.
_Huastecas_, on Rio Panuco, north of Vera Cruz.
_Ixils_, on head-waters of Rio-Salinas, in Guatemala.
_Lacandons_, on the Rio Lacandon.
_Mams_, in western Guatemala.
_Mayas_, in peninsula of Yucatan.
_Mopans_, north of the Chols, in Guatemala.
_Quekchis_, on Rio Cahabon, in Guatemala.
_Quiches_ (_Utlateca_), head-waters of Rio Grande, Guatemala.
_Pokomams_, south of Rio Grande, in Guatemala.
_Pokonchis_, in central Guatemala.
_Tzendals_, in Tabasco and Chiapas.
_Tzotzils_, in Chiapas.
_Tzutuhils_, south of lake Atitlan, Guatemala.
_Uspantecas_, on Rio Negro, Guatemala.
11. THE HUAVES, SUBTIABAS, LENCAS, XINCAS, XICAQUES, “CARIBS,” MUSQUITOS,
ULVAS, RAMAS, PAYAS, GUATUSOS.
The small tribe of the _Huaves_ occupies four hamlets on the isthmus of
Tehuantepec on the Pacific Ocean.[212] The men are tall and strong but
the women are unusually ugly. Their occupation is chiefly fishing and
they have the reputation of being dull. The language they speak is said
to be of an independent stock, and according to various writers the tribe
claims to have come from some part of the coast a considerable distance
to the south. The vocabularies of their tongue are too imperfect to
permit its identification.
The _Subtiabas_ are inhabitants of the valley of that name near the
modern city of Leon in Nicaragua. They were called Nagrandans by Mr.
E. G. Squier,[213] because the site of ancient Leon was on the plain
of Nagrando and the province also bore this name at the time of the
conquest. They are probably the descendants of the ancient Maribois,
whom both Oviedo and Palacios place a few leagues from Leon and to whom
they ascribe an independent language; but it is an error of some later
writers to confound them with the Chorotegans or Mangues, to whom they
had no relationship whatever. Their language stands by itself among the
inter-isthmian stocks.
The _Lenca_ is spoken by several semi-civilized tribes in central
Honduras. Its principal dialects are the Intibucat, Guajiquero, Opatoro
and Similaton. It is an independent stock, with no affinities as yet
discovered. The Guajiqueros dwell in remote villages in the San Juan
Mountains southwest of Comayagua, the capital of Honduras. We owe to
the late Mr. E. G. Squier vocabularies of all four dialects and an
interesting description of the present condition of the stock.[214]
A little known tribe in a low stage of culture dwelt on the Rio de
los Esclavos, the _Xincas_. They extended about fifty miles along the
Pacific coast and thence back to the Sierra which is there about the same
distance. The one vocabulary we have on their tongue shows some loan
words from their Nahuatl neighbors the Pipiles, but in other respects it
appears to be a stock by itself. Its radicals are generally monosyllabic,
and the formation of words is by suffixes.[215] The tribe was conquered
by Alvarado, in 1524, who states that their principal village was at
Guazacapam. It was built of wood and populous. There are some reasons for
believing that previous to the arrival of the Quiches and Cakchiquels on
the plains of Guatemala that region was occupied by this nation, and that
they gave way before the superior fighting powers of the more cultured
stock.
The _Xicaques_ live in the state of Honduras to the number of about
six thousand. Their seats are on the waters of the Rio Sulaque and Rio
Chaloma. They acknowledge one ruler, who is elective and holds the office
for life. Their language contains a few Nahuatl words, but in the body of
its vocabulary reveals no relationship to any other stock.
The word _Carib_ is frequently applied by the Spanish population to any
wild tribe, merely in the sense of savage or wild. Thus on the upper
Usumacinta the Lacandons, a people of pure Maya stock, are so called by
the whites; on the Musquito coast the uncivilized Ulvas of the mountains
are referred to as Caribs. There are a large number of pure and mixed
Caribs, probably five or six thousand, in British Honduras near Trujillo,
but they do not belong to the original population. They were brought
there from the island of St. Vincent in 1796 by the British authorities.
Many of them have the marked traits of the negro through a mingling of
the races, and are sometimes called “Black Caribs.” The Rev. Alexander
Henderson, who has composed a grammar and dictionary of their dialect,
gives them the name _Karifs_, a corruption of Carib, and is the term by
which they call themselves.
That portion of Honduras known as the Musquito coast derived its name,
not from the abundance of those troublesome insects, but from a native
tribe who at the discovery occupied the shore near Blewfield Lagoon. They
are an intelligent people, short in stature, unusually dark in color,
with finely cut features, and small straight noses--not at all negroid,
except where there has been an admixture of blood. They number about
six thousand, many of whom have been partly civilized by the efforts of
missionaries, who have reduced the language to writing and published
in it a number of works. The Tunglas are one of the sub-tribes of the
Musquitos.
On the head-waters of the streams which empty along the Musquito coast
reside the numerous tribes of the _Ulvas_, called by the English _Smoos_.
These are dark, but lighter in color than the Musquitos, and are much
ruder and more savage. The custom of flattening the head prevails among
them, and as their features are not handsome at the best, and as they are
much afflicted with leprous diseases, they are by no means an attractive
people.