_Ababas_, in Bolivia.
_Amazonas_, on lower Amazon.
_Anambes_, on Rio Tocantins.
_Apiacas_, near Rio Arinos and upper Tapajoz.
_Araguagus_, on lower Paru.
_Bororos_, near Rio Paraguay.
_Camaguras_, in province Matogrosso.
_Cambevas_, see _Omaguas_.
_Cambocas_, mouth of Rio Tocantin.
_Caracatas_, on upper Uruguay and Parana.
_Cayovas_, on Rio Tapajoz.
_Chaneses_, in Bolivia.
_Chiriguanos_, in Bolivia.
_Chogurus_, on Rio Pajehu.
_Cocamas_, near Rio Nauta (upper Amazon) and Rio Ucayali.
_Cocamillas_, near the Cocamas.
_Cuchiuaras_, on Rio Tocantins.
_Guaranis_, in Uruguay.
_Guarayos_, in Bolivia.
_Guayanas_, in Uruguay.
_Gujajaras_, on Rio Maranhao.
_Jacundas_, on Rio Tocantins.
_Jamudas_, in province Pará.
_Maues_, on the Amazon.
_Mbeguas_, on Rio Parana.
_Manitsauas_, on upper Schingu.
_Mitandues_, near Rio Tapajoz.
_Mundurucus_, on Rio Tapajoz.
_Muras_, on Rio Madeira.
_Omaguas_, on lower Iça.
_Oyampis_, on upper Oyapok.
_Pacajas_, on lower Amazon.
_Parentintims_, in province Amazonas.
_Paris_, see _Mundurucus_.
_Piturunas_, on Rio Curitiba.
_Sirionos_, on Rio Paray, Bolivia.
_Tamoyos_, near San Vincente, Brazil (extinct).
_Tapaunas_, on Rio Tocantins.
_Tapirapes_, in province Goyaz.
_Tapes_, on Rio Uruguay.
_Turas_, on lower Rio Madeira.
_Uyapas_, on Rio Arinos.
_Yurunas_, on Rio Schingu, from 4° to 8°.
_2. The Tapuyas._
The _Tapuya_ stock is at once the most ancient and the most extensive
now living on the soil of Brazil. Its various tribes are found from s.
lat. 5° to s. lat. 20°, and from the Atlantic to the Schingu river. The
name _Tapuya_ was applied to them by the Tupis, and means “enemies” or
“strangers”--two ideas which are always synonymous in primitive life.
They are also called _Crens_ or _Guerens_, the Old Ones or Ancient
People. This seems to have reference to their possession of the coast
before the arrival of the Tupi hordes from the south.
By some writers they are believed to have been the earliest constructors
of the _sambaquis_, the shell-heaps or kitchen-middens, which are of
great size and numerous, along the Atlantic and its bays. These are
supposed to indicate an antiquity of 2,000 years;[348] but the Tapuyas
can lay claim to a title to their land far older than that. The skulls
and human bones which were discovered by Dr. Lund in the caves of Lagoa
Santa in immediate juxtaposition to those of animals now extinct, came
from a region occupied by the Tapuyas, and are in all respects parallel
to those of the tribe to-day. This would assign them a residence on the
spot far back in the present geologic period.
Their appearance is that of an antique race of men. They are of middle
height, with long upper and short lower extremities. The face is
broad, the eyes small and under prominent ridges, the forehead low and
retreating; the sutures are simple, the face prognathic, and the skull
decidedly dolichocephalic (73), but of good capacity (1470 cub. cent.),
and leptorhinic; the mouth is large and the nose prominent. In color they
present a variety of shades of reddish-brown, and their hair, which is
coarse, verges rather on the dark-brown than the black.[349] They are not
ugly, and the expression of the face, especially in the young, is often
attractive. Those of them, however, who distend the lower lip with the
large labret or _botoque_ (from which the _Botocudos_ derive their name),
cannot be other than hideous to European eyes.
In culture the Tapuyas are reported to stand on the lowest scale. When
free in their native woods they go absolutely naked; they have no other
houses than temporary shelters of leaves and branches; they manufacture
no pottery, build no canoes, and do not know how to swim. When first
in contact with the whites they had no dogs, knew nothing of the use
of tobacco or salt, and were common cannibals. They have no tribal
organizations and no definite religious rites.
To counterbalance all these negatives, I hasten to add that they
are hunters of singular skill, using strong bows with long arrows,
manufacture polished stone axes and weave baskets of reeds, and, what
is rare among the Indians, use tapers made from wild bees-wax and bark
fibre.[350] Their marriages are monogamous, though rarely permanent, and
they are not devoid of family affection.[351] Though lacking definite
religious ideas, they are careful to bury the dead, and have a belief
that the spirit of the departed survives and wanders about at night, for
which reason they are loth to move in the dark. The soul of a chief may
take the form of a jaguar. During a thunder storm they shake a burning
brand and shoot arrows toward the sky, to appease by imitation the powers
of the storm; and they are much given to semi-religious dances, in which
their motions are to the sound of a native flute, which is played with
the nose.[352]
Their language is difficult in its phonetics, and presents a contrast to
most American tongues by its tendency toward the isolating form, with
slight agglutination. A carefully prepared vocabulary of it has recently
been published by Dr. Paul Ehrenreich,[353] whose studies on this stock
have been peculiarly valuable.