_Barés_, or _Barrés_, on Rio Negro, etc.
_Cunipusanas_, on Rio Casaquiare.
_Guariquenas_, on Rio Casaquiare.
_Jabaanas_, on Rio Pacimoni.
_Mandauacas_, on Rio Casaquiare and Siapa.
_Masacas_, on Rio Masaca and Siapa.
_Pacimonarias_, on Rio Casaquiare.
_Tarianas_, on Rio Yupura.
To these I would add the Uirinas of the Rio Marari, on the strength of a
vocabulary collected by Natterer.
_4. The Caribs._
The Carib stock is one of the most extensively distributed in the
southern continent. At the discovery its dialects were found on the
Lesser Antilles, the Caribby Islands, and on the mainland from the
mouth of the Essequibo River to the Gulf of Maracaibo. West of the
latter it did not reach the coast, nor has any positive traces of its
introduction above the straits of Panama earlier than the conquest been
found, in spite of frequent assertions to the contrary. Inland from the
Arawaks on the shore of Guiana are a number of Carib tribes, as the
Macusi and Woyawoi, so numerous that this region has been thought by
some to have been the original home of the stock; but the discovery by
Dr. Karl von den Steinen of a tribe, the Bakairi, on the head-waters
of the Schingu River, speaking a very pure form of the language,[373]
and the recognition of the Carib affinities of the Palmellas on the
Rio dos Baures, throw another light on the trend of Carib migrations,
strongly supported by a series of other considerations. Thus, it has
been satisfactorily shown by Im Thurn that the Caribs in Guiana wandered
thither from the Orinoco district, some inland and some along the coast,
and probably from the large islands adjacent to the coasts.[374]
These islands in turn were peopled from the mainland to the east, as
I have already shown, their earlier population having been Arawak.
All the Island, Orinoco and Guiana Caribs can thus be traced back to
the mainland of northern Venezuela. In this vicinity was spoken the
Cumanagoto dialect, in the province of Cumana or New Andalusia. According
to the early missionaries, it was current along the coast for more than
a hundred leagues, extending into the province of Caracas and beyond.
The tribes who spoke it were the Chaymas, the Cores, the Cumanas, the
Quacas, the Parias, the Palenques, the Varrigones, and others.[375]
Other dialects to the west are the Opone and Carare, specimens of which
were obtained by Lengerke in the vicinity of Bucaramanga, province of
Santander.[376]
The sierra which divides the head-waters of the Caura from those of the
Rio Branco and other streams flowing into the Rio Negro and Amazon, are
peopled on both slopes by wandering tribes of the Carib stock. Near the
sources of the Caura, Chaffanjon found the once formidable Guaharibos,
now naked and wretched fugitives, fearing the white far more than they
are feared by him.[377] On the southern slope, along the Rio Jauapery
and neighboring streams, are bands of Crichanas, Ipurucotos (Purigotos),
Macuchis, and Jauamerys (Waimiris), all speaking nearly related dialects
of the Carib tongue. Dr. Barboza Rodrigues has given a touching picture
of their recent struggles with the whites of the adjacent settlements,
and the miserable condition to which they are reduced. We owe to the
same sympathetic naturalist an interesting description of their customs
and language.[378]
The hill tribes of French Guiana are known as Roucouyennes, from the
_roucou_, a vegetable coloring matter with which they paint their skins.
They exhale a peculiar odor like that of new leather, probably from
the action of the tannin in the roucou on the skin. Naturally they are
light in color, and at birth almost white.[379] Marriages of father and
daughter, or brother and sister, are not rare among them.[380]
A connecting link between these Caribs of Guiana and the Bakairis of
the south is supplied by the Apiacas of the Rio Tocantins, who speak a
pure dialect of the stock, midway in character between those of the two
extremes named.[381]
The Arubas, who occupied the island of that name off the coast of
Venezuela, and whose mixed descendants now speak the Papamiento jargon,
are no doubt correctly assigned to this stock by M. Pinart. They were
skillful potters, and buried their dead in large urns. The numerous
polychromatic petroglyphs they have left and their peculiar character are
especially noteworthy.[382]
Sir Robert H. Schomburgk classifies the Carib stock in Guiana as follows,
giving a short specimen of each dialect, which differ, he says, among
themselves about as much as French and Italian.[383]