_Araunas_.
_Atenes_.
_Cavinas_.
_Equaris_.
_Isuiamas_.
_Lecos_.
_Macaranis_.
_Maropas_.
_Pukapakaris_.
_Sapiboconas_.
_Tacanas_.
_Toromonas_.
_Tumupasas_.
_Tuyumiris_.
The Araunas are savage, and according to Heath “cannibals beyond a
doubt.” He describes them as “gaunt, ugly, and ill formed,” wearing the
hair long and going naked.[471] Colonel Labré, however, who visited
several of their villages in 1885, found them sedentary and agricultural,
with temples and idols, the latter being geometrical figures of polished
wood and stone. Women were considered impure, were not allowed to know
even the names of the gods, and were excluded from religious rites.[472]
The Cavinas, on the other hand, are described by early writers as
constructing houses of stone.[473] The Maropas, on the east side of the
river Beni near the little town of Reyes, speak a dialect of Tacana
as close to it as Portuguese to Spanish. They are erroneously classed
as a distinct nation by D’Orbigny, who obtained only a few words of
their tongue. The Sapiboconas, who lived at the Moxos Mission, and of
whose dialect Hervas supplies a vocabulary, are also a near branch of
the stock. We now have sufficient material to bring these tribes into
relation. With them I locate the Lecos, the tribe who occupied the
mission of Aten, and are therefore called also Atenianos.[474] At present
some civilized Lecos live at the mission of Guanay, between the Beni and
Titicaca; but we have nothing of their language.[475]
The Tacana dialects present a number of verbal analogies to Kechua and
Aymara; so many in fact that they testify to long inter-communion between
the stocks, though I think not to a radical identity. I present a few:
TACANA. KECHUA.
Man, _reanci_, _runa_.
Water, _jene_, _una_.
Hand, _ma_, _maqui_.
Foot, _quatri_, _chaqui_.
House, _etai_, _uta_ (Aymara).
Stone, _tumu_, _rumi_.
Star, _emata_, _matti_.
Lightning, _ilapa_, _illapa_.
Year, _mara_, _mara_.
Three, _quimisha_, _quimsa_.
Four, _puschi_, _pusi_ (Aymara).
Five, _pischica_, _pichka_.
The numerals above “two” have clearly been borrowed from the
Kechua-Aymara.
There are also a large number of verbal coincidences between the Tacana
and the Pano groups, but not enough to allow us to suppose an original
unity.
The _Samucus_ (Zamucas) embraced a number of sub-tribes dwelling on the
northern border of the Chaco, between 18° and 20° south latitude, and
about the river Oxuquis. They did not resemble the Chaco stocks, as they
were not vagrant hunters, but dwelt in fixed villages, and pursued an
agricultural life.[476] Their language was singularly sweet in sound, and
was called by D’Orbigny “the Italian of the forest.” They included the
following members: