_Careras_.
_Cayporotades_.
_Coroinos_.
_Cuculados_.
_Guaranocas_.
_Ibirayas_.
_Morotocos_.
_Potureros_.
_Satienos_.
_Tapios_.
_Ugaronos_.
Among these the Morotocos are said to have offered the rare spectacle
of a primitive gynocracy. The women ruled the tribe, and obliged the
men to perform the drudgery of house-work. The latter were by no means
weaklings, but tall and robust, and daring tiger-hunters. The married
women refused to have more than two children, and did others come they
were strangled.
On the river Mamore, between 13° and 14° of south latitude, were
the numerous villages of the _Canichanas_ or Canisianas. They were
unusually dark in complexion and ugly of features; nor did this
unprepossessing exterior belie their habits or temperament. They were
morose, quarrelsome, tricky and brutal cannibals, preferring theft to
agriculture, and prone to drunkenness; but ingenious and not deficient
in warlike arts, constructing strong fortifications around their
villages, from which they would sally forth to harass and plunder their
peaceable neighbors. By a singular anomaly, this unpromising tribe
became willing converts to the teachings of the Jesuits, and of their own
accord gathered into large villages in order to secure the presence of a
missionary.[477] Their language has no known affinities. It is musical,
with strong consonantal sounds, and like some of the northern tongues,
makes a distinction between animate and inanimate objects, or those so
considered.[478]
Between 13° and 14° of south latitude, on the west bank of the Rio
Mamore, were the _Cayubabas_ or Cayuvavas, speaking a language without
known affinities, though containing words from a number of contiguous
tongues.[479] The men are tall and robust, with regular features and a
pleasant expression. The missionaries found no difficulty in bringing
them into the fold, but they obstinately retained some of their curious
ancient superstitions, as, for instance, that a man should do no kind
of work while his wife had her monthly illness; and should she die, he
would undertake no enterprise of importance so long as he remained a
widower.[480]
Brief notices will suffice of the various other tribes, many of them now
extinct, who centered around the missions of the Chiquitos and Moxos
early in this century.
The _Apolistas_ took their name from the river Apolo, an affluent of the
Beni, about south latitude 15°. They were contiguous to the Aymaras, and
had some physical resemblance to them. From their position, I suspect
they belong in the Tacana group.
The _Chapacuras_, or more properly Tapacuras, were on the Rio Blanco or
Baures in the province of Moxos. They called themselves _Huachis_, and
the Quitemocas are mentioned as one of their sub-tribes. Von Martius
thinks they were connected with the Guaches of Paraguay, a mixed tribe
allied to the Guaycuru stock of the Chaco. The resemblance is very slight.
The _Covarecas_ were a small band at the mission of Santa Anna, about
south latitude 17°. Their language was practically extinct in 1831.
The _Curaves_ and the _Curuminacas_, the former on the Rio Tucubaca
and the latter north of them near the Brazil line, were said to have
independent languages; but both were extinct at the time of D’Orbigny’s
visit in 1831. The same was true of the _Corabecas_ and _Curucanecas_.
The _Ites_ or Itenes were upon the river Iten, an affluent of the Mamore
about 12° south latitude. They were sometimes improperly called Guarayos,
a term which, like Guaycurus, Aucas, Yumbos and others, was frequently
applied in a generic sense by the Spanish Americans to any native tribe
who continued to live in a savage condition.
The _Movimas_ (Mobimas) occupied the shores of the Rio Yacuma, and Rio
Mamore about 14° south latitude. In character and appearance they were
similar to the Moxos, but of finer physique, “seldom ever under six
feet,” says Mr. Heath. They are now civilized, and very cleanly in their
habits. The vocabularies of their language show but faint resemblances
with any other.
The _Otuquis_, who in 1831 did not number over 150 persons, lived in the
northeast part of the province of Chiquitos near the Brazilian line.
Their language was nearly extinct at that time. The short vocabulary
of it preserved by D’Orbigny does not disclose connections with other
stocks, unless it be a distant affinity with the Tacana group. This may
be illustrated by the following words:
OTUQUI. TACANA DIALECTS.
Man, _vuani_, _reanci_.
Woman, _vuaneti_, _anu_.
Sun, _neri_, _ireti_.
Moon, _ari_, _bari_.
Water, _uru_, _yuvi_.
Head, _ikitao_, _ekuya_.
It was the policy of the Jesuits in their missions in this district
to gather the tribes from the forest and mountain into permanent
settlements, and reduce as far as possible the number of languages and
dialects, so as to facilitate instruction in religious teaching. Shortly
after this Order was expelled from their missions (1767), an official
report on their “reductions” was printed in Peru, giving a list of the
tribes at each station, and the languages in use for instruction.[481]
From this scarce work I extract a few interesting particulars.
The province of Apolobamba is described as extending about eighty leagues
northeast-southwest, east of the Cordillera, and west of the Rio Beni.
The languages adopted in it were the Leca, spoken by the Lecos Indians
at the mission of Aten, and the Maracani, at the mission of Tumupasa, on
the Rio Beni. Forty-nine nations are named as belonging to the mission
of the Chiquitos, each of whom is stated to have spoken a different
language or dialect, though all were instructed in their religious duties
in Chiquito. At the mission of Moxos twenty-nine tribes are named as in
attendance, but it had not been found possible, such was the difference
of their speech, to manage with less than nine languages, to wit, the
Moxa, the Baure, the Mure, the Mobima, the Ocorona, the Cayubaba, the
Itonama and the Maracani.[482]
Of these tongues I have classed the Leca and Maracani as dialects of the
Takana, not from comparison of vocabularies, for I have seen none of
either, but from the locations of the tribes speaking them. The Moxa and
Baure are dialects of the Arawak stock. The Mura is a branch of the Tupi,
spoken by the powerful tribe of the Muras on the Medeira and Amazon, who
distinctly recalled in tradition their ancestral home in the west.[483]
The Chiquito, the Mobima, the Caniciana (Canichana), the Cayubaba, the
Itonama and the Ocorona remain so far irreducible stocks. Vocabularies
of the first five have been preserved, but nothing of the Ocorona. It
is probably identical with the Rocorona, in which Professor Teza has
published some texts.[484] I have not been able to identify it with
any other tongue. Hervas unites both with the Herisebocona as a single
stock.[485]