South of the dividing upland which separates the waters of the Amazon
from those which find their way to the Rio de la Plata, the continent
extends in broad level tracts, watered by numerous navigable streams and
rich in game and fish. Its chief physical features are the wooded and
rolling Chaco in the north, the treeless and grassy Pampas to the south,
and the sterile rocky plains of Patagonia still further toward the region
of cold. In the west the chain of the Cordilleras continues to lift its
summits to an inaccessible height until they enter Patagonia, when they
gradually diminish to a range of hills.
The tribes of all this territory, both east and west of the Andes,
belong ethnographically together, and not with the Peruvian stocks. What
affinities they present to others to the north are with those of the
Amazonian regions.
_1. The Gran Chaco and its Stocks. The Guaycurus, Lules, Matacos and
Payaguas. The Charruas, Guatos, Calchaquis, etc._
The great streams of the Parana and Paraguay offer a natural boundary
between the mountainous country of southern Brazil and the vast plains of
the Pampas formation. In their upper course these rivers form extensive
marshes, which in the wet season are transformed into lakes on which
tangled masses of reeds and brushwood, knitted together by a lush growth
of vines, swim in the lazy currents as floating islands. These were the
homes of some wild tribes who there found a secure refuge, the principal
of whom were the Caracaras, who came from the lower Parana, and were one
of the southernmost offshoots of the Tupi family.[486]
For five hundred miles west of the Parana and extending nearly as far
from north to south, is a wide, rolling country, well watered, and
usually covered with dense forests, called El Gran Chaco.[487] Three
noble rivers, the Pilcomayo, the Vermejo and the Salado, intersect it in
almost parallel courses from northwest to southeast.
Abounding in fish and game and with a mild climate, the Chaco has always
been densely peopled, and even to-day its native population is estimated
at over twenty thousand. But the ethnology of these numerous tribes is
most obscure. The Jesuit missionaries asserted that they found eight
totally different languages on the Rio Vermejo alone,[488] and the names
of the tribes run up into the hundreds.
As is generally the case with such statements, distant dialects of the
same stock were doubtless mistaken for radically distinct tongues. From
all the material which is accessible, I do not think that the Chaco
tribes number more than five stocks, even including those who spoke
idioms related to the Guarani or Tupi. The remainder are the Guaycuru,
the Mataco, the Lule and the Payagua. This conclusion is identical with
that reached by the Argentine writer, Don Luis J. Fontana, except that he
considers the Chunipi independent, while I consider that it is a member
of the Mataco stock.
One of the best known members of the _Guaycuru_ stock was the tribe of
the Abipones, whose manners and customs were rendered familiar in the
last century through the genial work of the Styrian missionary, Martin
Dobrizhoffer.[489] They were an equestrian people, proud of their
horsemanship and their herds, and at that time dwelt on the Paraguay
river, but by tradition had migrated from the north.
The Guaycurus proper were divided into three gentes (_parcialidades_)
located with reference to the cardinal points. On the north were
the Epicua-yiqui; on the west the Napin-yiqui, and on the south the
Taqui-yiqui. Their original home was on the Rio Paraguay, two hundred
leagues from its mouth, but later they removed to the banks of the
Pilcomayo. Their system was patriarchal, the sons inheriting direct from
the father, and they were divided into hereditary castes, from which it
was difficult to emerge. These were distinguished by different colors
employed in painting the skin. The highest caste, the _nabbidigan_, were
distinguished by black.[490]
The Abipones were almost entirely destroyed early in this century by the
Tobas and Mbocobis,[491] and probably at present they are quite extinct.
The Tobas are now the most numerous tribe in the Chaco, and their
language the most extended.[492] They remain savage and untamable, and
it was to their ferocity that Dr. Crévaux, the eminent French geographer
and anthropologist, fell a victim in recent years. The dialects of
the Abipones, Mbocobis and Tobas were “as much alike as Spanish and
Portuguese” (Dobrizhoffer).
The Guachis speak a rather remote dialect of the stock, but undoubtedly
connected with the main stem. According to the analogy of many of their
words and the tenor of tradition, they at one time lived in the Bolivian
highlands, in the vicinity of the Moxos and Chiquitos. It is probable
that they are now nearly extinct, as for several generations infanticide
has been much in vogue among them, prompted, it is said, by superstitious
motives. Forty years ago an inconspicuous remnant of them were seen by
Castelnau and Natterer in the vicinity of Miranda.[493]
The Malbalas, who were a sub-tribe of the Mbocobis, dwelling on the Rio
Vermejo, are described as light in color, with symmetrical figures and of
kindly and faithful disposition. Like most of the Chaco tribes, they were
monogamous, and true to their wives.[494]
The Terenos and the Cadioéos still survive on the upper Paraguay, and are
in a comparatively civilized condition. The latter manufacture a pottery
of unusually excellent quality.[495]
On the authority of Father Lozano I include in this stock the
Chichas-Orejones, the Churumatas, that branch of the Mataguayos called
Mataguayos Churumatas (from the frequent repetition of the syllable
_chu_ in their dialect), the Mbocobis and Yapitalaguas, whose tongues
were all closely related to the Toba;[496] while Dr. Joao Severiano da
Fonseca has recently shown that the Quiniquinaux is also a branch of this
stock.[497]
The _Lules_ are a nation which has been a puzzle for students of the
ethnography of the Chaco. They were partly converted by the celebrated
Jesuit missionary and eminent linguist, Father Alonso de Barcena,
in 1690, who wrote a grammar of their language, which he called the
Tonicote. The Jesuit historian of Paraguay, Del Techo, states that
three languages were spoken among them, the Tonicote, the Kechua and
the Cacana, which last is a Kechua term from _caca_, mountain, and
in this connection means the dialect of the mountaineers. Barcena’s
converts soon became discontented and fled to the forests, where they
disappeared for thirty years or more. About 1730, a number of them
reappeared near the Jesuit mission of the Chaco, and settled several
towns on the rivers Valbuena and Salado. There their language was studied
by the missionaries. A grammar of it was composed by Machoni,[498] and
a vocabulary collected by the Abbé Ferragut.[499] Meanwhile the work of
Barcena had disappeared, and the Abbé Hervas expressed a doubt whether
the Lule of Machoni was the same as that of his predecessor. He advanced
the opinion that the ancient Lule was the Cacana; that the modern were
not the descendants of the ancient Lules, and that the Mataras of the
Chaco were the Tonicotes to whom Barcena was apostle.[500]
The missionary Lozano to some extent clears up this difficulty. He states
that the Lules or Tonicotes were divided into the greater and lesser
Lules, and it is only the latter to which the name properly belonged.
The former were divided into three bands, the Isistines, the Oristines,
and the Toquistines.[501] None of these latter existed under these names
at the close of the last century, and at present no tribe speaking
the Lule of Machoni is known in the Chaco. The language has evident
affinities both with the Vilela and the Mataco,[502] but also presents
many independent elements. The statement of Hervas, copied by various
subsequent writers,[503] that the ancient or greater Lules spoke the
Cacana, and that this was a different stock from the Lule of Machoni,
lacks proof, as we have no specimen of the Cacana, and not even indirect
knowledge of its character. Indeed, Del Techo says definitely that the
missionaries of the earliest period, who were familiar with the Lule of
that time, had to employ interpreters in ministering to the Cacanas.[504]
The modern Vilelas live on the Rio Salado, between 25° and 26° south
latitude. I find in it so many words of such character that I am inclined
to take it as the modern representative of the Lule of Machoni, though
corrupted by much borrowing. When we have a grammar of it, the obscurity
will be cleared up.
LULE. VILELA.
Tongue, _lequy_, _lequip_.
Tooth, _llu_, _lupe_.
Hand, _ys_, _ysip_.
House, _enú_, _quané_.
A comparison of the Vilela with the Chunipi, (Chumipy, Sinipi or
Ciulipi,) proves that they are rather closely related, and that the
Chunipi is not an independent tongue as has often been stated. In view of
this, I include it in the Lule dialects.
The third important stock is that of the _Matacos_. It is still in
extensive use on the Rio Vermejo, and we have a recent and genial
description of these people and their language from the pen of the
Italian traveler, Giovanni Pelleschi.[505] They are somewhat small in
size, differing from the Guaycurus in this respect, who are tall. Their
homes are low huts made of bushes, but they are possessed of many small
arts, are industrious, and soon become conversant with the use of tools.
Their hair is occasionally wavy, and in children under twelve, it is
often reddish. The eyes are slightly oblique, the nose large, straight
and low. Like all the Chaco Indians, they do not care for agriculture,
preferring a subsistence from hunting and fishing, and from the product
of their horses and cattle. What few traditions they have indicate a
migration from the east.
The term Mataguayos was applied to some of this stock as well as to some
of the Guaycurus. The former included the Agoyas, the Inimacas or Imacos,
and the Palomos, to whom the Jesuit Joseph Araoz went as missionary, and
composed a grammar and dictionary of their dialect. He describes them
as exceedingly barbarous and intractable.[506] The Tayunis had at one
time 188 towns, and the Teutas 46 towns. This was in the palmy days of
the Jesuit reductions.[507] Both these extensive tribes are classed by
D’Orbigny with the Matacos.
According to the older writers the _Payaguas_ lived on the river
Paraguay, and spoke their tongue in two dialects, the Payagua and the
Sarigue. Von Martius, however, denies there ever was such a distinct
people. The word _payagua_, he remarks, was a generic term for “enemies,”
and was applied indiscriminately to roving hordes of Guaycurus, Mbayas,
etc.[508]
The Payaguas, however, are mentioned distinctly by the early missionaries
as a nation with peculiar language and habits. They differed from their
neighbors as being aquatic, not equestrian. They were singularly skilful
boatmen and had a mythology apart from the other tribes, “worshipping the
devil under the figure of a great bird.”[509] There is also a manuscript
in the Library of the American Philosophical Society, written in the
middle of the last century, describing the visit of a missionary to the
Payaguas, at that time resident near Santa Fé in Paraguay. He accuses
them as given to revolting vices and utterly barbarous.[510]
The statement of Von Martius that the nation has entirely disappeared is
incorrect, as quite recently a vocabulary of it has been obtained by Don
Luis de Fontana, which shows it to be distinct both from the Guaycuru and
any other known stock.[511]