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
2. THE PAMPEAN REGION
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.
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
LINGUISTIC STOCKS OF THE GRAN CHACO
Guaycuru Stock:
Abipones, in the central Chaco.
Aguilotes, sub-tribe of the Mbocobis.
Bocobis, see Mbocobis.
Cadioéos, near Fort Olimpo on the Paraguay.
Chichas Orejones.
Churumatas.
Guachis, on Rio Mondego.
Guaycurus, on the middle Paraguay.
Malbalas, on the Rio Vermejo.
Matagayos-Churumatas.
Mbayas, on Rio Xerui.
Mbocobis, on the Rio Vermejo.
Pitilagas, see Yapitalaguas.
Quiniquinaux, northeast of Albuquerque.
Tobas, north of the Mbocobis.
Terenos, on the Rio de Miranda.
Yapitalaguas, on the Rio Vermejo.
Lule Stock:
Chunipis, on Rio Vermejo.
Juris, on Rio Salado.
Lules, near Rio Vermejo.
Mataras, on Rio Pilcomayo.
Oristines, on Rio Pilcomayo.
Sinipis, see Chunipis.
Tonocotes, on Rio Pilcomayo.
Toquistines, on Rio Pilcomayo.
Vilelas, north of the Rio Vermejo.
Ysistines, on the Pilcomayo.
Mataco Stock:
Agoyas, on Rio Vermejo.
Atalalas, on Rio Vermejo.
Enimagas or Imacos, on east bank of Pilcomayo.
Matacos, on Rio Verde.
Mataguayos, north of Rio Vermejo.
Ocoles, south of Rio Vermejo.
Palomos, on Rio Vermejo.
Taunies, on Rio Vermejo.
Teutas, on Rio Vermejo.
Vejosos, on Rio Vermejo.
Xolotes, on Rio Vermejo.
Yoes, on Rio Vermejo.
Payagua Stock:
Agaces, on Rio Paraguay.
Payaguas, near Santa Fé.
Sarigues, on middle Paraguay.
Among the independent Chaco stocks, D’Orbigny classes the Lenguas, who in 1828 lived, about 300 in number, near Corrientes.512 Von Martius believed they were a branch of the Guaycurus.513 There is ample evidence, however, that they were a wandering branch of the Chiquitos of Bolivia. The missionary, J. P. Fernandez, who visited them about a century before D’Orbigny, says expressly that they spoke the same tongue as the Chiquitos;514 and the statement of Hervas that the similarities of their words to the Chiquito arose from borrowed expressions is not well founded.515
The Charruas were a barbarous nation living in the extensive plains which stretch from the banks of the Parana to the sea coast. They were savage and courageous, without fixed homes, and skilled in the use of the bola. One of their customs was to cut off a joint of a finger on the death of a relative, and there were few of the adults that were not thus maimed.516 In appearance they were usually large in size, heavily built, with big heads and broad faces, narrow noses, small eyes and large mouths. Their color was dark.517
The members of this family as recorded by the early writers, especially Hervas, are as follows:
CHARRUA LINGUISTIC STOCK
Bohanes, on the Paraguay near the Rio Negro (extinct). Chanes, adjacent to the Bohanes. Charruas, on the coast east of the Rio Uruguay. Guenoas, east of the Uruguay. Martidanes, east of the Uruguay. Minuanes, between the Uruguay and Parana. Yaros, on east bank of Uruguay (extinct).
Dr. Paul Ehrenreich describes them as they are to-day, splendid riders and daring soldiers, but faithless and tricky;518 so they have not much improved since Father Chomé in 1730 stigmatized them as francs voleurs de grand chemin.519
The Guatos or Vuatos were accolents of the upper Paraguay and Araguay, and had fixed settlements near Albuquerque. Travelers report them as an unusually handsome people. They are well-built, light in hue, with Roman noses and regular features, and the men with a well-developed beard on lip and chin. This appearance does not belie their intelligence, which is above the average. Polygamy prevails to an uncommon extent. Von Martius thought that they were of a northeastern origin, connected perhaps with the Malalis of Bahia, who are a Tapuya people.520 There may have been some admixture, as from a small vocabulary I quote the following resemblances:
A recent writer does not give so favorable an opinion of this people. He found them living about the junction of the Rio San Lorenzo with the Rio Paraguay, and in a depraved condition. Girls who were not more than five or six years old were used by the men as wives. Sterility and premature decrepitude were the natural consequences.521
On the western border of the Chaco, in the provinces of Tucuman and Catamarca, resided the Calchaquis, a tribe interesting as the only one in the South Atlantic Group who constructed walls of cut stone. At least, such are found in their country, as for instance, one about thirty miles from Andalgala, where there is a well-constructed dry wall about ten feet high, enclosing a space nearly a mile in diameter, evidently once a walled city. Stone built tombs are also frequent, from which the rifler is rewarded with mummies, ornaments of impure gold, and small idols of copper. But I doubt if the Calchaquis developed any such ripe arts as these. History tells us that they voluntarily accepted the rule of the Incas about the middle of the fifteenth century, and that their land became part of the Collasuyu or southern district of the empire. All these remains have a distinct impress of Kechua art, and we may be sure that their inspiration was throughout Peruvian.522
The earliest missionaries depict the Calchaquis with curious usages and with a certain barbaric splendor. A widow became the wife of her husband’s brother, as of old in Israel. So long as she was a virgin, a girl could dress in the gaudiest colors, but once prostrato pudore, as the monk delicately puts it, she must change to sober weeds. Their ornaments were of silver and copper, and the nobles wore a circlet of gold and brilliant feathers. Their seasons of mourning were accompanied with the most violent orgies. Over the dead they raised heaps of stones, and held that the souls became stars.523
We have no specimen of the language of the Calchaquis, although a grammar of it was written by the Jesuit, Alonso de Barcena, and perhaps published. It is called the Katamareño or Cacana tongue, terms derived from the Kechua. The proper names, however, which have been preserved in it indicate that it was different from the Kechua.524 I have already referred (page 227) to Von Tschudi’s suggestion that it survives in the modern Atacameño.
From the few specimens of skulls which have been examined, the Calchaquis appear allied to the Aucanian stock,525 and it may be that further research will prove them a branch of the Araucanians.
The following tribes are mentioned by old writers as members of the
CATAMAREÑA LINGUISTIC STOCK
Acalianes.
Cacas or Cacanas.
Calchaquis.
Catamarcas.
Diagitas or Drachitas.
Quilmes.
Tamanos.
The learned Barcena also prepared a grammar of the Natixana or Mogana language, spoken by the Naticas, whom we find mentioned by later authorities as neighbors of the Calchaquis in the government of Santa Fé.526 They apparently belonged among the Chaco tribes. Barcena adds that nine different tongues were spoken in the district of Cordova, among which were the Sanavirona and Indama, which had not been learned by the missionaries.527
2. The Pampeans and Araucanians
South of the Gran Chaco, say from south latitude 35°, begins the true Pampas formation. This, according to the geologist Burmeister, is not a marine deposit, but the result of fluvial overflows and dust storms. It is diluvial and quaternary, and overlies the Patagonian formation, which is marine and early Pleistocene. The pampas are in parts wide grassy plains, like the prairies of the upper Mississippi valley; in parts they are salt deserts, in parts more or less wooded. With little variety, this scenery reaches from the Chaco to the Rio Negro, S. lat. 40°. Nearly the whole of this territory was occupied by one linguistic stock. It is the same which is found in Chili, where its most prominent members are the Araucanians.
Which was the course of migration, whether from the Pacific coast to the Pampean plains or the reverse, is not positively decided, but I am inclined to believe it was the latter. The ancestors of the Araucanians would not willingly have crossed the barren wastes of the desert of Atacama; there are evidences of a different people inhabiting Chili before they possessed it, and we have traces that they had not obtained full possession of that country at its discovery. This view does not deny subsequent migrations of the Araucanians into the Pampas under the pressure of the Spanish invasion.528 In such moving they were simply returning to the traditional homes of their ancestors. As the name of the whole stock, I adopt the word Aucanian, from the Araucanian verb aucani, to be wild, indomitable, from which are derived the tribal names Aucanos and Aucas, occurring on both sides of the Andes.529
The Pampeans are principally nomadic hordes wandering from pasture to pasture with their horses, cattle and sheep. Their transitory encampments, called tolderias, are pitched by the side of some pond or stream. There their low tents made of dried horse skins are grouped confusedly, one to each family. Their food is chiefly horse flesh and mutton, often eaten raw. They raise no vegetables, and dislike agriculture. They carry on, however, many small industries, tan and dye leather, which they work up into boots and horse furniture, and forge with skill iron heads for their long lances, and knives for the chase, while the women trim the ostrich skins into rugs, and weave wool into blankets and ponchos, highly prized for their serviceable qualities.530 These products are bought up by the merchants in the cities, and thus the tribe is supplied with what it most prizes from European markets.
These roving hordes have no particular names. They are referred to as the northern, eastern or western peoples by the Aucanian terms having these significations, Puelches, Moluches, Huiliches. Besides these, there are the Ranqueles on the Rio Quinto, directly west of Buenos Ayres, who are said to have immigrated from Chili,531 and the Querandies, now probably extinct, who once dwelt near that city.
Those living on the eastern slopes of the Andes, about the city of Mendoza, and in the ancient province of Cuyo, are described as taller and stronger than the Araucanians of Chili, and as claiming descent from the Pampean tribes.532 They were locally known as Guarpes, and spoke dialects called the Allentiac and the Milcocayac, not distant from the Pampean proper, concerning which some grammatical description has been preserved.533
Few of the Pampean tribes have been induced to accept civilization or Christianity. They still believe in their good spirit, Chachoa, and in one of evil or misfortune, Gualicho; they continue to obey their priests or medicine men; and the resting places of the dead are regarded with superstitious awe. Marriage among them, while it has the appearance of violence, is really carried out with the consent of the girl and her parents, for a sum agreed upon.
The Molu-Che or Manzaneros are said to be the best of the Pampeans. They are sedentary and have extensive orchards of apples and flocks of sheep to the north of the Rio Limay. They have well-cut features, fresh light complexion, black fine hair, and their women are considered really handsome.534
The Araucanians of Chili, known as singularly bold warriors who defied successfully the Incas, and gave the Spaniards the greatest trouble, occupy the Pacific coast from south latitude 25° to about 43°, and number about 20,000. In physical appearance they resemble the Pampeans, and present marked differences from both the Kechuas of Peru and the Tapuyas of Brazil, having high, brachycephalic skulls,535 and a clear copper color of skin. They are of moderate stature, but muscular, with black hair, round faces, small eyes, and small feet and hands. They are divided locally into northern and southern tribes, but there is little difference in dialects. Their tongue, the Chilidungu, has been extravagantly lauded by some who have studied it, and one worthy missionary was so enamored with it that he published a grammar and dictionary of it in Europe, that it might be introduced as the learned language there, to supersede the Latin:536 it certainly is harmonious and flexible.
The Araucanians did not at any time rise in culture above the level of the Iroquois and Algonquins in the northern continent. It is true that in the tombs in their country we discover fine specimens of pottery, some good work in bronze, gold, copper and silver, and beautiful specimens of polished stone implements.537 But if one examines closely the art-forms of these relics, he can not fail to recognize in them the potent inspiration of the Inca civilization; and we may be sure that if they were not directly booty from that nation, they were the products of its trained workmen, and are not to be put to the credit of Aucanian industry.
AUCANIAN LINGUISTIC STOCK
Araucanos, in northern and central Chili.
Aucanos or Aucas, in the central Pampas.
Chauques, in the Archipelago of Chiloe.
Chonos,(?) on Pacific, south of Chiloe.
Cuncos, in Chili, south of Rio Valdivia.
Divie-ches, on Rio Colorado.
Guarpes, near Mendoza.
Huiliches(southern people), tribes to the south.
Moluches (western people or warriors), on Pacific coast.
Pehuenches (pine-forest people), east of Cordillera, north of Rio Colorado.
Picunches (northern people), north of Pehuenches.
Puelches (eastern people), on both banks of Rio Negro.
Querandies, near site of Buenos Ayres.
Ranqueles, between Rio Quarto and Rio Quinto.
The Pacific coast of Patagonia, gashed by ancient glaciers into deep fiords and rocky islands, harbors various tribes whose affinities are uncertain. The most curious of them would seem to be the Chonos or Chunos, or Cuncones. They lived south of the archipelago of Chiloe, and are described as having red hair, a light olive complexion, and of mild and friendly manners. They raised a breed of dogs (perhaps guanacos), and wove their clothing from its coarse long hair.
This account comes to us from as far back as 1619, when the first missionaries visited them,538 and these traits cannot therefore be attributed to intermixture with Europeans. They are not peculiar in these respects. Similar traits are reported of the Boroas, a tribe in one of the valleys of central Chili;539 and I have already referred to the red hair of the boys among the Matacos of the Gran Chaco. Perhaps it was not unusual among these nations, as I can in no other way explain the strange idea of the poet Ercilla the Homer of the Araucanian Conquest, that these people were descendants of the Frisians of North Holland!540
The language of the Chonos is said to be quite different from that of the Araucanians. Pöppig believed it to be a distant dialect of the same stock. Some recent travelers assert that they are now extinct, but Dr. C. Martin informs us that the original inhabitants of the Chonos Islands, who were the “Huaihuenes” Indians, were transported in 1765 to the island of Chaulañec, where their posterity still survive.541