The Ethnology of the British Colonies and Dependencies Part 26

On the other hand, however, there are writers like D'Orbigny. These expatiate upon the difference between members of the same cla.s.s, so as to separate, not only Caribs from Algonkins, or Peruvians from Athabaskans, but Peruvians from Caribs, and Patagonians from Brazilians.

Now it is no paradox to a.s.sert that these two views, instead of contradicting, support each other. A writer exhibits clear and undeniable differences between two American tribes in geographical juxtaposition to one another. But does this prove a difference of origin, stock, or race? Not necessarily. Such differences may be, and often are, partial. More than this--they may be more than neutralized by undeniable marks of affinity. In such a case, all that they prove is the extent to which really allied populations may be contrasted in respect to certain particular characters.

Stature is the chief point in which the North American has the advantage of the Southern, _e.g._, the Algonkin over the Carib. Such is Sir R.

Schomburgk's remark; and such is the general rule. Yet a vast number of the Indians of the Oregon, are shorter than the South American Patagonian and Pampa tribes. The head is large as compared with the trunk, and the trunk with the limbs; the hands small; the foot large; the skin soft, though with larger pores than in Europe.

_Indians of British Guiana._--These are distributed amongst four divisions, of very unequal magnitude and importance.--1. The Carib. 2.

The Warow. 3. The Wapisiana. 4. The Taruma.

The number of vocabularies collected by Sir R. Schomburgk was eighteen.

1. The great _Carib_ group falls into three divisions:--

_a._ The Caribs Proper.

_b._ The Tamanaks.

_c._ The Arawaks.

Of these, it is only members of the first and last that occupy British Guiana.

_The Arawaks._--The Arawaks are our nearest neighbours, and, consequently, the most Europeanized. Sir R. Schomburgk says, that they and the Warows amount to about three thousand, and from Bernau we infer, that this number is nearly equally divided between the two; since he reckons the Arawaks at about fifteen hundred. Each family has its distinctive tattoo, and these families are twenty-seven in number.

The children may marry into their father's family, but not into that of their mother. Now as the caste is derived from their mother, this is an a.n.a.logue of the North American _totem_. Polygamy is chiefly the privilege of the chiefs. The _Pe-i-man_ is the Arawak _Shaman_. He it is who names the children--_for a consideration_. Failing this, the progeny goes nameless; and to go nameless is to be obnoxious to all sorts of misfortunes.

Imposture is hereditary; and as soon as the son of a conjuror enters his twentieth year, his right ear is pierced, he is required to wear a ring, and he is trusted with the secrets of the craft.

In imitating what they see, and remembering what they hear, the Arawak has, at least, an average capacity. Neither is he dest.i.tute of ingenuity. Notation he has none; and the numeration is of the rudest kind.

Aba-da-kabo = once my hand = _five_.

Biama-da-kabo = twice my hand = _ten_.

Aba-olake = one man = _twenty_.

Perfect nudity is rare amongst the women; and some neatness in the dressing of their hair is perceptible. It is tied up on the crown of the head.

The nearer the coast the darker the skin; the lightest coloured families being as fair as Spaniards. This is on the evidence of Bernau, who adds, that, as children grow in knowledge and receive instruction, the forehead rises, and the physiognomy improves.

The other Guiana Indians, so far as they are Carib at all, are Caribs Proper, rather than Arawaks. Of these, the chief are--

_The Accaways_,--occupants of the rivers Mazaruni and Putara, with about six hundred fighting men. They are jealous, quarrelsome, and cruel; firm friends and bitter enemies. When resisted, they kill; when unopposed, enslave.

The law of revenge predominates in this tribe; for--like certain Australians--they attribute all deaths to contrivances of an enemy.

Workers in poison themselves, they suspect it with others.

Their skin is redder than the Arawaks', but then their nudity is more complete; inasmuch as, instead of clothing, they paint themselves; arnotto being their red, lana their blue pigment. They pierce the _septum_ of the nose, and wear wood in the holes, like the Eskimo, Loucheux, and others. They paint the face in streaks, and the body variously--sometimes blue on one side, and red on the other. They rub their bodies with carapa oil, to keep off insects; and _one_ of the ingredients of their numerous poisons, is a kind of black ant called _muneery_.

Their forehead is depressed.

They give nicknames to each other and to strangers, irrespective of rank; and the better their authorities take it the greater their influence.

It is the belief of the Accaways that the spirit of the deceased hovers over the dwelling in which death took place, and that it will not tolerate disturbance. Hence they bury the corpse _in_ the hammock, and _under_ the hut in which it became one. This they burn and desert.

_The Carabisi._--Twenty years ago the Carabisi (_Carabeese_, _Carabisce_) mustered one thousand fighting men. It would now be difficult to raise one hundred. But the diminution of their numbers and importance began earlier still. Beyond the proper Carabisi area, there are numerous Carabisi names of rivers, islands, and other geographical objects. Hence, their area has decreased.

Omnivorous enough to devour greedily tigers, dogs, rats, frogs, insects, and other sorts of food, unpopular elsewhere, they are distinguished by their ornaments as well. The under-lip is the part which they perforate, and wherein they wear their usual pins; besides which they fasten a large lump of arnotto to the hair of the front of the head.

In ordinary cases the hammock in which the death took place, serves as a coffin, the body is buried, and a funeral procession made once or twice round the grave; but the bodies of persons of importance are watched and washed by the nearest female relations, and when nothing but the skeleton remains, the bones are cleaned, painted, packed in a basket and preserved. When, however, there is a change of habitation they are _burned_; after which the ashes are collected, and kept.

Here we have interment and cremation in one and the same tribe; a circ.u.mstance which should guard us against exaggerating their value as characteristic and distinguis.h.i.+ng customs.

Again. The _Macusi_ is closely akin to the Carabisi; yet the Macusi buries his dead in a sitting posture without coffins, and with but few ceremonies. Now the sitting posture is common to the Peruvians, the Oregon Indians, and numerous tribes of Brazil; indeed, Morton considers it to be one of the most remarkable characteristics of the Red Man of America in general.

The Arawak custom is peculiar. When a man of note dies his relations plant a field of ca.s.sava; just as the Nicobar Islanders plant a cocoa-nut tree. Then they lament loudly. But when twelve moons are over, and the ca.s.sava is ripe, they re-a.s.semble, feast, dance, and lash each other cruelly, and severely with whips. The whips are then _hung up_ on the spot where the person died. Six moons later a second meeting takes place--and, this time, the whips are _buried_.

The _Waika_ are a small tribe of the _Accaways_; the _Zapara_ of the _Macusis_. Besides these, the following Guiana Indians are Carib.

The _Arecuna_; of which the _Soerikong_ are a section.

The _Waiyamara_.

The _Guinau_.

The _Maiongkong_.

The _Woyawai_.

The _Mawakwa_, or Frog Indians--a tribe that flattens the head.

The _Piano-ghotto_; of which the _Zaramata_ and _Drio_ are sections.

The _Tiveri-ghotto_.

2. _The Warow_, _Waraw_, _Warau_, or _Guarauno_.--These are the Indians of the Delta of the Orinoco, and the parts between that river and the Pomaroon. Their language is peculiar, but by no means without miscellaneous affinities. They are the fluviatile boatmen of South America. Their habit of taking up their residence in trees when the ground is flooded, has given both early and late writers an opportunity of enlarging upon their semi-arboreal habits.

3. _The Wapisianas_ fall into--

_a._ The _Wapisianas_ Proper--

_b._ The _Atorai_, of which the _Taurai_, or _Dauri_ (the same word under another form), and the extinct, or nearly extinct, _Amaripas_ are divisions.

_c._ The _Parauana_.

4. The _Tarumas_, on the Upper Essequibo, have their probable affinities with the uninvestigated tribes of Central South America.

The Indians of Trinidad are Carib. So are those of St. Vincents. In no other West Indian islands are there any aborigines extant.

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