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Ebook has 1112 lines and 138843 words, and 23 pages

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Introductory 1

Topography--Rivers--Floods and rainfall--Climate--Soil--Animal and vegetable life--Birds--Flowers--Forest scenery--Tracks--Bridges--Insect pests--Reptiles--Silence in the forest--Travelling in the bush--Depressing effects of the forest--Lost in the forest--Starvation the crowning horror 17

Classification of Indian races--Difficulties of tabulating--Language-groups and tribes--Names--Sources of confusion--Witoto and Boro--Localities of language-groups--Population of districts--Intertribal strife--Tribal enemies and friends--Reasons for endless warfare--Intertribal trade and communications--Relationships--Tribal organisation--The chief, his position and powers--Law--Tribal council--Tobacco-drinking--Marriage system and regulations--Position of women--Slaves 53

Dress and ornament--Geographical and tribal differentiations--Festal attire--Feather ornaments--Hair-dressing--Combs--Dance girdles--Beads--Necklaces--Bracelets--Leg rattles--Ligatures--Ear-rings--Use of labret--Nose pins--Scarification--Tattoo--Tribal marks--Painting 71

Occupations--Sexual division and tabu--Tribal manufactures--Arts and crafts--Drawing--Carving--Metals--Tools and implements--No textile fabrics--Pottery--Basket-making--Hammocks--Cassava-squeezer and grater--Pestle and mortar--Wooden vessels--Stone axes--Methods of felling trees--Canoes--Rafts--Paddles 90

Agriculture--Plantations--Preparation of ground in the forest--Paucity of agricultural instruments--Need for diligence--Women's incessant toil--No special harvest-time--Maize the only grain grown--No use for sugar--Manioc cultivation--Peppers--Tobacco--Coca cultivation--Tree-climbing methods--Indian wood-craft--Indian tracking--Exaggerated sporting yarns--Indian sense of locality and accuracy of observation--Blow-pipes--Method of making blow-pipes--Darts--Indian improvidence--Migration of game--Traps and snares--Javelins--Hunting and fishing rights--Fishing--Fish traps--Spearing and poisoning fish 102

The Indian armoury--Spears--Bows and arrows--Indian strategy--Forest tactics and warfare--Defensive measures--Secrecy and safety--The Indian's science of war--Prisoners--War and anthropophagy--Cannibal tribes--Reasons for cannibal practices--Ritual of vengeance--Other causes--No intra-tribal cannibalism--The anthropophagous feast--Human relics--Necklaces of teeth--Absence of salt--Geophagy 115

The food quest--Indians omnivorous eaters--Tapir and other animals used for food--Monkeys--The peccary--Feathered game--Vermin--Eggs, carrion, and intestines not eaten--Honey--Fish--Manioc--Preparation of cassava--Peppers--The Indian hot-pot--Lack of salt--Indian meals--Cooking--Fruits--Cow-tree milk 126

Small families--Birth tabu--Birth customs--Infant mortality--Infanticide--Couvade--Name-giving--Names--Tabu on names--Childhood--Lactation--Food restrictions--Child-life and training--Initiation 146

Marriage regulations--Monogamy--Wards and wives--Courtship--Qualifications for matrimony--Preparations for marriage--Child marriages--Exception to patrilocal custom--Marriage ceremonies--Choice of a mate--Divorce--Domestic quarrels--Widowhood 159

Sickness--Death by poison--Infectious diseases--Cruel treatment of sick and aged--Homicide--Retaliation for murder--Tribal and personal quarrels--Diseases--Remedies--Death--Mourning--Burial 168

The medicine-man, a shaman--Remedies and cures--Powers and duties of the medicine-man--Virtue of breath--Ceremonial healing--Hereditary office--Training--Medicine-man and tigers--Magic-working--Properties--Evil always due to bad magic--Influence of medicine-man--Method of magic-working--Magical cures 178

Indian dances--Songs without meaning--Elaborate preparations--The Chief's invitation--Numbers assembled--Dance step--Reasons for dances--Special dances--Dance staves--Arrangement of dancers--Method of airing a grievance--Plaintiff's song of complaint--The tribal "black list"--Manioc-gathering dance and song--Muenane Riddle Dance--A discomfited dancer--Indian riddles and mimicry--Dance intoxication--An unusual incident--A favourite dance--The cannibal dance--A mad festival of savagery--The strange fascination of the Amazon 190

The Indians' magico-religious system--The Good Spirit and the Bad Spirit--Names of deities--Character of Good Spirit--His visit to earth--Question of missionary influence--Lesser subordinate spirits--Child-lifting--No prayer or supplication--Classification of spirits--Immortality of the soul--Land of the After-Life--Ghosts and name tabu--Temporary disembodied spirits--Extra-mundane spirits--Spirits of particularised evils--Spirits of inanimate objects--The jaguar and anaconda magic beasts--Tiger folk--Fear of unknown--Suspicions about camera--Venerated objects--Charms--Magic against magic--Omens 218

Darkness feared by Indians--Story-telling--Interminable length of tales--Variants--Myths--Sun and moon--Deluge traditions--Tribal stories--Amazons--White Indians tradition--Boro tribal tale--Amazonian equivalents of many world-tales--Beast stories--Animal characteristics--Difference of animal characteristics in tale and tabu--No totems--Indian hatred of animal world 236

Limitations of speech--Differences of dialect--Language-groups--Tribal names--Difficulties of languages--Method of transliteration--Need of a common medium--Ventral ejaculations--Construction--Pronouns as suffix or prefix--Negatives--Gesture language--Numbers and reckoning--Indefinite measure--Time--No writing, signs, nor personal marks--Tribal calls--Drum-language code--Conversational repetitions--Noisy talkers--Ventriloquists--Falsetto voice--Conversational etiquette 246

No individualism--Effect of isolation--Extreme reserve of Indians--Cruelty--Dislike and fear of strangers--Indian hospitality--Treachery--Theft punished by death--Dualism of ethics--Vengeance--Moral sense and custom--Modesty of the women--Jealousy of the men--Hatred of white man--Ingratitude--Curiosity--Indians retarded but not degenerate--No evidence of reversion from higher culture--A neolithic people--Conclusion 255

APPENDICES

LIST OF BOOKS REFERRED TO 313

INDEX 315

PLATE NO. FACING PAGE

XL. Okaina Girls 158

L. Group of Witoto Women by Double-stemmed Palm Tree Group of Witoto Men by Double-stemmed Palm Tree 232

MAPS

MAP. 1. Approximate Plan of Route 2

MAP. 2. Sketch Map 10

MAP. 3. Diagrammatic Map of the Issa-Japura Central Watershed, showing Language Groups 58

INTRODUCTORY

Difference of technique, industry, ability, and scientific knowledge may in the light of future investigations reveal errors or misapprehensions that must bring me into conflict with those who may go there better equipped and with greater understanding. But in any critical appraisement it must be remembered that these tribes are changing day by day, and every year that passes will increase the difference between the Amazonian native as I knew him and as he may be when studied by my successors. So far as in me lies, I have here set forth an account of what he was when I travelled in his forest solitudes and fastnesses.

I left England towards the end of April 1908 and arrived at Manaos on the Negro River on May 27. Incidentally I arrived again at Manaos homeward bound on the same day and almost at the same hour the following year. It may be taken, therefore, that my entire journey covered exactly twelve months.

In company with Mr. David Cazes, the British Consul, to whom I am indebted for many kindnesses, I made a trip up the Napo River. It was soon apparent, however, that it would be practically impossible to cross from that river to the Issa. This was not due to the difficulty of porterage, because there is a "recognised route" from a point some way above the mouth of the Curaray to Puerto Barros, but to the impossibility of obtaining men. Rumours were rife at this time of fighting between the Colombian and Peruvian rubber-gatherers on the Issa River, and the Napo Indians would not go in that direction on account of a not unnatural dread lest they be treated as enemies by whichever party of combatants they might happen to meet.

Eventually, through the good offices of the British Consulate, I sailed from Iquitos by way of the main Amazon River and the Issa or Putumayo River to Encanto at the mouth of the Kara Parana, which I reached in the middle of August. It is from this point that my notes on the manners and customs of the Indians really commence.

I saw at once that it would be impossible to gain any insight into the ways and customs of the various tribes unless I spent some considerable time in what one might call a roving commission among them. I had with me at this time John Brown, a Barbadian negro. He had been for some three years previously in the Issa district in the employ of a Rubber Company, and I enlisted him as my personal servant at Iquitos. He had "married" a Witoto woman some two years before, and through this attachment I was able to derive much valuable information. In fact, he was invaluable throughout the whole expedition, and was more loyal and more devoted than a traveller with some experience of the African boy in his native haunts had reason to anticipate of any black servant.

On the 18th of August we started for the Igara Parana, having collected eight Indian carriers, two half-castes, and eight "rationales," or semi-civilised Indians, armed with Winchesters, together with three Indian women, wives of three of the rationales.

It may here be mentioned that these armed Indians were to be obtained in the Rubber Belt by arrangement with their employers. It is the practice of the rubber-gatherers to train Indian boys and utilise them as escort, and to obtain rubber from the tribes hostile to those to which the boys belong. This is perhaps necessary to avoid collusion. In my experience there was never any question of fixed charge or price when hiring carriers. They expected to be given, at the conclusion of their service, a present of cloth, beads, a shot gun, or such other item of trade as their heart coveted. The line of argument was simple: "You do what I tell you, and when we part I will make you a rich man." Wealth was represented by cloth, beads, and a knife. A boy I called Jim promised to go to the end of the earth if I would give him a shot gun. This was his sole ambition. He was one of my escort, and although carrying a Winchester, I do not think it ever entered into his head to make off with it. Such is the simple Indian nature. I do not mean that he would not have run away if such a plan suited him, but he would not have done so for the sake and value of the Winchester.

The two half-breeds were rubber-collectors. They were bound for the Igara Parana, and were only with me until we reached Chorrera.

The semi-civilised Indians are fairly trustworthy, although discipline must be strongly enforced to prevent looting if only because of the danger of reprisals on the part of the indigenous natives. During my wanderings the carriers were often changed, especially while passing through the Rubber Belt. Those men will always run if they get the chance, even if they are in the midst of hostile tribes, when to desert is more often death than not. In number the party remained approximately the same throughout my journey.

The carriers must be incessantly shepherded, kept from lagging behind or going ahead too quickly. They must not be allowed to stop for any length of time or a forced camp will be a necessity. It is the custom of all Indians to bathe whenever possible, however heated they may be, and this will have to be tolerated; but if progress is to be made they must not stop to eat. It was my custom to eat at daybreak and again at the end of the day's march.

Treachery on the part of the native Indians it is always necessary to guard against--in the Rubber Belt because of the treatment they have received in the past; farther afield partly on account of the rumours of such treatment, and partly on the principle that it's the nervous dog that bites. They ask but one question: "Why is the white man here?" They accord it but one answer: "We know not. It is best to kill." And it is not, as is noted elsewhere, the custom of the Indian to attack openly, but when he has the chance of succeeding with little or no danger to himself.

We reached Chorrera, or Big Falls, on the 22nd of August, and thence wended our way by land up the Igara Parana, arriving without much incident in the Andoke country on the 19th of September. Here, by arrangement with an Andoke chief, I managed to get a young Karahone lad, a slave who had been captured some years previously by the Andoke and who said he would take me to his own people across the great river. While we were encamped near the banks of the Japura River, and searching for the bulge-stemmed palm tree with which to make a canoe, we observed three canoes of Karahone on their way down the river, possibly after some warlike expedition. We tried to stop them, but in vain. When, eventually, we crossed the river, we found the occupants of the canoes had given the alarm. Every house we visited was abandoned, four in all, and the path was peppered with poisoned stakes sharpened to the finest point and exposed above ground for perhaps half to three-quarters of an inch. A carrier who trod on one had to be carried back as he was quite disabled for the march.

Returning to the Japura River, we made our way to the upper reaches of the Kahuinari River, visiting different tribes and collecting information. I was anxious at this time to descend this river and find out, if possible, the fate of Eugene Robuchon, the French explorer, who had been missing for some two years.

It may be pertinent here to give in full the story of Robuchon's disappearance and my search for traces of his last expedition.

Eugene Robuchon, the adventurous French explorer whose notes on the Indians of the Putumayo are known to every investigator, left the Great Falls on the Igara Parana in November 1905. It was his intention to make for the head waters of the Japura and to explore that river on behalf of the Peruvian Government throughout its length for traces of rubber. He started with a party consisting of three negroes, one half-breed, and five Indians with one Indian woman. He carried supplies barely sufficient for two months. I carefully examined all the survivors of the expedition that I encountered, and from them gathered the following account of the journey:--

Having left the Great Falls, Robuchon proceeded by canoe up the Igara Parana to a point some ten miles above the mouth of the Fue stream. He left the river there, struck northward through the Chepei country, and reached the Japura approximately at 74? W., some thirty miles above the Kuemani River. The Indians encountered at this spot belonged to a Witoto-speaking tribe, the Taikene. They were friendly, but either could not or would not provide Robuchon with a canoe. Three valuable weeks were spent in the search for a suitable tree and in the construction of a canoe.

When at length this was finished, the party started down-stream, and for a time progressed without incident. No natives were seen for several days. At last Robuchon's Indians called his attention to a narrow path that led up from the river-bank on the right. Anxious about his food supply, he landed and followed the path until he came upon a clearing and an Indian house. Eventually Robuchon arranged with the inhabitants that four of them should come down to the canoe with food and receive presents in exchange. But when a larger number than he expected appeared upon the bank, the explorer feared treachery and at once pushed off without waiting for the much-needed provisions. The Indians thereupon manned their canoes and started in pursuit, shouting the while to him to stop. But with his small party Robuchon dared take no chances. He pushed on until the pursuers had been satisfactorily outdistanced.

The boy who told me the tale was convinced that these Indians were perfectly friendly in intention, and the incident appeared to be proof of the nervous state of the party. Some time after this, while shooting the rapids at the Igarape Falls, the canoe was upset and the greater part of the remaining stores was swept away.

The details of this misadventure I was never able to extract in a coherent fashion from the followers I interviewed, but they agreed that very little food of any kind was left, and what was rescued had been almost entirely destroyed by water.

Short of food, and without a canoe, the boys became mutinous. The three negroes and the half-breed deserted, and sought to cut a way through the bush backward in the direction whence they had come. This task was beyond them, and, a few days later, weary, disheartened, and starving, they returned to beg Robuchon's forgiveness. The reunited party improvised a raft, and, after undergoing the customary hardships of an unequipped expedition in this hostile country, reached the mouth of the Kahuinari. The whole party was weak with hunger and fever, Robuchon himself prostrate and incapable of going farther. He determined to remain where he was with the Indian woman and the Great Dane hound, Othello. He ordered the negroes and the half-breed to push on up the Kahuanari to a rubber-gatherer's house which he believed was situated somewhere between the Igara Parana and the Avio Parana. They were to send back relief at the earliest possible moment. The boys left Robuchon on February 3, 1906. He was never again seen by any one in touch with civilisation.

The boys had journeyed for but a few hours when they came across a herd of peccary. They killed more than they could possibly use, but made no attempt whatever to carry any meat back to the starving and abandoned Frenchman. Instead they wasted two valuable days in gorging themselves and smoking the flesh for their own journey.

For days they followed the course of the Kahuinari, hugging its right bank, and in this way happened across a Colombian half-breed, from whom they sought assistance. The Colombian took them to his house near the Avio Parana but would not grant them even food until they paid for it with the rifles they carried. The idea of succouring Robuchon was far removed from his philosophy. The boys, then, having surrendered their rifles in return for the stores they so much needed, made the narrow crossing from the Avio Parana to the Papunya River, and followed that stream without deviation to its junction with the river Issa. Turning backward up the left bank of the Issa, they reached the military station at the mouth of the Igara Parana and there told their tale.

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