The Andes and the Amazon Part 10

Napo. Peruvian.

Longitudinal diameter 6-1/2 in. 6.1 in.

Parietal " 5-3/8 " 6. "

Frontal " 4 " 4.7 "

Vertical " 4-1/2 " 5.5 "

Capacity 83-1/64 cub. in. 83 cub. in.

Facial angle 70 81

From this it will be seen that the capacity of this individual Napo is 8 cubic inches greater than the average bulk (75 cubic inches) of the old Peruvians; a trifle less than the average North American (84); 10 cubic inches less than the European (94); and the same as the average Polynesian and native African. He has a rounded head, somewhat prominent vertex, not an excessive protuberance of brain behind--a line through the meatus dividing it into very nearly equal parts; but a narrow front as viewed from above, small vertical diameter, quadrangular orbits, vertical teeth, and low facial angle. These characters place him between the Toltecan and the more barbarous tribes of the New World.

The Napos are nominally subject to the Ecuadorian government, which is represented by three or four petty alcaldes; but the Jesuit missionaries, who have established a bishopric and three curacies, generally control affairs--spiritual, political, and commercial. The Indians of each village annually elect one of their number governor, who serves without salary, and whose only show of authority is a silver-headed cane about four feet long. He is attended by half a dozen "justices," whose duty it is to supply the curate, alcalde, and any traveling _blanco_ who may happen to be in town with daily food at a reasonable rate.

The religion of the Napos is a mixture of Paganism and Christianity. In common with all the other orient tribes, they believe in good and evil principles, and in metempsychosis. They swear in the name of the devil.

They bury their dead horizontally, in a coffin made of a part of a canoe, with a lid of bamboo. They are very kind to the aged. Monogamy is the rule: the usual age of wedlock is sixteen or seventeen. The parents negotiate the marriage, and the curate's fee is one castellano ($3.50).

When a person dies they hold an Irish "wake" over the body, and then take the widow to the river and wash her. They have seven semi-religious feasts in a year. To us they appeared to be nothing more than meaningless drunken frolics. Attired in their best, with head-dresses consisting of a circlet of short, richly-colored feathers from the breast of the toucan, surmounted with the long tail-feathers of the macaw, and with necklaces of beads, seeds, and monkeys' teeth, they keep up a constant monotonous tapping on little drums, and trot around a circle like dogs on a treadmill, stopping only to drink chicha. This is kept up for three weeks, when they all start off, with wives and children, for the forest to hunt monkeys for meat.

Chicha, the favorite drink of all the Andean Indians, is here brewed from yuca, not from corn and barley as in the Quito Valley. So true is it, as Humboldt remarks, that almost every where man finds means of preparing some kind of beverage from the vegetable kingdom. The Chilotans, Darwin informs us, make chicha from a species of _Bromelia_.

In every zone, too, we find nations in a low degree of civilization living almost exclusively upon a single animal or plant. Thus the Laplander has his reindeer, the Esquimaux his seal, the Sandwich Islander his tara-root, the Malay his sago-palm, the Napo Indian his yuca.

Yuca is the staple food in this region. It is more commonly roasted, but is sometimes ground into flour. The manufacture of chicha is primitive, and not a little disgusting. A "bee," usually old women, sit around a wooden trough; each one takes a mouthful of yuca root, and, masticating it, throws it into the trough. The ma.s.s is then transferred to large earthen jars containing water, and left to ferment. The liquor is slightly acid, but not intoxicating unless taken in excess. This is done on feast-days, when the poor Indian keeps his stomach so constantly distended for weeks that the abdominal protrusion is not only unsightly, but alarming to a stranger. Chicha-drinking is a part of the worship of these simple aborigines. They seem to think that the more happy they make themselves while paying their devotions to the Creator, the better he is satisfied. The Jesuits have found it impossible to change this method of praise. Here, as among all rude nations, an ancient custom is one half the religion. In eating meat (usually monkey, sea-cow, and peccari), we observed that they did not tear or bite it, but, putting one end of a long piece in the mouth, cut off what they could not get in, as Darwin noticed among the Fuegians. They keep no domestic animals except fowls.

As to dress, they make use of a coa.r.s.e cotton cloth, called _lienzo_, woven by the more enlightened Indians of Quito, dyeing it a dull brown by means of achote juice. The men wear a strip of this around the loins, and the women a short skirt. On feast-days, or when musquitoes are thick, the men add a little poncho and pantaloons. They do not properly tattoo, but color the skin with achote or anatto. This substance, which serves so many purposes in this part of the world, is the red powder which covers the seeds contained in the p.r.i.c.kly bur of the _Bixa orellana_. The pigment is an article of commerce on the Amazon, and is exported to Europe, where it is used for coloring b.u.t.ter, cheese, and varnish. They have no fixed pattern; each paints to suit his fancy.

Usually, however, they draw horizontal bands from the month to the ears, and across the forehead; we never saw curved lines in which higher savages, like the Tahitians, tattoo.

The Napos have the provoking apathy of all the New World aborigines. As Humboldt observed of another tribe, "their poverty, stoicism, and uncultivated state render them so rich and so free from wants of every kind, that neither money nor other presents will induce them to turn three steps out of their ways." They maintain a pa.s.sive dignity in their bearing not seen in the proudest pope or emperor. They seldom laugh or smile, even under the inspiration of chicha, and months of intercourse with them did not discover to us the power of song, though Villavicencio says they do sometimes intone fragments of prose in their festival orgies. They manifest little curiosity, and little power of mimicry, in which wild men generally excel the civilized.[99] The old Spartans were never so laconic. In conversation each says all he has to say in three or four words till his companion speaks, when he replies in the same curt, ejaculatory style. A long sentence, or a number of sentences at one time, we do not remember of hearing from the lips of a Napo Indian.[100]

[Footnote 99: All savages appear to possess to an uncommon degree the power of mimicry.--_Darwin_.]

[Footnote 100: Gibbon observes of his Indian paddlers on the Marmore: "They talk very little; they silently pull along as though they were sleeping, but their eyes are wandering all the time in every direction."]

The women do most of the work, while their lazy lords drink up the chicha and swing in their hammocks, or possibly do a little hunting.[101] They catch fish with bone hooks, seines, spears, and by poisoning the water with _barbasco_.[102] This last method is quite common throughout equatorial America. Mashing the root, they throw it into the quiet coves of the river, when almost immediately the fish rise to the surface, first the little fry and then the larger specimens. The poison seems to stupefy rather than kill, for we observed that some individuals behaved in a most lively manner shortly after they were caught. The Indians drink the water with impunity.

[Footnote 101: Some of these feminines, however, have a method of retaliation which happily does not exist further north. They render their husbands idiotic by giving them an infusion of _floripondio_, and then choose another consort. We saw a sad example of this near Riobamba, and heard of one husband who, after being thus treated, unconsciously served his wife and her new man like a slave. _Floripondio_ is the seed of the _Datura sanguinea_, which is allied to the poisonous _stramonium_ used by the priests of Apollo at Delphi to produce their frantic ravings.]

[Footnote 102: _Jacquinia armillaris_, an evergreen bush. The Indians on the Tapajos use a poisonous liana called _timbo_ (_Paullinia pinnata_).]

The Napos are not brave; their chief weapons for hunting are spears of chonta wood, and blowpipes (_bodaqueras_) made of a small palm having a pith, which, when removed, leaves a polished bore, or of two separate lengths of wood, each scooped out with patient labor and considerable skill by means of the incisor teeth of a rodent. The whole is smeared with black wax, a mouth-piece fitted to the larger end, and a sight made of bone imbedded in the wax. Through this tube, about ten feet long, they blow slender arrows cut from the leaf-stalks of a palm. These are winged with a tuft of silk-cotton (common cotton would be too heavy), and poisoned with _urari_, of which we shall speak hereafter. This noiseless gun is universally used on the Upper Amazon.[103]

[Footnote 103: It is there called _zarabatana_ or _gravatana_; by the Peruvians _pucuna_. It corresponds to the _sumpitan_ of Borneo. It is difficult to recognize the use of the blow-gun, but the natives will kill at the distance of 150 feet. One which we brought home sent the slender arrow through the panel of a door.]

The Zaparos in physiognomy somewhat resemble the Chinese, having a middle stature, round face, small eyes set angularly, and a broad, flat nose. Their language is of simple construction, but nasal and guttural.

They have no words for numbers above three, but show their fingers; above ten they know nothing. They take to themselves single names, not double. They reckon time by moons and the ripening of certain fruits.

Their name for G.o.d is Piatzo, but we could not learn that it conveyed any distinct idea. They believe the evil spirit, "Mungia," is a black spectre dwelling in the woods. They think the souls of the good and brave enter beautiful birds and feed on delicious fruits, while cowardly souls become dirty reptiles. Polygamy is common. They bury in the sitting posture, with the hammock of the deceased wrapped around him.

The very old men are buried with the mouth downward. They make use of a narcotic drink called _Ayahuasca_, which produces effects similar to those of opium. The Zaparos are pacific and hospitable, but there is little social life among them; they never cl.u.s.ter into large villages, but inhabit isolated ranchos. Nomadic in their habits, they wander along the banks of the Napo, between the Andes and the Maranon. They manufacture, from the twisted fibre of the chambiri-palm,[104] most of the twine and hammocks seen in Eastern Ecuador. Their government is patriarchal.

[Footnote 104: This th.o.r.n.y palm is called _tuc.u.m_ in Brazil. The fibres of the budding top are used. A woman will twist a hundred yards of twine a day, and make a living by selling hammocks for twenty-five cents a piece.]

The Jivaros, or "Red Indians" _par excellence_, are the most numerous and the most spirited of the oriental tribes. They are brave and resentful, yet hospitable and industrious. While the Napos and Zaparos live in rude, often temporary huts of split bamboo, the warlike Jivaros erect houses of hard wood with strong doors. Blood relations live together on the communal principle, the women keeping the rear half of the house, which is divided by a part.i.tion. Many Jivaros approach the Caucasian type, the beard and lighter skin hinting a percentage of Spanish blood; for this tribe was never conquered by the Incas, nor did it brook Spanish avarice and cruelty, but in one terrible conflict (1599) the intruder was swept out of existence. The wives of the El Dorado adventurers spent the rest of their days in the harems of the Jivaros. These Indians have the singular custom and art of compressing the heads of their notable captives; taking off the skin entire and drying it over a small mould, they have a hideous mummy which preserves all the features of the original face, but on a reduced scale."[105]

They also braid the long black hair of their foes into girdles, which they wear as mementoes of their prowess. They use chonta-lances with triangular points, notched and poisoned, and shields of wood or hide.

They have a telegraphic system which enables them to concentrate their forces quickly in time of war; large drums are placed on the tops of the hills, and a certain number of strokes, repeated along the line, rapidly convey intelligence to the most distant habitation.

[Footnote 105: Bates (ii., 132) speaks of a similar custom among the ancient Mundurucus: "They used to sever the head with knives made of broad bamboo, and then, after taking out the brain and fleshy parts, soak it in bitter vegetable oils, and expose it several days over the smoke of a fire, or in the sun."]

An odd custom prevails among these wild Indians when an addition is made to the family circle. The woman goes into the woods alone, and on her return washes herself and new-born babe in the river; then the husband immediately takes to his bed for eight days, during which time the wife serves him on the choicest dainties she can procure.[106] They have also the unique practice of exchanging wives. The Jivaro speech is sonorous and energetic. They do not use salt; so that they distinguish the Napo tribes as the "Indians who eat salt." The chief articles manufactured by them are cotton goods and blowpipes. They trade mostly at Canelos and Macas, generally purchasing iron implements, such as hatchets and knives.

[Footnote 106: A like custom existed among some Brazilian and Guiana tribes. It also prevailed to some extent among the ancient Cantabrians and Corsicans, the Congos and Tartars, and in the Southern French provinces.]

Canelos consists of about seventy families of Quichua-speaking Indians, and lies on the south bank of the Bobonaza. A trail connects it with Banos, at the foot of Tunguragua. Canelos was founded in 1536, and derives its name from its situation in the Canela, or American cinnamon forest. The bark of the tree has the flavor of the Ceylon aromatic; but, according to Dr. Taylor, it is ca.s.sia. Macas, in the days of Spanish adventure a prosperous city under the name of "Sevilla de Oro,"

is now a cl.u.s.ter of huts on the banks of the Upano. Its trade is in tobacco, vanilla, canela, wax, and copal. The Spaniards took the trouble to transplant some genuine cinnamon-trees from Ceylon to this locality, and they flourished for a time.

On the 30th of October we left Quito on our march across the continent, by the way of the Napo wilderness. The preparations for our departure, however, commenced long before that date. To leave Quito in any direction is the work of time. But to plunge into that _terra incognita_ "el Oriente," where for weeks, perhaps months, we should be lost to the civilized world and cut off from all resources, east or west, demanded more calculation and providence than a voyage round the world.

We were as long preparing for our journey to the Amazon as in making it.

In the first place, not a man in Quito could give us a single item of information on the most important and dangerous part of our route.

Quitonians are not guilty of knowing any thing about trans-Andine affairs or "oriental" geography. From a few petty traders who had, to the amazement of their fellow-citizens, traversed the forest and reached the banks of the Napo, we gleaned some information which was of service.

But on the pa.s.sage down the Napo from Santa Rosa to the Maranon, a distance of over five hundred miles, n.o.body had any thing to say except the delightful intelligence that in all probability, if we escaped the fever, we would be murdered by the savages. The information we received was about as definite and reliable as Herndon obtained respecting any tributary to the Lower Amazon: "It runs a long way up: it has rapids; savages live upon its banks; every thing grows there." From M. Gillette, a Swiss gentleman trading at Para in Moyabamba hats, we learned about the movements of the Peruvian steamer on the Maranon; but how long it would take us to cross the mountains and the forest, and descend the river, we must find out by trial.

The commissary department was of primal importance. As, from all we could learn, we could not depend upon obtaining supplies from the Indians or with our guns,[107] it was necessary to take provisions to last till we should reach the Maranon. But how long we should be in the forest and on the river, or what allowance to make for probable delays, it was impossible to prophesy. The utmost caution and forethought were therefore needed, for to die of starvation in the wilderness was, for all practical purposes, equivalent to falling into the hands of cannibals. As it turned out, however, we made a most fortunate hit, for on arriving at Pebas--the first village on the Maranon--we found we had just enough solid food left to have one grand jubilee dinner.

[Footnote 107: The scarcity of game is well ill.u.s.trated by the fate of Pizarro and his comrades. In returning from their expedition to the Napo country, they nearly perished with hunger, living on lizards, dogs, horses, saddles, sword-belts, etc., and reached Quito looking more like spectres than men.]

For the benefit of future travelers, and for the curiosity of others, we give the bill of fare we provided for this journey--stomachs, five; time, forty-two days:

Flour 100 lbs.

Corn meal 27 "

Pea flour 30 "

Mashka 47 "

Crackers 100 "

Rice 50 "

Sugar 90 "

Chocolate 25 "

Dried meat[108] 47 "

Salt 10 "

Lard 10 "

Cream tartar 1-1/2 "

Soda 1 "

Tea 2 "

Ham 10 "

Tamarinds 9 "

Eggs 170.

Anisado pts. 5.

[Footnote 108: "Jerked beef," as it is called in South America, consists of thin strips cut off the carca.s.s after skinning and dried in the sun.

The butchers do not distinguish between sirloin and round.]

To this we added by purchase from the Indians a few chickens and eggs, five gallons of sirup, and a peck of rice; and on the river we helped ourselves to a little wild game, as fish, peccari, deer, and turtles'

eggs. But these made only a drop in the commissary bucket; had we depended upon finding provisions on the road, we must have perished from sheer hunger. Game, in the dry season, is exceedingly scarce. Our provisions were packed in kerosene cans, a part of which were soldered up to keep out moisture (for the Valley of the Napo is a steaming vapor-bath) and to keep out the hands of Indians. More than once have these treacherous yet indispensable guides robbed the white man of his food, and then left him to his fate; we lost not a pound by theft. A four-gallon keg of aguardiente,[109] from which we dealt out half a gill daily to each man, kept our Indians in good humor.