The day after our arrival at Coni, two of the headmen came to pay us a visit, accompanied by half a dozen of their women, who were laden with burdens of plantains and yams, which they carried in nets, supported on their backs by a band which passed across their foreheads. These people are very much like the ordinary Mojos Indians and the Pacaguaras of the river Trés Irmãos, but are much more civilized than the latter tribe, as they do not all wear their hair in the usual savage style, cut close over the eyes and hanging down behind, while they always have some sort of clothing, either a bark shirt or some articles purchased from the traders. Many of them understand Spanish very fairly, and they all were very well behaved; indeed, it was wonderful to see what self-restraint they exercised, controlling their curiosity in a marvellous manner, and not asking for everything that took their fancy, as do the Pacaguaras and Caripunas of the rapids; and I rewarded their patience accordingly by presents of cigars, sugar, biscuits, and a “pinga” or small drink of Hollands apiece, which latter they seemed to approve of highly. The men are fairly formed and of good stature, but the women are undersized, and appear to be rather ill-treated, as is customary among savage tribes.
NECKLACE OF BRIGHT RED BEANS.
They use but few adornments, a necklace of wooden beads or of seeds being the general ornament amongst them. Their bark shirts are the finest that are made anywhere in the Beni. Those made by the Mojos Indians are all of a dark-brown colour, and of coarse, rough texture; but the Yuracarés make theirs from a tree that gives a fine white bark, which, when beaten out to the proper thinness, is painted in very bright colours. Some of the patterns thus painted on the shirts are of great merit, and all the colours are extracted from the various dye-yielding trees or earths of the forests. A good cascara can be bought from them for about two pesos. The chief, or cacique of the tribe, on state occasions wears a curious appendage or pigtail, composed of bright feathers from macaws and toucans, backs of bright-coloured beetles, and shells of nuts, etc. All the tribe paint small black stripes and rings on their arms and legs, whilst the women have a smear of red or black paint on their cheeks. I was fortunate enough to secure three very fine specimens of these bark shirts, one of the cacique’s pigtails, some of their necklaces, and a set of their musical instruments, which, as may be surmised, are of a most primitive character. They are of various shapes, producing at most three or four notes, and are generally made of some hard kind of wood; but a monkey’s thigh-bone or the leg-bone of a stork is often pressed into the service, as, being hollow, these bones are easily made into a rough kind of flute or whistle. I could not discover much melody in the concerts which these Indians favoured us with, the principal object seeming to be the production of as much noise as possible; the custom being for as many performers as there are instruments, to seat themselves in a ring, and each one to produce any note he pleases without the slightest reference to his neighbour’s efforts. The effect is therefore more startling than pleasant, especially as the fifers are accompanied by a drummer, whose business seems to be to overcome, if possible, with his own horrible instrument, the effect of the ear-piercing whistles.
GROUP OF BOLIVIAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, ETC.
A, Flute, made of hard wood; B B B, Whistles, made of hard wood; C, Flutes, made of leg-bones of a stork; D D D, Necklaces, made of seeds and beads; E, Ornaments, made of nut-shells and toucan breast feathers; F, Small comb, made of hard wood; G G, Necklaces of monkey’s teeth; H, Tooth of Capybara, used as ear ornament by Caripunas.
These Indians produce a very fair kind of cloth or drill from the wild cotton which is found in abundance on their territory, and as they are very clever in extracting dyes of different colours from the forest, they make up some very good hammock-cloths, sashes, and other articles. They probably have been taught this art of weaving by the civilized Indians of the Beni, who, as I have before mentioned, make some very excellent and durable material called macanas.