Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests

by Johann Jakob von Tschudi

The languages spoken by the wild Indian tribes are very various. From the Marañon to Omaguas, Quichua, the language of the Incas, is spoken. On the left bank of the Ucayali the dialect of the Panos prevails. On the right bank the Cascas, the Sinabus, and the Diabus, preserve their own idioms, which are so different that those races are reciprocally unable to communicate with each other. On Upper Ucayali evidences of common origin are said to be apparent between the Simirinches, Campas, Runaguas, and Mochobos. But on this subject no accurate conclusions can be formed; for the accounts given by the missions in early periods were very imperfect, and most of the races are so intractable that it has since been impossible to collect correct information. According to the accounts of travelled missionaries which I had the opportunity of examining in the convent of Ocopa, it appears that, besides the Quichua, the idioms spoken by the Panos, Cascas, Simirinches, and the Chunchos, may be set down as dialects of decidedly different origins.

The mode of living among all these Indians is very much the same. War and hunting in summer, and repairing their warlike weapons in winter, are the occupations of the men. The women cultivate the fields, lay up the stores of provisions, fish, spin and cook. Their clothes are of the most simple kind. Many of the races wear no clothing, and have their bodies wholly or partially bedaubed with paint. The men of some races wear a kind of shirt without sleeves, and the women a petticoat reaching from the waist to the knees. These garments are made of cotton obtained from the uncultivated tree Bombax, and their color is white, blue, or red. The custom of boring the ears, the nose, and the under lip, for the insertion of some ornament, is much practised, particularly by the Panos, Shipeos, and Pirras. They paint their bodies, but not exactly in the tattoo manner; they confine themselves to single stripes. The Sensis women draw two stripes from the shoulder, over each breast, down to the pit of the stomach; the Pirras women paint a band in the form of a girdle round the waist, and they have three of a darker color round each thigh. These stripes, when once laid on, can never be removed by washing. They are made with the unripe fruit of one of the Rubiacaceæ. Some tribes paint the face only; others, on the contrary, do not touch that part; but bedaub with colors their arms, feet, and breasts.

In hunting, bows and arrows are the principal weapons used by the Indians. In war they use, besides bows and arrows, clubs and a kind of sword made of wood. The arrows are reeds, five or six feet long, and of the thickness of a finger. The point is of very hard wood, and is strongly barbed by notches and with sharp fish teeth about three inches long. To the other extremity of the arrow colored feathers are always affixed.

Among many Indians, particularly in the western and northern districts of the Pampa del Sacramento, the Pocuna is a weapon much used in hunting. It is made of a long reed, and measures eight or ten, or even more, feet. At one end are fixed two teeth of a javali, or white-lipped peccary (Dicotyles labiatus), on which the reed is rested when taking aim. The arrows, which are only one and a half or two inches long, are made of the thick part of a strong cactus stem. In general their small arrows are poisoned, for otherwise the wound would be too inconsiderable to kill even a little bird. The poison for arrows differs almost with every tribe, and very mysterious ceremonies are observed at its preparation. On this account the art of preparing it, and the ingredients employed, are only very partially known to Europeans. Their elements are obtained from several plants not yet defined botanically, among which the Apihuasca and poison capsicum are much resorted to. Infusions of the leaves of a very strong kind of tobacco, and of the Sanaño (Tabernæmontana Sanaño, R. P.), and of Euphorbiaceæ, are also taken. Some modern travellers, contrary to the testimony of the oldest writers on Peru, have asserted that no animal substance is employed in the poison for arrows. I am, however, enabled to state, on the authority of an Indian who had himself often made the poison, that not only the black and very poisonous emmet (Cryptacereo atrato affin), but also the teeth of the formidable serpent, known to the Indians by the name of Miuamaru or Jergon (Lachesis picta, Tsch.), are used for that purpose.

The wound of the poisoned arrow is fatal and rapid. Men and large mammalia die in about four or five minutes after receiving the wound; the smaller mammiferous animals and birds, in two minutes. The blow-reed sends these deadly arrows with great certainty to the distance of thirty-two or thirty-six paces. Hunting with the blow-reed must be long practised in order to acquire dexterity in its use, and great caution is requisite to avoid being self-wounded by the small sharp arrows. An example came to my knowledge in the case of an Indian who let an arrow fall unobserved from his quiver; he trod upon it, and it penetrated the sole of his foot; in a very short time he was a corpse.

The club called Matusino is four or five feet long, and is encircled in a spiral form at the thick end, by a row of deer's horns. A single long horn is fastened in the centre, the chief use of which is to stick it in the earth when the club is rested. Only a few races of upper and lower Ucayali and the Sensis use this formidable weapon, which is very inconvenient and obstructive in passing through thick forests. The macana, or wooden sword, is made of strong chunta. The color of this wood is a deep blackish brown; it is very hard and heavy, and is always used for implements which require great durability and strength. The macana is about four feet long, one inch thick, and from five to six inches broad; towards the hilt end the breadth is about three inches, and it is rounded. It is so well cut and polished, that a sabre scarcely excels it in sharpness. The weapon is so heavy that it requires both hands to wield it.

There are not only offensive, but also defensive, weapons. One of the latter is the viche, a very simple shield, one and a half or two feet in diameter. It consists of a strong frame of twisted creeping plants, over which the skin of a deer or tapir is stretched and fastened with twine. On the inside there are two holds for the arm; the edge is adorned with colored feathers.

The Indians of the races above noticed seldom live in villages, but chiefly in huts scattered through the forests. Sometimes they construct a few of their dwellings near together, and so form a hamlet. Their huts are either quadrangular, oblong, or circular. The walls consist of strong stems of trees, bound together by twining plants; and the roof is of palm leaves laid over a skeleton of reeds. The entrance, which is on the side opposite to the prevailing wind, is left open, and but seldom protected by a door. At Chanchamayo I saw a very simple kind of hut among the Chunchos. It resembled an open umbrella with the handle stuck in the earth. The single wall, which also formed its roof, consisted of eight long reeds: they spread out below in the form of a fan, standing obliquely on the earth, and fastened to three stems of trees. On this simple skeleton were laid lengthways the leaves of the omero, a kind of palm. A strong stem fixed firmly in the earth, extended obliquely to the middle of the inner side of the wall, and two thinner stems on each side, served as supports for this frail building. According to the direction of the wind the hut is turned round.

The Indian huts all stand detached from each other, and they are seldom divided internally into apartments. They occupy very little ground, never more than sixty square feet of superficies. In the principal settlement of an Indian race, the huts are scattered over a circuit of some miles in the forests.

Any form of government is a thing quite unknown to most of the Indios Bravos of Peru. Uniformity of speech, manners, and arms, unite together a number of Indians, who thus form a race, but there is among them no bond of subjection, or of duty to any government, either voluntarily chosen, or self-constituted. Among the inhabitants of Lower Ucayali, however, the oldest, or the bravest individuals of each race are either publicly, or silently recognised as chiefs. Respect to age prevails only among a few of the races, as the Setebos, Mayorhunas, and Panos. Among others, as the Campos, Casibos, and Cunchos, the old are put to death. It is a general custom of the wild Indians to kill their aged prisoners immediately on their being captured.