2. The Quechua Linguistic Family is one of the most far-reaching of South America. The Quechua dialects are still spoken to-day on the coast, and along the chain of the Andes from Quito to the 30th degree S. latitude. This is practically the extent of the ancient empire of the Incas, the best known nation among the Quechua peoples. But the influence of the Inca civilisation and the Quechua language extended even farther, to Columbia, the borders of Ucayale, and the Bolivian table-land on the north, to the edge of the Pampas on the south (among the Calchaquis). For the western part of South America the Quechua tongue was the lengua general, as the Tupi-Guarani tongue was the lingua geral for the east (Brazil, Paraguay, etc.). This language is not at all superseded by Spanish; on the contrary, the Whites learn it, and several Quechua words: guano, pampa, condor, quina, have found their way into the languages of all civilised nations.[644] The principal tribes are: the Huancas to the north-east of Lima, the Lamanas near Trujillo, the Incas in the vicinity of the Rio Apurimac, the Aymaras of the high table-lands of Bolivia (600,000 individuals, of whom two-thirds are of pure blood).
In spite of the diversity of dialects all the Quechuas and Aymaras present a remarkable uniformity of physical type. They are of low stature (1 m. 60 according to D’Orbigny, 1 m. 57 according to Forbes), thick-set, and very strong. The chest is broad, the head massive and globular, the nose aquiline, forehead retreating. This last peculiarity should however be attributed to the custom of deforming the head, very widespread among all the Quechuas and neighbouring peoples; this deformation is still practised in the same way as in the days of the Inca civilisation. It is very unlikely that the frequent occurrence of the “Inca bone” (p. [67]) in Peruvian skulls has any connection with this deformation. The greatest part of the population of Peru is composed of Quechuas and Aymaras, or of Quechua-Spanish half-breeds.[645]
FIG. 165.—Guaraunos chief (Mouth of the Orinoco)
with his two wives.
(Phot. Crevaux, Coll. Mus. Nat. Hist. Paris.)
The Calchaquis,[646] the ancient inhabitants of the modern south-west provinces, Argenton, Catamarca, Rioja, Santiago, etc., probably also spoke a Quechua dialect. It was a very civilised population; the only one in the South American continent which knew how to construct buildings of freestone. Although partly borrowed from the Peruvians, the Calchaqui civilisation has a character of its own, and in several respects recalls that of the Pueblo Indians, particularly the Zuñis (arrangement of their cities in a series of seven, copper tools and weapons, etc.).
FIG. 166.—Guaraunos of the
mouth of the Orinoco.
(Phot. Crevaux, Coll.
Mus. Nat. Hist. Paris.)
The last Calchaqui tribe, the Quilmes, was transported in 1670 by the Spaniards near to Buenos Ayres, where it forms the village of this name.