Their dress is very simple, and consists merely of a long shirt called cushma, of black or white cotton—although generally the latter—which is worn by both men and women. The only difference between the men’s cushma and the women’s is that in the former the opening that admits the head is vertical and runs down along the bosom, while in the latter it is horizontal and reaches from shoulder to shoulder. This garment resembles nothing so much as a night-shirt without sleeves.
The Cionis are also excessively fond of beads, and the amount of them they wear is astounding; in fact, they are so numerous as to totally conceal their necks, the lower parts of their ears, and most of their shoulders. These beads, which often weigh from ten to fifteen pounds, are only removed when the Indians go to bed, bathe, &c. Besides these they generally wear several necklaces of monkey or danta teeth and a string or so of the bright, red-spotted-with-black seeds of the huairuro or quairor,[47] which they wear as a sort of talisman.
The houses of these Indians are, like those of the Incas, large, rectangular structures, the walls of which are formed either of upright poles tied together with the bark of the sacha-huasca or the tamshi, or else of slabs of split bamboo or palms, such as the chonta,[48] the camona or huacrapona[49] and the tarapoto,[50] whose thick, almost hollow trunks, when split, form large durable planks, quite suitable for different purposes. The roofs are of thatch, for which the leaves of the yarina[51] or vegetable-ivory tree are generally used. Several families, as a rule, live in the same house, each, however, having its own corner, fireside, and utensils.
Their furniture is limited to hammocks of their own manufacture and little low stools either carved out of solid wood or else made from slabs of bamboo or the above-mentioned palm-trees. Overhead several light cross-timbers are stretched, upon which they hang their clothes, their arms, and many domestic utensils. As they generally eat with their fingers, knives and forks are unknown, while for spoons they employ certain shells or small gourds. As dishes they use the easily prepared fruits of the totuma or cuyera,[52] which, by the simple operation of cutting open and cleaning out, form convenient receptacles for their food. For cooking they employ the earthen pots similar to those of the Incas; in the manufacture of these pots and the subsequent painting and varnishing of them the Cionis exhibit great skill.
Other utensils are—fans, various-sized baskets, rude drums, chambira-palm-fibre bags, little clay ovens to bake fariña in, fishing-nets, whistles made of the leg-bones of different birds, fifes made of bamboo, and torches of the heart of the maguey or of chonta, impregnated with resin, &c. For washing their clothes, hair, &c., they use the inner bark of a tree called the quillay and a soapy substance known as suyuyu.
Each of their villages seems to be absolutely independent of the others, and, like the Incas, elects annually, with great solemnity, its chief or gobernador, who has about the same powers as among those aborigines. In addition to the gobernador, there is a sort of lieutenant-governor, called the capitán, who acts as a sort of auxiliary to the chief and takes his place when the latter is absent.
These Indians are now lazy and peaceful, and the inter-village wars, formerly frequent and sanguinary in the extreme, are now, thanks to the teachings of the priests and the Colombian settlers, a thing of the past. Their arms, which are now used only for hunting, consist merely of machetes and shot-guns, obtained from the Colombians, and the bodoquedas or cerbatanas, already described, which they get, in exchange for their hammocks, from the Indians of the Napo.
Their food is much more diversified than that of the Santiago Indians, for, in addition to the numerous forest products, such as the papaya,[53] the lime,[54] the caimito,[55] marañon,[56] the pishuayo,[57] bread-fruit,[58] the tender tops of the chonta, the camona, &c., hunting is excellent here, and many are the animals that fall victims to their skill. Among these we may mention, as the most important, the danta or sacha-vaca[59] which lives in shady swamps; the chancho del monte or huangana,[60] which is a kind of peccary that lives in herds in the depths of the forest; the ronsoco or capivara,[61] a large amphibious rodent; the venado or deer,[62] of which there are several species; several kinds of monkeys, such as the guaribas, the cotomonos, and the maquisapas; the sloth[63]; the armadillo[64]; and various others. They also hunt wild birds of many different species and sizes, such as the paujiles, wild-ducks, partridges, wild-turkeys, various kinds of doves, &c. To all these we must add the numerous different kinds of fine fish, which they catch at all seasons of the year, especially in the dry season. Among the most important of these are palometas, corbinas, bagres, boquichicos, gamitanas, cunchis, dorados, &c.
For fishing they use nets made of chambira-palm fibre, spears and hooks manufactured from hard wood or thorns, which they bait with larvæ or with the fruit of the setico[65] tree. Besides these, they frequently employ the celebrated barbasco.[66] Selecting some pool or quiet corner of the river, they drop a quantity of the crushed leaves and root of this plant into the water, which shortly assumes a milky hue and soon poisons the fish, both large and small. Directly the whole surface of the pool becomes covered with the dead bodies of the fish, of which the largest only are selected, the rest, including the millions of tiny fish, thus being killed and left to rot without being utilised at all. On other occasions they often take advantage of the pools left when the river goes down in the dry season, the fish imprisoned in them being either speared or caught in nets.
Besides these sources of food, the women cultivate a few plantain-trees,[67] a little maize,[68] and the invaluable yuca or manioc, from which they manufacture their two most popular alimentary products, mazata and fariña. There are two kinds of yuca—the wild-yuca or yuca brava[69] and the cultivated variety,[70] both of which are very much used in the whole Amazon Valley. The former contains, however, besides its nutritive elements, a milky sap, which is one of the most virulent vegetable poisons known, its active principle being hydrocyanic acid, but, as the sap is volatile, it is easily removed from the farine by means of pressure and evaporation.