The American Race: A Linguistic Classification and Ethnographic Description of the Native Tribes of North and South AmericaBrinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
History
The American Race: A Linguistic Classification and Ethnographic Description of the Native Tribes of North and South America
Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
Indians; Indians -- Languages
D’Orbigny identifies the Lican-Antais with the Olipes, Lipes or Llipis
of the older writers[331] (Garcilasso, etc). This, however, is open
to doubt. Von Tschudi hazarded the opinion that the Atacameños were a
remnant of the Calchaquis of Tucuman, who had sought refuge from the
Spaniards in this remote oasis on the coast.[332] I can find no positive
support for this view, as we have no specimens of the language of the
Calchaquis.
Immediately to the south of the Atacameños, bordering upon the sterile
sands of the desert of Atacama, between south latitude 22° and 24°, are
the _Changos_. In their country it never rains, and for food they depend
entirely on the yield of the sea, fish, crustacea and edible algae. Like
the Bushmen of the Kalihari desert, and doubtless for the same reason
of insufficient nutrition, they are undersized, as a tribe perhaps of
the shortest stature of any on the continent. The average of the males
is four feet nine inches, and very few reach five feet.[333] They are,
however, solidly built and vigorous. The color is dark, the nose straight
and the eyes horizontal.
Nothing satisfactory is reported about their language, which is asserted
to be different from the Aymara or any other stock. The tribe has been
confounded by some writers with the Atacameños, and the Spaniards
apparently included both under the term _Changos_; which is at present
used as a term of depreciation. But both in location and appearance they
are diverse. Whether this extends also to language, as is alleged, I have
not the material to determine, and probably the tongue is extinct.[334]
II. THE SOUTH ATLANTIC GROUP.
1. THE AMAZONIAN REGION.
Those two mighty rivers, the Amazon and the Orinoco, belong to one
hydrographic system, the upper affluents of the latter pouring
their waters for six months of the year into the majestic expanse
of the former. Together they drain over three million square miles
of land,[335] clothed throughout with lush tropical vegetation and
seamed by innumerable streams, offering natural and facile paths of
intercommunication. It is not surprising, therefore, that we find
linguistic stocks extended most widely over this vast area, each counting
numerous members. Of them the most widely disseminated were the Tupi, the
Tapuya, the Carib and the Arawak families, and to these I shall first
give attention.
_1. The Tupis._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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