The Guanas are a nation who have long lived on the upper Paraguay, in the province Mato Grosso on the river Mambaya, and vicinity. D’Orbigny believed that they were a member of the Mataco group,[360] but they are now recognized as belonging to the Arawak stock. They are noteworthy for their peaceful disposition and unusual intelligence. Hervas speaks of them as the most able nation visited by the missionaries in the whole of America.[361] The traveler Castelnau confirmed this good opinion. He found them living in neat houses and cultivating the land with skill and industry. They raised not only the ordinary food plants, but cotton and sugar cane, pressing the sap from the latter by machinery of their own devising, and moulding the sugar into loaves. Their cotton cloth, dyed of various colors, was highly esteemed for its texture. Castelnau describes them as occupying four settlements near Albuquerque and Miranda, and comprising the Chualas or Guanas proper, the Terenos, the Laianas, and the Quiniquinaos.[362] Later investigations have shown that of these the Terenos and Quiniquinaos are members of the Guaycuru stock of the Chaco, and that the Chualas and Laianas alone belong to the true Guanas.[363] The _Paiconecas_ or Paunacas were attached to the mission of the Conception in Bolivia, in 16° south latitude. They numbered about 500 in 1831. In customs and appearance they approached the Chiquitos. Their former home was between the sources of the Rio Blanco and Rio Verde. The _Saravecas_, three or four hundred in number in 1831, were attached to the mission of Santa Anna, in Bolivia, and were its handsomest members. Their former homes were in the eastern hills of the Cordillera, about 16° south latitude. Although these are classed as irreducible stocks by D’Orbigny and others who have followed him, they are both clearly branches of the Arawak stem, as will be seen by a brief comparison.[364] PAICONECA. SARAVECA. ARAWAK STOCK. Sun, _isese_, _caame_, _sese_, _camu_. Moon, _kejere_, _cache_, _kejeres_, _kashi_. Fire, _chaki_, _tikai_, _yaki_, _ikii_. Water, _ina_, _une_, _ine_, _une_. Eye, _ihuikis_, _nol_, _nohlo_, _ikise_. Others could readily be added, but the above are sufficient. Another important tribe of this stock in this region were the Piros, otherwise called Chuntaquiros and Simirenchis, whose home was about the junction of the Ucayali and Apurimac, and thence along both these rivers. The vocabularies of their tongue obtained by Castelnau and Paul Marcoy leave no doubt of their affiliations. They were largely converted by the Jesuits between 1683 and 1727. The Wapisianas, or Wapianas in British Guiana, with their sub-tribe the Atorai (Tauri or Dauri), are stated by Im Thurn to speak a tongue wholly different from the Arawak; but an analysis of its expression and an extended comparison place it beyond doubt in this stock.[365]