The Tarumas and Maopityans, who now live in southern British Guiana, but are said to have originally come from the Rio Negro, speak related dialects. They enjoy a rather high degree of culture, being celebrated for the manufacture of cassava graters, for the hunting dogs which they breed and train, and for the fine pottery they manufacture. Both Schomburgk and Im Thurn regard them as an independent stock; but from a comparison of the fifteen nouns given by the former in their language,[366] I infer that they are an Arawak tribe, speaking a dialect mixed with some Carib and Tupi words, and with frequent vowel elision. TARUMA. Sun, _ouang_, (_auvan-ialü_, Paravilhana). Moon, _piwa_, (_pia_, Baniva, _piua_, Ouayéoué). Fire, _hua_, (_hua-to_, Carib). Water, _tza_, (_tuná_, Carib). Head, my, _a-tta_, (_no-totia_, Baré). Eye, my, _a-tzi_, (_a-kussi_, Arawak). Mouth, _me-ruku-kanna_, (_ülle-rukuhu_, Arawak). Nose, _assa_, (_issi-rihi_, Arawak). Hand, _ahu_, (_kx-aua_, Bakairi). Foot, _appa_, (_upu_, Galibi). Bow, _tzeika_, (_takou_, Carib). Star, _uingra_, (_uinari_, Baré). This comparison leaves little doubt but that this mixed dialect is chiefly of Arawak lineage. The Arawaks wandered as far east as the upper Schingu river, where Von den Steinen found the Kustenau, a distant member of the stem, with various minor tribes, as the Vauras, Mehinacus, etc. Along the river Ventuari the populous tribe of the Maipures have taken a conspicuous place in the annals of the missions. Indeed, the whole stock is sometimes called by their name;[367] but it is well to retain the better known _Arawak_, which is the appellation of that portion of the tribe in Guiana between the Corentin and Pomeroon rivers. It means “meal-eaters,” and was first applied to them in derision on account of their large consumption of cassava bread. There is a prevailing similarity in their physical type. The adults are slightly undersized, rarely reaching above five feet six inches, with low foreheads and straight narrow noses. The form of the skull is short and the jaws are not protruding--orthognathic and brachycephalic.[368] The physical force averages less than that of the European, and there is decidedly less power of resisting disease.[369] The Jesuit Eder mentions a peculiarity among the Peruvian Arawaks, (Moxos, Baures). It is that the end of the little finger does not reach to the last joint of the third finger. The absence of this peculiarity he states will reveal a mixture of Spanish blood to the third generation.[370] It would be interesting to learn how widely this is noticeable.