The Guachis speak a rather remote dialect of the stock, but undoubtedly connected with the main stem. According to the analogy of many of their words and the tenor of tradition, they at one time lived in the Bolivian highlands, in the vicinity of the Moxos and Chiquitos. It is probable that they are now nearly extinct, as for several generations infanticide has been much in vogue among them, prompted, it is said, by superstitious motives. Forty years ago an inconspicuous remnant of them were seen by Castelnau and Natterer in the vicinity of Miranda.[493] The Malbalas, who were a sub-tribe of the Mbocobis, dwelling on the Rio Vermejo, are described as light in color, with symmetrical figures and of kindly and faithful disposition. Like most of the Chaco tribes, they were monogamous, and true to their wives.[494] The Terenos and the Cadioéos still survive on the upper Paraguay, and are in a comparatively civilized condition. The latter manufacture a pottery of unusually excellent quality.[495] On the authority of Father Lozano I include in this stock the Chichas-Orejones, the Churumatas, that branch of the Mataguayos called Mataguayos Churumatas (from the frequent repetition of the syllable _chu_ in their dialect), the Mbocobis and Yapitalaguas, whose tongues were all closely related to the Toba;[496] while Dr. Joao Severiano da Fonseca has recently shown that the Quiniquinaux is also a branch of this stock.[497] The _Lules_ are a nation which has been a puzzle for students of the ethnography of the Chaco. They were partly converted by the celebrated Jesuit missionary and eminent linguist, Father Alonso de Barcena, in 1690, who wrote a grammar of their language, which he called the Tonicote. The Jesuit historian of Paraguay, Del Techo, states that three languages were spoken among them, the Tonicote, the Kechua and the Cacana, which last is a Kechua term from _caca_, mountain, and in this connection means the dialect of the mountaineers. Barcena’s converts soon became discontented and fled to the forests, where they disappeared for thirty years or more. About 1730, a number of them reappeared near the Jesuit mission of the Chaco, and settled several towns on the rivers Valbuena and Salado. There their language was studied by the missionaries. A grammar of it was composed by Machoni,[498] and a vocabulary collected by the Abbé Ferragut.[499] Meanwhile the work of Barcena had disappeared, and the Abbé Hervas expressed a doubt whether the Lule of Machoni was the same as that of his predecessor. He advanced the opinion that the ancient Lule was the Cacana; that the modern were not the descendants of the ancient Lules, and that the Mataras of the Chaco were the Tonicotes to whom Barcena was apostle.[500]