In the mountainous district of Mérida, south of the plains in the interior from Lake Maracaibo, there still dwell the remains of a number of small bands speaking dialects of a stock which has been called from one of its principal members, the _Timote_. It has been asserted to display a relationship to the Chibcha, but the comparisons I have made do not reveal such connection. It seems to stand alone, as an independent tongue. All the Timotes paid attention to agriculture, raising maize, pepper and esculent roots of the potato character. Those who lived in the warm regions painted their bodies red and went naked; while those in the uplands threw around them a square cotton blanket fastened at the waist. Some of them buried their dead in caves, as the Quindoraes on the banks of the Motatan. With them they placed small figures in terra cotta. The Mocochies, living where caves are rare, built underground vaults for their dead, closing the entrance with a great stone.[238] From the writings of Lares and Ernst I make the following list of the members of the TIMOTE LINGUISTIC STOCK. _Aricaguas._ _Aviamos._ _Bailadores._ _Canaguaes._ _Chamas._ _Escagueyes._ _Guaraques._ _Guaquis._ _Iguiños._ _Insumubies._ _Jajies._ _Miguries._ _Mirripuyas._ _Mocochies._ _Mocotos._ _Mocombos._ _Mombunes._ _Mucuchaies._ _Mucunchies._ _Mucurabaes._ _Mucutuyes._ _Quindoraes._ _Quinos._ _Quiroraes._ _Tabayones._ _Taparros._ _Tatuyes._ _Tiguinos._ _Tricaguas._ Few of these names are found in the older writers. In the Taparros we recognize the “Zaparas,” who, in the last century, lived in contiguity to the Goajiros of the adjacent peninsula.[239] The Mucuchis gave their name to an early settlement of that name in the province of Mérida.[240] The prefix _muco_ or _moco_, which is very common in place-names of that region, is believed by Lares to have a locative significance. Such names give approximately the extent of the dialects at the settlement of the country.