434 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



classified groups such as the Bororo and Caraya, these observers 

 comprise the countless Brazilian aborigines in four main divi- 

 sions, which in conformity with Powell's terminology may here be 

 named the CARIBAN, ARAWAKAN, GESAN and TUPI-GUARANIAN 

 families. 



Hitherto the Caribs were commonly supposed to have had 

 their original homes far to the north, possibly in 



The Caribs. , . . r 



the Alleghany uplands, or in Honda, where they 

 have been doubtfully identified with the extinct Timuquanans, 

 and whence they spread through the Antilles southwards to 

 Venezuela, the Guianas, and north-east Brazil, beyond which they 

 were not known to have ranged anywhere south of the Amazons. 

 But this view is now shown to be untenable, and several Carib 

 tribes, such as the Bakairi 1 and Nahuquas 1 of the Upper Xingu, 

 all speaking archaic forms of the Carib stock language, have 

 been met by the German explorers in the very heart of Brazil ; 

 whence the inference that the cradle of this race is to be sought 

 rather in the centre of South America, perhaps on the Goyaz and 

 Matto Grosso tablelands, from which region they moved north- 

 wards, if not to Florida, at least to the Caribbean Sea which is 

 named from them 2 . 



A connecting link is formed by the Apiacas of the Lower 

 Tocantins between the Amazonian section and that of the Guianas, 

 where the chief groups are the Venezuelan Makirifares. the Ma- 

 cusi, Kalinas, and Galibi of British, Dutch, and French Guiana 

 respectively. In general all the Caribs present much the same 

 physical characters, although the southerners are rather taller 

 (5ft. 4 in.) with less round heads (index 79 -6) than the Guiana 

 Caribs (5 ft. 2 in., and 8i'5). 



Perhaps even a greater extension has been given by the 



German explorers to the Arawakan family, which, 

 Arawakan like the Cariban, was hitherto supposed to be mainly 



confined to the region north of the Amazons, but is 

 now known to range as far south as the Upper Paraguay, about 



1 Ehrenreich, Urbewohner Brasiliens, p. 45 sq. 



- It should be stated that a like conclusion has been reached by M. Lucien 

 Adam from the vocabularies brought by Crevaux from the Upper Yapura 

 tribes Witotos, Corequajes, Kariginas and others all of Carib speech. 



