438 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



influences are attributed by the Botocudos to the " day-fire " 

 (sun), all bad things to the " night-fire " (moon), which causes 

 the thunderstorm, and is supposed itself at times to fall on the 

 earth, crushing the hill-tops, flooding the plains and destroying 

 multitudes of people. During storms and eclipses arrows are 

 shot up to scare away the demons or devouring dragons, as 

 amongst so many Indo-Chinese peoples. But beyond this there 

 is no conception of a supreme being, or creative force, the terms 

 yanchong) tapan, said to mean "God," standing merely for spirit, 

 demon, thunder, or at most the thunder-god. 



Owing to the choice made by the missionaries of the Tupi 



Th . language as the lingoa geral, or common medium of 



Guaranian intercourse amongst the multitudinous populations 



of Brazil and Paraguay, a somewhat exaggerated 



idea has been formed of the range of the Tupi-Guarani family. 



Many of the tribes about the stations, after being induced by the 



padres to learn this convenient lingua franca, were apt in course 



of time to forget their own mother-tongue, and thus came to be 



accounted members of this family. But allowing for such a 



source of error, there can be no doubt that at the discovery the 



Tupi or Eastern, and the Guarani or Western, section occupied 



jointly an immense area, which may perhaps be estimated at 



about one-fourth of the southern continent. Tupi tribes were 



met all along the main stream as far as Peru, where they were 



represented by the Omaguas (" Flatheads 1 "), about whom so 



many fables were circulated. Formerly they roamed the left 



bank of the Upper Amazons for 200 leagues between the rivers 



Tamburagua and Putumayo, waging incessant war with the Curinas 



on the south and the Tacunas on the north side ; and they are 



still numerous towards the sources of the Japura and Uaupes. 



These Tacunas (Ticunas, Jumanas) who, like the Araucanians 



and many other South American peoples, believe 



Tacanas* 8 *" * n a oo< ^ an( ^ ev ^ principle, one continually un- 

 doing the work of the other, and both contending 



1 They are the Cambebus of the Tupi, a term also meaning Flatheads, and 

 they are so called because "apertao aos recemnacidos as cabeas entre duas 

 taboas afim de achatal-as, costume que actualmente han perdido (Milliet, II. 

 p. 174). 



