Sir R. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana, 373 



two thousand five hundred. They are bounded to the north 

 by the Arecunas, who dwell . in the mountainous regions and 

 savannahs at the springs of the rivers Caroni, Cuyuni, and 

 Mazaruni. They are a powerful tribe, and in manners and 

 language closely connected with the Macusis. This does not, 

 however, prevent enmities and wars from breaking out among 

 them, and the Arecunas are accused of being poisoners and 

 night murderers. The number inhabiting British Guiana is 

 perhaps five hundred. The Wapisianas or Mauxinians are 

 a tribe belonging to the savannahs of the upper Rupununi 

 and the banks of the Parima. They have been reduced by 

 smallpox to four hundred. The Atorais are nearly extinct. 

 The same refers to the Dauris, a subtribe of the former ; and 

 to the Amaripas. Of the latter, Miaha, an old woman of 

 seventy or eighty years of age, whom I saw in 1843 in Watu 

 Ticaba, was the last of her tribe. The Atorais and Dauris 

 scarcely number one hundred individuals, of whom only thirty- 

 five or forty are pure Atorais and Dauris. The Tarumas, four 

 hundred strong, inhabit the tributaries of the upper Esse- 

 quibo. The Woyawais, a race who live in the regions be- 

 tween the sources of the Essequibo and confluence of the 

 Amazon, number about three hundred and fifty. 



The Maopityans, Mawackos or Frog Indians, are rapidly 

 approaching extinction. They are now restricted to a single 

 settlement near the river Caphewin. Their whole number 

 amounted in July 1843, to thirty -nine individuals, viz., four- : 

 teen men, eleven women, eight boys, and six girls. They 

 were formerly divided into two small settlements, but lat- 

 terly they have united, and are now living in one great 

 circular hut, eighty-six feet in diameter, and of a propor- 

 tionate height, isolated from other Indians by thick forests 

 and high mountains, their nearest neighbours being the 

 Woyawais to the south, and the Tarumas of the Essequibo 

 to the west. The Wapisianas call them Maopityan, from 

 " Mao," a frog, and " Pityan," people or tribe, but they call 

 themselves Mawakwa. I have not been able, upon the most 

 minute inquiries, to learn that the flatness of head is the 

 result of artificial means. The average height of the men is 



VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXII. — OCTOBER 1846. 2 B 



