Briiiton.] ^^^ [Feb. 5, 



X. 



ON THE DIALECTS OF THE BETOYAS AND TUCANOS. 



The most recent writer on the Tucanos of the Rio Negro and 

 Upper Amazon, Dr. Franz Pfaff, observes: " Ueber die Stammes- 

 verwandtschaft der Tucanos kann mit einiger Sicherheit nichts be- 

 hauptet werden."* Von Martius believed them a horde of the 

 Tapuya (Ges, Botocudo) stock ; f but their language betrays no 

 such relationship except in a few, doubtless borrowed, words. They 

 are equally far from the great Tupi. Arawack and Carib stocks. 

 But I believe I can show by conclusive evidence that this hitherto 

 unidentified people speak a language akin to that of the Betoyas 

 and Tamas, whose home is located on the eastern slope of the Cor- 

 dillera, between the head waters of the rivers Apure and Meta. 



My further studies of the Betoya dialects have resulted in discov- 

 ering for them a much wider extension than I assigned in T/ie 

 American Race. They can be traced through about ten degrees 

 of latitude (from 3° South latitude northeastward to 7° North 

 latitude) in a large number of tribes resident on the rivers Napo, 

 Putumayo, Caqueta, Uaupes, Negro, Meta and Apure. The affini- 

 ties of many of these tribes are asserted by the early missionaries, 

 whose testimony on such points was based on a study of the Ian. 

 guages. One of the most useful of these sources is the Noticias 

 Autenticas del Famoso Rio Maranon, composed by an anonymous 

 Jesuit missionary, and recently published for the first time under 

 the competent editorship of Jimenez de la Espada by the Geo- 

 graphical Society of Madrid. 



Another Jesuit, Father Padilla, in a letter to the Abbe Hervas, 

 stated from personal knowledge that the Siraras, Eles, Airicos and 

 Situjas all speak dialects of Betoya; while Gumilla names as other 

 dialects the Lucuiia, Jabtta, Arauca (probably for Airica'), Quili- 

 fay, Anabali, Lalaca and Atabaca. 



The town Betoye itself is situated on a small affluent of the Cas- 

 anare, in 6° North latitude, at the foot of the mountain chain 

 known as the "Paramo de Chisga," inhabited by a wild tribe of 

 unknown affinities, the Chitareros. 



The anonymous writer already referred to states that in 1730 the 

 Jesuits had seven "reductions" among the Icaguates (Piojes) of 



* Vfrhandlimgen der Berliner Gesell. fur Anthrop., etc., 1890, s. 603, 

 I Glossaria Zdnguarum RrasiUensium, p. 283. 



