1898.] BKINTON — LINGUISTIC CARTOGRAPHY. 195 



But there remain a number of tribes about whom there are much 

 confusion and uncertainty. In some instances the same name has 

 been applied to groups speaking radically distinct languages, and 

 the identity of the name has led authors to suppose them of one 

 origin. I shall mention some of the more prominent examples and 

 attempt to diminish the difficulties which they present. 



The Lenguas (Timbues). 



Few tribes have contributed more to the confusion of the eth- 

 nography of the Chaco region than those known as the Lenguas. 

 Dr. Colini (i, pp. 291, 292) inserts a long note upon them, but it fails 

 to clear up the obscurity about them, or to reconcile the contra- 

 dictory statements of authors. 



These contradictions are materially lessened when we learn that 

 the Spanish term lenguas tongue, was applied indiscriminately by 

 the early colonists to any tribe who had the custom of inserting a 

 labret, barbate, in the lower lip, causing it to project and resemble 

 an outstretched tongue.^ It has, therefore, no signification as a 

 proper name. 



In the Tupi-Guarani tongue this ornament is called tembeta, from 

 iembe, the lower lip.^ This explains the name applied to various 

 tribes, Timbues, or Timbois. It is in signification the same as 

 Lengua, and refers to the same use of the labret ornament.^ 



Neither Lengua nor Timbue, therefore, is a nomen gentile. This 

 is evident from the discrepancies of authors about their locations 

 and amply explains those discrepancies. 



Father Azara describes them as a subtribe of the Abipons, and 

 in entire conformity with this D'Orbigny* found them in 1828 living 

 about latitude 27°, longitude 62°, in the midst of the territory of 



1 A good illustration of its use is shown in the portrait of a Suya in Von 

 den Steinen's Durch Cejzlral Brasilien, p. 204. Another form is where a labret 

 several inches in length was thrust outward and downward through the lower 

 lip. 



2 Ruiz de Montoya, Vocabulario de la Lengua Tupi, s. v, 



3 Not to the perforation of the nose, the nariz horadada, as Lafone Quevedo 

 states (ix, p. 4). The tef?ibefa is the sign of virility and probably a personal 

 and totemic sign of life. When a warrior is killed in battle his slayer carries off 

 the tembeta from his lip and presents it to his own wife (Thouar, i, p. 51). It 

 is made of wood or metal, and varies in diameter. 



*D'Orbigny, L" Homiyie Anicricain, Vol. ii, pp. 116, 120, 121. 



