1895.] 401 [Brinton. 



Sotne Words from the Afidngneda Dialed of the Choco Stock. 



By Daniel G. Brinton, M.D. 



{Read before the American Philosophical Society, Nov. 75, i8g^. ) 



The Andaguedas are a tribe called by themselves Emberak, 

 which means simply " men " or " people," who wander about the 

 upper tributaries of the Atrato river, Colombia, South America, 

 principally on its right bank. They are called the Andaguedas, 

 from the river of that name, and it is from a small branch of the 

 tribe that the subjoined vocabulary has been taken. It was ob- 

 tained for me in June last by Mr. Henry Gregory Granger, at the 

 Capio Gold Mines, on the river mentioned. He carefully verified 

 the words by subsequently uttering them to Indians other than 

 those from whom he learned them, and in every case thus proved 

 their correctness. 



He describes the Andaguedas as quite short in stature, the males 

 averaging about five feet and the females about four feet in height. 

 This is noteworthy, as other observers have spoken of them as taller 

 than their neighbors, the Cunas. 



They are migratory, go nearly naked, have few arts, but make 

 pottery. Their favorite weapon is the blow- gun, called by them 

 bor-ro-kay-ra. With this they hurl small poisoned darts, bee-ro-tay. 

 They are wrapped at the but with a fine fibrous floss to make them 

 fit into the tube of the gun. 



The poison is stated to be extremely virulent, fatal in a few min- 

 utes to any mammal, and without known antidote. It is alleged to 

 be obtained from a small tree toad, by piercing him alive through 

 the back, and then slowly roasting him over a fire, when the poison 

 exudes on his surface. Into this, without further preparation, the 

 sharp ends of the arrows are rubbed, and, when dry, they are ready 

 for use. 



Although the Andaguedas have been placed in the Choco lin- 

 guistic stock by various writers, and by myself in my work on the 

 linguistic classification of the American race,* this has been on the 

 reports of local residents, no specimen of their dialect having been 

 printed. The brief list which I now publish has, therefore, a value 



* The American Race : A Linguistic Classification and Ethnographic Description of the Na- 

 Hve Tribes of North and South America, p. 176 (New York, 1891). 



