CULTURE OF PEOPLE OF SOUTHEASTERN PANAMA 21 



men in mass meeting and serves during his lifetime. His son may 

 succeed to the chieftainship if he shows ability. Among the Tule the 

 chief acts as instructor to his tribe ; an aspirant to the office sometimes 

 fits himself through travel, serving as a sailor on foreign ships, etc. ; 

 another qualification lies in diligently learning the tribal songs and 

 traditions. 



The San Bias Indians call themselves the Tule or Towalis, mean- 

 ing " sky," also a " Cuna man." They also refer to themselves as 

 Cuna. They are a short, stocky, dark reddish-brown skinned people. 

 The body is unusually long in proportion to the limbs, which are 

 short, giving them their short stature. A high cephalic index is 

 indicated by the round head, which is proportionately rather large. 

 The zygomatic arches are prominent; the nose long and often aqui- 

 line; the hair is jet black and is worn cropped short while the men 

 sometimes have the whole mass bobbed at the neck. Girls wear their 

 hair long (pi. 17). 



The buccaneers were accepted by the natives on friendly terms, 

 partly due to their desire to make common cause against their 

 mutual enemy, the Spanish. The Cuna-Cuna, whom history and 

 tradition assign an area much more extensive than that occupied 

 by them to-day, also received favorably the settlement in 1698 of 

 the Scotch under Patterson at Caledonia. Americans are classed 

 by them with the Spanish conquerors of old as unsympathetic. At 

 present no foreigner is permitted to pass the night on the land in 

 their territory. 



Property rights are vested among the Tule partly in the com- 

 munity or village, in which case any individual in the village has a 

 right to use the wood, fruit, or hunting rights, as the case may be. 

 A second class of property, such as the more tangible or movable 

 objects, is the hereditary property of women. At marriage the 

 couple goes to the home of the bride to live. Ownership of money 

 and crops, such as coconuts and bananas, which find a ready sale 

 in Colon and other towns, is vested in the enterprising males that 

 have the will and energy to plant and care for the plantations. Such 

 young men are urged upon the } 7 oung girls as desirable for prospec- 

 tive bridegrooms. 



Location of settlements and "population, — The Tule live in villages 

 on the small islands along the coast; the plantations are on the 

 mainland where men also go to hunt game. The San Bias coast 

 approximately is 100 miles in length, while the mainland up to the 

 continental divide is only 10 to 15 miles in width. 



The following statistics regarding the Tule population were com- 

 piled by R. O. Marsh. The villages cited are listed in the order ol 

 their position on the San Bias coast beginning at the Gulf of San 



