NO. 1817 INDIANS OF PERU — EBERHARDT 187 



as is the case with all the wild tribes, through fevers, smallpox and 

 attacks by neighboring tribes. From their language and customs 

 they show that they must have been in contact with the ancient 

 Incas, though not entirely assimilated. They worship in their man- 

 ner the sun and moon, believe in witchcraft, and besides their own 

 language speak the Campa dialect. 



The Chonta-Campas are distinguished from others of the Campa 

 subtribes by a small piece of wood about an inch long which they 

 wear pierced through the upper lip. Some also wear such a decora- 

 tion from the lower lip and a metal pendant from the nose and tattoo 

 their faces with blue penciling. 



The Aguarunas 



The Aguarunas number approximately 2.000, inhabit the Maranon 

 River district below the Cahuapanas River, have their own language 

 and laws, believe in a good and a bad god as well as in witchcraft, 

 and are polygamists. They use the lance and blow-gun with poi- 

 soned arrows. They are of medium stature, very muscular, with 

 regular features, and some of the women are quite beautiful. They 

 engage extensively in cultivating the natural products of the coun- 

 try. This tribe, in civilization sometimes designated "Head-hunters," 

 has the gruesome custom of preparing human heads in a manner by 

 which, though reduced to about one-fifth their natural size, they 

 retain the same shape throughout that they possessed during life, 

 and in a seemingly mummified, diminutive head thus prepared, 

 can easily be recognized the features of the individual when 

 alive. This custom originated in preparation of the heads of the 

 enemies of the tribe who fell victims to them during their wars and 

 which were kept as trophies. The head was cut from the body and 

 placed on a pole, where it was allowed to remain several days till 

 decomposition had fairly set in. A vertical cut was then made in 

 the cranium and the bones deftly removed in such a manner that 

 only the thick cuticle remained. The inside of the head was then 

 burned and seared with hot stones and afterwards allowed to smoke 

 in a flame from the burning roots of a certain species of palm. This 

 flame is said to act much the same as salt on the parts exposed, and 

 by the process described the head is made much smaller in size. 

 Specimens of these heads became so much in demand a few years 

 ago for museums, etc., that a premium seemed to be thus placed on 

 the heads of persons venturing in the vicinity of this tribe, and 

 many murders resulted. The Peruvian government has now for- 

 bidden the practice, and the specimens becoming more scarce are 



