NARRATIVE OF A VISIT TO INDIAN TRIBES OF THE PURUS 



RIVER, BRAZIL. 



By Joseph Beai Si eere, 

 Ann Arbor, Michigan. 



ITINERARY. 



During- a recent trip to Brazil I was commissioned by the United 

 States National Museum to make collections in natural history and 

 anthropology, with a view to completing certain scries of exhibits for 

 the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo. The present paper relates 

 to brief visits made to certain native tribes of the river Purus, western 

 Brazil, and the collections and data obtained. 



The Mundurucus (Tupian family) of the river Tapajos had seemed the 

 most interesting tribe within reach, but a conference' with Dr. < roeldi, 

 the director of the Para Museum, led to a change of plans. He had 

 made an extended study of the native tribes still existing in the Lower 

 Amazon region, and informed me that the Mundurucus were spoiled 

 for ethnological study by contact with the missionaries and civilization, 

 having lost to a great extent their ancient arts, customs, and language. 



It seems probable that no wild tribe now lives on the Lower Amazon 

 or its navigable branches. The ancient inhabitants have in most cases 

 entirely disappeared, leaving nothing but their graves, kitchen mid- 

 dens, and old village sites buried in the forest, and the names of their 

 tribes and ancient territories preserved in tin' histories of the country 

 and in local names. Most of these tribes have without doubt become 

 extinct, though a few individuals may have merged with the hardier 

 Tapuios (Tapuyan family), the civilized and Christian Indians of the 

 Amazon. Great tracts of the country are entirely without human 

 inhabitants, as the latter generally live in small villages and scattered 

 cabins along the navigable streams only. 



Wild tribes still exist on the headwaters of the rivers, where impass- 

 able forests and dangerous rapids separate them from the traders and 

 rubber gatherers below. A great war canoe in the museum grounds 

 at Para and arms, clothing, and ornaments in the museum cases had 

 been recently procured from the Timbyras, a tribe living on the upper 



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