PANAMA AND ITS PEOPLE—BELL. 625 
When the Guaymies believe that death is pursuing a sick person, they carry 
him to the woods and there abandon the dying man without leaving him any- 
thing but some plantains and a calabash of water. After death the body is 
straightened out and placed on a shed, and after one year the remains are 
gathered up, the bones cleaned, made into a bundle, and placed in the family 
burying place. 
We now come to the Indians in the eastern part of Panama, be- 
tween whom and those just described there is little in common, 
though they have lived for centuries within a few hundred miles of 
each other. Speaking generally, the Indians of the section inhabiting 
the coast and mountains of Darien belong to the great Cuna family, 
though there are evidences of a second nation to be discussed later. 
As early as 1519 Fernandez de Martin says that “all along the 
(Atlantic) coast a man was called ‘uma’ by the Indians and a 
woman ‘ira,’ which are words in the Cuna language.” Valdes holds 
that all the Darien Indians of the coast are Cunas, though he ob- 
serves that as no one to-day knows the Cuna dialect it is difficult to 
state it positively. The comparison of speech (presupposing a 
thorough knowledge of various dialects) is, of course, the only 
means by which proof can be established. It is a well known fact 
that the Cuna family is of Carib origin,* but the word “ Carib,” 
however, as used by the colonists in speaking of the aborigines that 
they encountered, was equivalent only to the word “ Indian ” itself 
and was applied to natives all along the entire coast of the Carib- 
bean. ‘The Caribs, in Chibchas mythology, were supposed to be 
descended from tigers, vet there can be no doubt that the natives 
of Darien were, as a rule, peaceable, kindly disposed, and rather 
indolent at the time of the conquest and until stirred by resentment 
of the unfair treatment they received at the hands of the Spaniards. 
Borland says, in his quaint fashion, concerning them: “ In general, 
they seem to be a pretty modest sort of people, considering them as 
wild pagans.” A great mark of distinction among the Cunas is 
their comparative lack of arts and industries, in contrast to their 
neighbors, and in their manner of disposing of their dead. Of the 
many tribes of the Darien Indians mentioned by writers since the 
discovery of the country, some must have been merely subtribes, 
taking their names from their particular localities; though it is true 
the confined area of the Isthmus is remarkable for its number of 
2QOjeda found Indians about the settlement of San Sebastian de Uraba who 
were the warlike, flesh-eating Caribs (1). 
Bancroft (24) observed “it is said that the Caribs ate human flesh when- 
ever they had an opportunity. * Herera says that some of the Isthmians pur- 
chased slaves whom they sold to the Caribs for food.’ ” 
Restrepo (2) says that Dr. Aristides Rojos defends the Caribs and affirms 
that they did not eat human flesh, though Columbus, Ovieda, Herara thought 
the contrary. 
