G-abb.] 488 [j^ug. 20, 



came among them, I could get no more satisfactory answer than that 

 they went to Cartago to buy them. I have been told a vague story, how- 

 ever, that long ago there were two bands living in the country now occu- 

 pied by the Bri-bris. Those living in the valley, around the junction of 

 the branches of the Tiliri were more powerful than the mountaineers, 

 and forced the latter to pay tribute when they descended to hunt, or cut 

 the material for their bark-cloth clothing. But gradually the lowlacders 

 died out ; the highlanders, becoming the more powerful, rebelled against 

 these impositions, and eventually emigrated in such numbers to the 

 country of the former, that the distinction became lost by an amalgama- 

 tion of the two parties. Even now the Bri-bris, who occupy the lowlands 

 and most of the hill regions of the Sicsola, look down on their neigh- 

 bors the Cabecars and treat them as inferiors. The Cabecars, on the other 

 hand,- tacitly acknowledge even a social supremacy, and in a mixed party 

 submit to assume the more menial occupations, like bringing water and 

 wood ; and are always obliged to wait until the last when food or drink 

 is being served. Few of the Bri-bris speak the Cabecar language, but 

 there are few of the Cabecars who do not speak Bri-bri, and they usually 

 use it in the presence of strangers. The Cabecars have no chief of their 

 own, but are entii'ely under the rule of the Bri-bri chief, and have been, 

 from time immemorial. Their subjugation is, in short, complete. At 

 the same time they have the honor of religious supremacy, ia so far as 

 that the high priest, the "C7seA;ar«," whose office will be explained fur- 

 ther on, belongs to their tribe. The ordinary priests, the " Tsicgurs,^' 

 who, like the " Usekara,'' are hereditary, come from a group of families 

 on the Coen River, but belong to the Bri-bri tribe. 



About the beginning of this centuiy there was a bitter war between the 

 Bri-bris and the Tiribis.' The youngest members of the war parties are 

 now mostly dead, and the few remaining survivors are very old men. 

 The last of the warriors proper, mature men at that time, died about 

 1860, at an extremely advanced age. I have heard the traditions from 

 both sides the question, and of course each party throws all the bla,me 

 on the other. The Bri-bri story is that some people, a whole family, 

 living on the 'extreme eastern portion of the Ui'en district, were found 

 murdered, and no clue discovered to the perpetrators of the act. Not 

 very long afterwards other murders occurred in an equally mysterious 

 manner, which threw the whole country into a state of excitement. 

 Afterwards a small party was attacked by some uuknown Indians, a 

 portion killed and some left to tell the tale. The tracks of the stran- 

 gers wex'e followed through the woods, always kiaeping to the east, 

 until they were lost. Following this clue, the chief of the Bri-bris sent 

 out a party of armed scouts, who climbed to the summit of the divi- 

 ding ridge, overlooking the Tilorio. From here they discovei-ed for 

 the first time that they had neighbors ; seeing their houses and corn- 

 fields in the distance. A large war party was fitted out ; they passed 

 the mountains, and -without warning descended on the unsuspecting 



