88 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



roucou (rucu) with which they paint their bodies, but who call themselves Wayana, 

 perhaps another form of the word Guiana. 



The fine Akawoi (Waika or Kapohn) Indians of the mountainous districts of 

 British Guiana watered by the Mazaruni, the Partamonas of the Potaro river, the 

 formidable Arecuuas, who dwell in the upland valleys about Horaima, the Waye- 

 wés of the Upper Essequibo, the Tairas of French Guiuna, lastly the Macusi about 

 the headwaters of the Rio Branco, all belong to the widespread Carib family, and 

 speak closely related dialects of the same stock language. Like the Wapisiana in the 

 dividing range between the Essequibo and Pio Branco, the Galibi tongue has 

 become a sort of lingua franca for all these tribes. Several Carib words, such 

 as cayman, toucan, and hammock, have found currency in the European languages. 



In general, the Caribs of Guiana are inferior in physique to the Arawaks, 

 especially if the Atorais be taken as the type of this race. The Galibi have short, 

 slender figures, while their round, soft, and beardless face gives them a feminine 

 look. The Macusi, though more hirsute, have heavier frames and more massive 

 figures. 



Like most Indians, the Poucouyennes look taller than they are, which is due 

 to the length and fulness of the bust contrasting with the slight development of the 

 extremities. The long bandages in which they wrap themselves in accordance 

 with their hygienic ideas give them the appearance of great corpulence. Their 

 figures are very short, while the feet are broad and flat, and the eyelids slightly 

 oblique, as with the Chinese. They have the habit of plucking out the eyebrows 

 " the better to see," as they say, but more probably as an offering to the sun.* 

 Some of the Galibi tribes also follow the Wapisiana fashion of piercing the lower 

 lip with bits of bone or a peg, which they keep constantly moving with the tongue, 

 and of causing the calves to swell by means of wide gai'ters tightly clasped below 

 the knee. 



The Tupi and other Aborigines. 



The Tupi, who form the third ethnical division of the Guianas, are a branch 

 of the great Brazilian race represented by hundreds of tribal groups between the 

 Maroni and Plate rivers. In Guiana territory the two chief Tupi tribçs are the 

 Oyampi of the Tumuc-IIumac range about the Upper Oyapok, and the Emerillons, 

 who dwell farther west between the Approuague and the Maroni affluents. Both 

 are skilled agriculturists, raising quantities of manioc for the gold hunters, with 

 whom they are becoming assimilated in speech and costume. 



But amongst the tribes of these inland regions several still survive whose lan- 

 guage is unknown, and whom it is not yet possible to affiliate to any of the sur- 

 rounding ethnical stocks. Such are the Oyaricoulets, who are reported to occupy 

 the valley of the Itani, which flows through the Awa to the Maroni. According 

 to local report — for no traveller has yet described them from personal observation- — 

 they have a white complexion, with blue eyes and light beard ; hence some writers 

 have felt inclined to regard them as whites keeping aloof from their European 



* Élie Reclus, MS. Notes. 



