ABOEIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA. 39 



visited the New World, but who had in view chiefly the morose and gloomy 

 Quichuas of Ecuador, denied all intelligence to the South American aborigines, 

 " They have neither discretion nor understanding " ; they are " animals," 

 " brutes," and so on. So also many settlers in Brazil called them hichos do 

 ni(do, " beasts of the forest." But such expressions reflect chiefly on those 

 who utter them. The fact is, these natives, like all other human races, share in 

 our strength and our weakness, possess in various degrees our intellectual and 

 moral faculties, rise to the performance of great deeds, and relapse iuto degrading 

 practices, advance or recede according to the struggles in which they are 

 engaged, the environment in which they dwell, the degree of liberty which 

 they enjoy. 



Several South American nations, such as the Muyscas, Quichuas, Aymaras, 

 and other Andean races, made sufficient progress to entitle their social system 

 to be called " civilised." They had acquired the arts of husbandry ; they were 

 able to make earthenware, to weave textiles, to work in copper, gold, and silver, 

 to build edifices lasting for centuries, to carve statues, to embellish their vases 

 and garments with artistic designs, to construct highways and bridges, and if not 

 to write, at least to keep regular records by means of knotted strings. 



Yet they lay under a heavy disadvantage compared with the peoples of the 

 Old World. They jjossessed no domestic animals strong enough to supplement 

 their own physical efforts. The extraordinary skill displayed by them in taming 

 the beasts of the field gave them pets, but no fellow-workers. In this respect, 

 they bad nothing but the feeble llama and the dog to compare with the camel, 

 the horse, the ass, ox, goat, and sheej) possessed by the inhabitants of other 

 continents. 



The so-called wild tribes occupying the central and eastern forests have 

 also their place in the history of human progress, and several of them have 

 already begun to co-operate with the whites on a footing of equality. But the 

 transition from one social state to another cannot be effected without profound 

 disturbances. The hunting populations, who have succeeded in keeping aloof 

 from the whites and mestizoes in the forests remote from the fluvial highways, 

 or in their secluded upland valleys, have preserved their graceful carriage, iheir 

 proud glance, and straightforward speech, whereas the enslaved peasantry 

 tremble before their masters, bow their necks to the yoke, and carefully measure 

 the words addressed with downcast eyes to their employers. 



Chief Divisions of the South American Aborigines. 



Thanks to the researches and linguistic studies of numerous intellio-ent 

 observers, it has become possible to classify most of tlie aborigines according 

 to their probable genetic descent, although difficulties are still presented by 

 certain tribes remote from the bulk of their ethnical family. One of the best- 

 defined groups is that of the Muyscas, or Chibchas, as they called themselves, 

 who had formerly established their dominion on the Cundinamarca plateau, in the 

 midst of numerous kindred tribes. 



