174 SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES REGIONS. 



ceased to be spoken, although to a great extent rescued from oblivion by the 

 grammarians.* The uncivilised branches of the Muysca family — Tocaima, 

 Analoima, Anapoima, Coj^aima, Natagaima, and others, who were collectively 

 known as Panches, and who dwelt chiefly in the valleys south of Bogota — have 

 also long ceased to be mentioned. All these natives went naked, and, according 

 to the statements of the first conquerors, were still addicted to cannibdlism. 



The Colimas, that is " Cruel," who occupied the Rio Negro valley north-west 

 of Bogota, and the Musos, other neighbours of the Muyscas in the upper Minero 

 valley, recognised neither chiefs nor judges, and settled all wrongs by the lex 

 taliords. They were said to commit suicide on the slightest mishap, and in any 

 case most of them preferred death by rushing over rocky precipices rather than 

 submit to the Spanish yoke. 



The Coconucos, Chocos, Goajiros, and other Aborigines. 



Besides the independently developed Muyscan culture, a second centre of civi- 

 lisation had been created by the inhabitants of the Pasto and Tuquerres plateaux, 

 and of the upper Cauca valley round about Popayan, under Peruvian influences. 

 These peaceful and gentle populations dwelt in large and beautiful villages, some 

 of which were built of houses over a hundred yards long, spacious enough to 

 accommodate as many as a hundred families under one roof. But these Indians, 

 the most timid of all the Colombian races, offered far less energetic resistance to 

 the Spaniards than the more warlike Muyscas. They are even said to have hanged 

 or starved themselves to death on hearing of the near approach of the whites, so 

 that the route to Popayan was indicated by the multitudes of dead bodies strewn 

 along the track. 



In the dialects of the tribes that have reverted to the savage state in the Cauca 

 valley, and especially in that of the Coconucos of the Popayan district, there occur 

 numerous Quichua terras, plainly showing that Peruvian influences had extended, 

 through trade and the industries, hundreds of miles to the north of the political 

 frontiers of the Inca's empire. But farther on, in the direction of the Atrato and 

 of the Panama Isthmus, the scattered tribes of diverse speech had remained 

 unaffected by the civilising action of the Quichuas. They were, at the same 

 time, too far removed from the Aztec and Maya worlds to be influenced by those 

 cultures in their intellectual and moral development. Thus both from the ethnical 

 and geographical standpoints the northern and southern continents were com- 

 pletely separated by the Atrato valley. The territorj' of the Cuna savages inter- 

 vened between the Guaymi and Choco peoples, the former representing the 

 southernmost limits of Aztec culture on Chiriqui Bay, the latter the northernmost 

 extension of Inca influences in Colombia. 



The Choco nation, comprising the Baudo, Citarae, Noanama, Tado, and many 

 other tribes, occupies all the western parts of Colombia in the Atrato and San 

 Jucin valleys, and thence southwards to Ecuador. They also hold the northern 



* E. Uricoccliea, Gtamatica i vocabulario de la lengua chibcha 



