INHABITANTS OF PERU. 311 



Amongst the tribes that have preserved some cannibal practices are the 

 Cauhibos, a term which, according to Calvo, has the meaning of " Vampire " in the 

 Pana language. In 1865 two Peruvian officers and their escort were eaten by 

 the Cachibos, who also eat their relatives, smoked or roasted. They do not 

 always wait the natural end of the aged, who at their own request are clubbed. 

 The same fate overtakes all adults unable to support themselves, as well as 

 childless women — though they are not eaten, the flesh of women being considered 

 poisonous. 



It is related of two sick neophytes that at the approach of death they wept 

 hot tears at the thought that they would not have the honour of serving as food 

 for their friends, but would be consumed by worms. At solemn feasts so 

 numerous were said to be the candidates for this honour that the young man 

 intended to supply the banquet had at times to be chosen by lot. It is also asserted 

 by the Peruvians that the Cachibos and other cannibals hunted man, regarded 

 purely as game. The white or half-caste settlers, on their part, feel themselves 

 justified on the strength of these more or less veracious reports to treat the 

 Cachibos as wild beasts, and missacre them without remorse. Nor are they 

 always very particular to distinguish between the Cachibos and others, but in 

 their hunting expeditions are apt to regard all Indians as cannibals. 



Altogether the traditions of murders and massacres perpetrated in these lands 

 are of a harrowing character. From time immemorial the polygamist tribes of the 

 Ucayali basin — Piros, Conibos, Sipibos and Setibos — have been accustomed to 

 ascend the lateral streams in search of women. But such correrins (roving 

 expeditions) are undertaken, not on their own account, but are organised by the 

 whites for the capture of women and children. For their purposes the adult males 

 would be useless, as they would prefer to die than to submit to a life of slavery ; 

 hence these are usually killed and their habitations fired. 



Nevertheless, some of the groups, such as the Piros (Chontaquiros), who occupy 

 a space of over 300 miles along the Urubamba and Ucayali rivers, have already 

 adopted civilised ways ; many speak Spanish, Quichua, and even Portuguese, 

 and show much skill as weavers, armourers and builders. Admirable boatmen, 

 they make long vo^Mges of hundreds of miles, often merely for pleasure. 



The Conibos and Sipibos, who adjoin the Piros on the banks of the Ucayali, 

 have even made still greater progress, wearing the dress of the Peruvian peasantry, 

 replacing their bows and arrows and stone hatchets with firearms, importing 

 English or American utensils, drinking foreign liquors, speaking Portuguese, and 

 travelling by the steamers plying on the Amazons and its affluents. Nevertheless, 

 in the recesses of the forests they still adhere to some of the old usages, such as 

 artificial deformation of the skull, and, it is siud, even occasionally bury alive 

 badly- shaped or troublesome new-born babes. They would also appear to recruit 

 their numbers, decimated by these barbarous practices, by kidnapping expeditions 

 amongst the Amahuacas (Ij)iteneres), who dwell in the branches of the trees and 

 whose only weapons are the blow-pipe and arrows. 



In the Huallaga and Ucayali valleys the natives, often named from symbolical 



