370 SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES EEGIOXS. 



native tongue fluently. It greatly resembles Quiuhua, both in structure and 

 vocabulary, and about twenty per cent, of the words of both languages, especially 

 such as have reference to religious ideas and worship, are either identical or 

 closely related. But of the two, Ayraara is the more difficult to pronounce, owing 

 to its guttural and palatal sounds. Hence very few o£ the recent European 

 settlers face the labour of acquiring it, all the less that they everywhere find 

 either full-blood or half-caste Aymaras acquainted with Spanish. 



As regards their moral qualities, the Bolivian Indians are even more sullen and 

 depressed than those of Peru ; their very features seem contracted by the lines 

 of " a vague but ever-present sense of suffering.'' Made shy and suspicious by 

 generations of ill-treatment, they observe and take note of everything without 



movinsr the head or a muscle of the countenance. 



o 



In their physical appearance the Aymaras also betray a marked affinity with 

 the Quichuas, although alliances between the two peoples are of rare occurrence. 

 Both are alike short and thickset, with the same reddish complexions, the same 

 broad face and black eyes, the same slightly rounded forehead and globular 

 cranium. The head is distinguished b}' the prominence of the parietal bosses, 

 giving it a somewhat pentagonal form ; hence no Aymara woman can ever be 

 called even comely, at least from the European point of view. The skulls 

 of men that have been found in the graves had nearly all been artificially 

 deformed, although the deformation of children's heads appears to be no longer 

 practised. 



Like their persons, the ordinary costume of the Aymaras is singularly 

 unbecoming. Wealth is measured by the enormous size of the monteras, or hats, 

 expanding in the form of a corolla with broad opening above, from which are 

 protruded bunches of flowers and feathers on gala-days. The women have their 

 hair nearly always plaited ; they bend under the burden of heaped-up skirts ; in 

 some districts it was formerly the fashion to add a petticoat every year, those of 

 previous years being retained till they fell to pieces. 



The Chiqiitos. 



The Bolivian Quichuas, who differ little from those of Peru, complement the 

 section of the nation which is gradually intermingling with the population of 

 Spanish origin. But the other Indians, dwelling to the north-east and east in the 

 valleys of the foothills and on the plains, show few traces of miscegenation, most 

 of them having hitherto kept aloof, while preserving their tribal independence. 

 The statement, however, does not apply either to the Chiquitos, who occupy the 

 crystalline heights on the water-parting between the Rios Mamoré and Paraguay, 

 or to the Mojos, living farther north in the low-lying and frequently inundated 

 spaces traversed by the Machupa, San Miguel, Ptio Blanco and Baures affluents 

 or sub-affluents of the Guaporé. These two groups of tribes bear Spanish or, at 

 least, Ilispanified names, which attest the friendly relations that have been main- 

 tained between them and the conquerors. 



