CHAPTEE IV 

 THE FOREST INDIANS 



The people of a tropical forest live under conditions not unlike 

 those of the desert. The Sahara contains 2,000,000 persons within 

 its borders, a density of one-half to the square mile. This is al- 

 most precisely the density of population of a tract of equivalent 

 size in. the lowland forests of South America. Like the oases 

 groups in the desert of aridity are the scattered groups along the 

 river margins of the forest. The desert trails run from spring to 

 spring or along a valley floor where there is seepage or an inter- 

 mittent stream; the rivers are the highways of the forest, the 

 flowing roads, and away from them one is lost in as true a sense 

 as one may be lost in the desert. 



A man may easily starve in the tropical forest. Before start- 

 ing on even a short journey of two or three days a forest Indian 

 stocks his canoe with sugar cane and yuca and a little parched 

 corn. He knows the settlements as well as his desert brother 

 knows the springs. The Pahute Indian of Utah lives in the irri- 

 gated valleys and makes annual excursions across the desert to 

 the distant mountains to gather the seeds of the nut pine. The 

 Machiganga lives in the hills above the Urubamba and annually 

 comes down through the forest to the river to fish during the dry 

 season. 



The Machigangas are one of the important tribes of the Ama- 

 zon basin. Though they are dispersed to some extent upon the 

 plains their chief groups are scattered through the heads of a 

 large number of valleys near the eastern border of the Andes. 

 Chief among the valleys they occupy are the Pilcopata, Tono, 

 Pini-pini, Yavero, Yuyato, Shirineiri, Ticumpinea, Timpia, and 

 Camisea (Fig. 203). In their distribution, in their relations with 

 each other, in their manner of life, and to some extent in their 

 personal traits, they display characteristics strikingly like those 



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