44 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



it still exists side by side with Spanish as the common 

 language of the lower people and as a familiar tongue 

 among the upper classes. The blood of the people is mixed, 

 their language dual; the lower classes are chiefly of In- 

 dian blood but with a white admixture; while the upper 

 classes are predominantly white, with a strong infusion of 

 Indian. There is no other case quite parallel to this in 

 the annals of European colonization, although the Goa- 

 nese in India have a native tongue and a Portuguese creed, 

 while in several of the Spanish-American states the In- 

 dian blood is dominant and the majority of the population 

 speak an Indian tongue, perhaps itself, as with the Qui- 

 chuas, once a culture-tongue of the archaic type. Whether 

 in Paraguay one tongue will ultimately drive out the other, 

 and, if so, which will be the victor, it is yet too early to 

 prophesy. The English missionaries and the Bible Society 

 have recently published parts of the Scriptures in Guarany; 

 and in Asuncion a daily paper is published with the text 

 in parallel columns, Spanish and Guarany — ^just as in 

 Oklahoma there is a similar paper published in English 

 and in the tongue which the extraordinary Cherokee 

 chief Sequoia, a veritable Cadmus, made a literary lan- 

 guage. 



The Guarany-speaking Paraguayan is a Christian, and 

 as much an inheritor of our common culture as most of the 

 peasant populations of Europe. He has no kinship with 

 the wild Indian, who hates and fears him. The Indian 

 of the Chaco, a pure savage, a bow-bearing savage, will 

 never come east of the Paraguay, and the Paraguayan is 

 only beginning to venture into the western interior, away 

 from the banks of the river — under the lead of pioneer set- 



