328 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



HE MAY HAVE PAID A HUMAN HEAD FOR HIS WEAPON 



(see page 331) 



A few of the Jivaros have been able to procure muskets from 

 traders. This burly Indian carried a muzzle-loading gun of 

 cheap origin, the discharge of which must have been almost as 

 much of a threat to the shooter as to the man at the muzzle end. 

 The Jivaros were never weary of handling and admiring the 

 author's guns, which represented to them the highest forms of 

 wealth. 



filled by men of this type. The great 

 bulk of the population, however, is In- 

 dian, the Quichuas, who are themselves 

 the descendants of the Incas. 



The third element of the Ecuadorean 

 population comprises the wild and sav- 

 age Indian tribes of the Oricntc, typified 

 by the Jivaros or head-hunters. These 

 latter Indians, while nominally under the 

 government of Quito, are so far removed 

 by the inaccessibility of their home terri- 

 tory that Ecuadorean laws rest lightly 

 upon them, and they are in many respects 

 as primitive today as when America was 

 discovered. 



It is to the purely American elements 

 of the population that one looks for 

 strange customs of interest to the north- 

 ern visitor, and the Indians do not prove 



disappointing in this re- 

 spect. 



The 1 ndians of 1 he 



Oriente arc much more 

 savage and uncivilized 

 than their brethren of the 

 western Andes, the Qui- 

 chuas. The Jivaroscome 

 into contact with the 

 whites only occasionally, 

 since the country they in- 

 habit is very inhospitable 

 in its climate, its dense, 

 trackless jungles and, to 

 a certain extent in its 

 human population as well. 

 They live in scattered 

 communities, along the 

 tributaries of the Rio 

 Napo and the Rio Paute, 

 seldom venturing very far 

 up on the slopes of the 

 eastern Andes, but re- 

 maining below an eleva- 

 tion of 3,500 feet. 



WARRIORS ACQUIRE THEIR 



WIVES AS SPOILS 



OE WAR 



The Jivaros wage a 

 constant warfare among 

 themselves, for which 

 polygamy is the direct 

 cause. We were told that 

 when a girl arrives at the 

 marriageable age, about 

 twelve to fourteen years, 

 she is given in marriage 

 by her father to some friend, but most of 

 the wives are gained by the killing of an 

 enemy and the confiscation of the women 

 as the spoils of war. A man may have 

 from five to eight wives. 



The warfare may be against a mem- 

 ber of a neighboring tribe or against a 

 fellow-Jivaro living at some distance. 

 The women and children of the slain man 

 are adopted into the household of the 

 victor, where they become members of 

 the family and are treated in the same 

 manner as the immediate family, not as 

 slaves. 



These Indians have a pseudo-religion 

 which is based on a belief in a being called 

 by the Spaniards cl diablo, the devil. 

 He has the attributes of a super-Jivaro, 

 is all powerful in everything he under- 



