At long last this little series of two articles on the Bearded Indians is complete with the images thanks to Alan. Part 1 has been updated and is here.
Who Are the Mysterious Bearded Indians?— Part 2
Many Scientists Believe
that the Cultures of Central and
South America Were Brought from the Old World by Oceanic Invaders Who Crossed the South Pacific in Canoes— The "Diffusionist" Theory
By A. Hyatt Verrill
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation
From
Scientific American, July 1928.
Researched by Alan Schenker; digitized by Doug Frizzle, March 2012.
IN our last issue, Mr.
Verrill told something of his explorations in South
America, and of the
tribe of bearded Indians found there.
He also described the perils of
travel in the jungles, and presented
a thrilling word-picture of the
dangers of water travel through the
wilderness. In the following article
he continues his discourse, giving his reasons for adhering to the diffusionist theory
to account for the presence of the bearded Indians of South
America.—The Editor.
PRACTICALLY everything that
lives is food to the bearded
Indians. Their menu is most varied and includes worms, grubs, insects, lizards,
et cetera. Fire is made by rubbing two sticks together
and is kept burning perpetually. Cooking is more of a name than a reality, and
food is usually eaten half raw, in fact the
rawer the better as long as the meat is dead.
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the tribe is the
fact that they have remained so
totally distinct from all other
tribes and have not apparently mixed with any other
race. They appear to be completely isolated in customs, dialect and physical
characters, the remnant of some
primitive ancient race which has remained unchanged and at a complete
standstill for countless thousands of years. In this respect they are much like the
Bogenahs of northern Panama and the
Bogsas of the interior of Brazil, both of
whom are possibly common offshoots of the
same race as that from which the
bearded-Indian stock sprang.
Both the
Bogenahs and Bogsas are small, almost pygmies in fact; both are exceedingly
primitive, both live like beasts,
subsisting upon anything that by the
wildest stretch of imagination can be classed as food; both lack fixed homes or
villages, and both are renowned for their
ability to track game and to follow a trail by scent. Both of these tribes possess beards which are heavier than
is usual among Indians, and the
physical appearances of both are totally unlike other
Indians.
IN both cases, also, they are surrounded by superior tribes who dominate them, and yet they
have retained their peculiar
characters so steadfastly and completely that instead of learning the dialects of their
neighbors they have forced the latter to learn their
own tongues in order to communicate with them.
Moreover, the two are so similar in
many ways that one cannot help feeling that they
are closely related, although separated by thousands of miles, while the names Bogenah and Bogsa are phonetically so
similar that they might well be
local variations of the same word.
At all events they are quite
distinct from all other known races
of Central and South America
and in some respects seem to bear such a resemblance to the
bearded Sirionos that they might
well be offshoots of the same
original stock.
All through the interior of Peru and Bolivia
are many little known and interesting tribes who do not appear to be related to
the better known Quichuas and
Aimaras whose ancestors reached high stages of culture and civilization,
culminating in the Incan Empire.
Some of these possess the typical Indian characteristics facially and otherwise, while far more might well be natives of the South
Seas.
The same holds true of the better-known Andean and desert tribes. Among the Aimaras and Quichuas individuals of the so-called Mongolian type are common, but by far the greater number are of the
Oceanian type which would be exactly what we might expect if the original stock had migrated from some Pacific
archipelago and later mixed with the
more northerly tribes who may have
come originally from central or southern
Asia or might have wandered southward from the
northwest where Mongol migrations are known to have taken place.
Even today it would be an
easy matter for any large South
Sea
Island
canoe or catamaran to cross the
Pacific to South America.
And we have no reason to think that at some time in the
past there were not large
archipelagoes in the Pacific which
formed a series of oceanic stepping-stones from west to east. In fact,
according to Dr. Thompson who made an exhaustive study of Easter Island, such an archipelago
existed in comparatively modem times. It is not unreasonable to assume that the supposed subsidence of these
long-lost islands forced the
inhabitants to seek new homes in America.
THAT there
was communication between the west
coast of America and the Pacific islands has been indisputably
established. In excavating prehistoric graves on the
coast of California,
expeditions from the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, found
specimens of axe and adze heads from Hawaii and other mid-Pacific islands.
It was largely to search for
traces of prehistoric cultures which might bear out this theory
of an Oceanian origin of the South
American races that I made my most recent expedition into the interior of Peru and Bolivia, for there, if anywhere, where ruins, graves and mummies
of prehistoric peoples are so numerous and so perfectly preserved, one might
expect to find such indications.
Although countless scientists
and others have dug and delved among
the ancient remains, and although
innumerable works have been published in regard to them,
yet the surface has not been
scratched, and hundreds, even thousands, of ruined temples, forts, cities,
buildings and cemeteries have never been studied nor have they even been seen by white men or, for that
matter, by other natives. Here,
hidden under the debris of ruined
temples or palaces, or buried in the
graves with the mummified dead, may
lie the material which will set at
rest all questions as to the origin,
the identity and the history of the
long-dead races who reached astounding heights of culture and civilization and
vanished and were forgotten centuries before the
coming of the Spaniards.
AT any moment most astonishing
discoveries may be made which may completely upset our ideas of prehistoric man
in America.
Within the past three years two
immense prehistoric cities have been discovered in Peru, close to the thriving port of Pisco and the
sea, and my own discovery of an undreamed-of civilization of extreme antiquity
in Panama
was another proof of how little we
really know of these early American
races.
One of the
main objects of my recent expedition was to compare certain remains of Peru and Bolivia
with those of the Coclé culture of Panama. Much
time was spent at Ollantaytambo, Machu-Picchu, Pisac, Viracocha, Rumiccola,
Marcapata and Tiahuánaco.
The latter ruins, which are
probably the oldest known in South
America, are so strikingly like the Panama
remains in many features that I feel convinced that they
were the work of the same race or of races very closely related. The
rows of huge, roughly-hewn stone columns are identical in arrangement and form.
SO too, are the alternate rows of stone images or idols, as well
as the monolithic corner stones of the immense rectangular areas apparently used as
temples. Certain figures and forms on ceramics and sculptures from the two localities are identical, and it seems
scarcely reasonable to assume that two distinct races thousands of miles apart
should have by chance developed so many features so amazingly similar. In many
respects, however, Tiahuanaco is totally different from anything yet found in Panama.
In the latter country, as far as is
known, there are none of the massive buildings composed of stupendous blocks
of stone, some weighing over 100 tons, which are such a prominent feature of
Tiahuanaco. Neither are there any of the
monolithic square gateways or portals, nor the
mathematically cut geometrical
sculptures. But all of these might
be due to environment or a higher development of the
same culture.
Perhaps my most interesting
find at Tiahuanaco
was the discovery of two huge stone
wheels, each over six feet in diameter and about 18 inches in thickness, and
with centers pierced for axles. Hitherto
it has always been thought that the
wheel was unknown to American aborigines, and its absence has often been used
as an argument in favor of the
extreme antiquity of the races and
as against their Asiatic origin. But
if the stone wheels of Tiahuanaco
were actually used as such, it disproves this assumption and also solves the mystery as to how these
prehistoric people transported immense masses of stone for such long distances.
Slung to axles between these huge
wheels, whose thickness would prevent them
from sinking into sand or earth, enormous blocks of stone could be transported
for miles with little difficulty. It may be argued that these
wheels are not of prehistoric workmanship but are of Spanish origin and were
used as mill wheels or arastras, but the
evidence against this is very strong. I could find no records or traditions of
Spanish mill-wheels used in the
vicinity and I can hardly see why there
should have been, as there is
nothing, and as far as is known there
never was anything, to be ground in the
district about Tiahuanaco.
MOREOVER, it would have
required a vast amount of labor for no reason whatever to have carried these huge stone disks up the
hill to the ruins where they lie, one of them
buried under the gigantic masses of
fallen masonry.
Finally, they appear to be of the
same type of workmanship as the other cut stone work. Strangely enough, two similar
stone wheels were found buried in the
earth while excavating the Coclé
ruins in Panama.
At the time I dismissed these as being Spanish arastras, although there seemed no reason for a mill ever having been
used in the arid non-mineralized
district. But in view of those at Tiahuanaco I
feel convinced that the stone disks
at Coclé were also used as wheels for transporting the
stone monoliths of the prehistoric
race.
Unfortunately Tiahuanaco,
which is one of the most interesting
and scientifically valuable ruins in South America, has been woefully and
inexcusably destroyed by vandals, natives and government contractors. Tons of
carved sculptures, images, columns and stonework were broken up to be used as
filling for the railway bed.
Innumerable portions of the finest
worked and carved stone have been used by the
natives for building their own
miserable houses, and some of the
most valuable portions and finest statues have been used as building material
for the ugly Spanish church in the village. In addition, treasure seekers, souvenir
hunters and vandals have dug, broken and destroyed on every side.
Still a vast amount of
material remains intact and the
largest ruins have never been thoroughly examined nor excavated. When the buildings were built the
massive blocks of stone were all locked together
by means of huge metal staples and bolts let into the
stones. The beautifully cut grooves and holes which held these
staples are still everywhere visible, but not a staple can be found in any of the blocks above the
surface of the earth.
AN interesting discovery was
that some if not all of these metal
fastenings were of silver, for a native I met had one in his possession. No
doubt the first Spaniards to find the ruins looted them
of all the precious metal but the chances are that many of the
blocks hidden beneath the
accumulated debris of thousands of years still bear the
massive silver staples that served to bind the
stones together in the past.
In the
district about Tiahuanaco, as in most of the
trans-Andean and Andean regions of Bolivia, the Indians of the
present day are Aimaras, whereas in Peru
they are Quichuas. In both cases the races are divided into many subtribes with quite
distinctive habits, cultures, arts and physical characters. Such are the Collas of the
Aimararace who inhabit the bleak
mountain area on the eastern side of
Lake Titicaca.
Of all the Aimara tribes the Collas have been the
least influenced by the white man's
civilization and they still retain
many of their own customs and arts.
A very large collection was obtained from the
Collas as well as from the Yungas, a
tribe of totally distinct stock inhabiting the
mild, fertile trans-Andean valleys between the
mountains and the tropical forested
area.
IN the
Yungas district, even when beyond the
outlying settlements and roads, traveling is by no means difficult, dangerous
nor unpleasant. The country is delightful, the
climate that of perpetual spring, and the
Indians are clean, friendly and hospitable, with an abundance of cattle, sheep,
poultry and vegetables.
But I have never experienced
greater discomforts, nor have I suffered more from cold, than when in the district of the
Collas. Here, at an altitude of from fourteen to fifteen thousand feet, one is
constantly exposed to chill, biting winds blowing across more than 100 miles of
perpetually ice-clad mountain peaks averaging over 20,000 feet in height.
Blizzards are frequent, freezing rain falls without warning, sleet and hail
come in blinding squalls, and even when the
sun shines the temperature is
scarcely above the freezing point.
The only accommodations are the miserable, filthy, vermin-infested hovels of the Indians—tiny, window-less huts of piled-up
stones thatched with grass and inhabited by anywhere from three to six Indians
and as many burros, pigs, fowls and flea-ridden curs. The only food obtainable
from these Indians is crushed maize,
a little hard wheat, frozen potatoes and occasional eggs or fowls. Sometimes
one may secure air-dried strips of llama or bull meat which is as hard, rancid
and tough as rawhide. Or if one happens to be near a lake or stream, wild ducks
and snipe sometimes may be secured.
The only fuel is llama dung,
and as water boils at a low temperature it is next to impossible to cook
anything by boiling. To boil or roast food over a llama dung fire renders it
inedible even to the Indians.
One cannot enquire too closely
as to the ingredients of some of the weird dishes offered by the
well-meaning Collas. On one occasion, after dining on a sort of stew which
tasted unusually good, I learned that it was made of unborn llamas, while another time I made a good meal on cows' udders.
BUT despite all this, despite
the bitter cold, the hardships, the
lack of all comforts in this bleak land, it possesses its good points. The
scenery is inexpressibly grand and magnificent, especially at sunset when the endless ranges of the
highest Andes
gleam in scarlet and purple and the
vast glaciers are transformed to sheets of rose and gold. The Indians in their gaudy ponchos and bright colored mantas are
colorful and picturesque. A herd of wild vicunas, the
fleetest-footed, most graceful creatures on earth, is a sight worth going far
to see and there is much in the way of wild life to interest the naturalist at every turn. Majestic condors wheel
constantly above the snow-capped
peaks or perch on lofty pinnacles, viscachas gaze at the
traveler from the mounds above their burrows: finches, larks, pipits and scores of
other birds twitter and trill even
at the verges of the snow fields, and big partridge-like gallinaceous
birds whirr up from among the
lava-strewn slopes. Best of all perhaps, there
are no insect pests. Neither flies,
ticks, gnats nor mosquitoes exist in this cold, rarefied atmosphere, but
personally, were I compelled to choose, I would take the
steaming tropical jungles—rapids, ants, ticks and all, in preference to these bleak, wind-swept, frost-bitten heights.
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