Who Are The Mysterious Bearded
Indians? Part 1.
A Strange Tribe, With
Strange Customs and Strange Physical Characteristics, Is Being Investigated in South America. Are They Truly Indians or Are They
Descendants of Some Other People?
By A. HYATT VERRILL
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN magazine, June 1928.
Researched by Alan Schenker; digitized by Doug Frizzle February 2012.
ELSEWHERE in this issue (page
503) the ethnographer, A. Hyatt
Verrill, has described a little-known but apparently anomalous tribe of savages
who inhabit an inaccessible area in Bolivia. According to his hypothesis these
people are not American Indians but some of the
island stocks from the distant
archipelagos of the Pacific,
transplanted to South America. Admittedly, a
close scrutiny of the photograph
reproduced above lends some support to this suspicion. How these or similar island peoples may have reached
South America from across the broad
Pacific has perhaps been best explained by the
anthropologist, Professor G. Elliot Smith, who believes they
came in large canoes. Although this "diffusionist" belief is opposed
by the majority of anthropologists,
it is nevertheless in good
scientific standing and may yet become the
accepted doctrine.
Concerning The Author
DURING the
past four years Mr. Verrill has made five expeditions to South and Central America and has visited 18 countries. On these trips he has traveled over 60,000 miles by sea
and more than 6000 miles by canoes, horseback, afoot, and other means.
He has visited during the same period 33 tribes of Indians and has made
ethnological and archeological collections totaling more than 15,000 specimens
for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, and the American Museum
of Natural History.
In addition, he has
discovered and excavated the remains
of an unknown prehistoric civilization in Panama, has written seven books, has
made over 100 oil portraits of Indians from life, as well as an equal number of
paintings of South American views and street scenes. And still he has found
time to contribute more than 150 stories and articles to magazines and
periodicals in England
and the United States.—The Editor.
MY most recent expedition to Peru and Bolivia was not, as has been stated
in the daily press, in search of the bearded Indians, but was primarily
archeological, although large ethnological collections and valuable
ethnological data were secured among the
living Indians of the interior.
The bearded Indians were
merely a side issue. Moreover, I lay no claim to having "discovered" them, and neither
are they a "new" race. In
fact they have been known, or rather rumored, to exist for fully 200 years; but I
believe I am the first to secure
ethnological specimens and notes of the
tribe and to bring them to the attention of science.
SCIENTIFICALLY, the bearded Indians are of the
greatest interest, being in many ways unique, and may prove to be the key that will unlock the
mystery of the origin of man in South America. Even to the
casual observer they are strikingly
un-Indian in appearance and have a far greater resemblance to inhabitants of the South Sea Islands than to any aborigines of America.
I have long held to the opinion that the
Indians of western South America were of
Oceanian and not Asiatic origin, and I am convinced that a further study of the
bearded Indians will go far towards proving this opinion. The mere fact that the men are bearded is by no means the most important peculiarity of the tribe, although to the
public it might seem so. Many, in fact nearly all, Indians possess beards, but
as a rule these are shaved off or
plucked out; and when allowed to grow, the
beard is thin, scant, stiff and wiry.
The beards of the bearded Indians, however, are heavy, luxuriant,
bushy, fine, soft, and slightly wavy; as is the
hair on the heads. Neither are their
features, their bodies nor the shapes of the
heads Indian, although a comparison of their
cranial measurements with those of Oceanian tribes will be necessary before
direct relationships can be established or disproved.
In height they are well above the
average forest Indians of South America, and in color they
are darker and more of a brown than an ochre or red.
They are an exceedingly primitive
race, wearing no garments whatever, having no knowledge of weaving or spinning,
and not even using the bark-cloth which
is almost universally used among other
tribes. Their huts are scarcely more than rude shelters of brush and thatch; they have no regular villages and no chief, each collection
of huts housing the members of one
family or of relatives, with the
head of the family acting as a local
chief.
As far as I could ascertain they have no marriage ceremonies and no true
religion. They believe that practically every object, animate or inanimate, is
inhabited by a spirit; certain objects and creatures possessing evil spirits
and others good spirits. If a tree
is cut or a bird or animal killed which is supposed to harbor an evil spirit, there is rejoicing, for the
act robs the evil spirit of its home
and prevents it from doing harm.
BUT if any object supposed to
contain a good spirit is injured or destroyed, or a creature with a good spirit
killed, offerings must be made and profuse apologies and sorrow expressed.
Moreover, a new home for the spirit
must be provided. This may consist of a bit of hair from the
Indian's head or beard; a rudely formed, unrecognizable image; a crudely drawn
mark in the earth or sand; or even a
bit of the hide or feathers of the
slain animal or bird.
Their burial customs are very
peculiar and interesting. The body is placed in a roughly woven container or
net of bark and vines and is buried in the
earth. After a sufficient time has elapsed for the
body to decompose thoroughly the
bones are disinterred and cleaned and the
skeleton is suspended from a tree in a rude basket-work receptacle.
The dialect of these bearded Indians is wholly unlike any of those
of the neighboring tribes. It is low
and guttural but not inharmonious, and is spoken in a sing-song monotone.
The vocabulary obtained shows
many striking resemblances to dialects of the
Pacific archipelagos, some of the
words being almost identical and having precisely the
same meanings. This is not, however, confined to this tribe, for words in many
of the Indian languages of western
South America, even the Quichua and
Aimara, in fact, show similar resemblances; all of which tends to sustain the theory
that these people are all
descendants of migrants from Oceania, although doubtless more or less mixed
with the races of Asiatic origin farther north.
For weapons the bearded Indians use rude wooden clubs and bows
and arrows. The latter are most remarkable, the
bows being often eight feet in length and the
arrows seven to eight feet long, over an inch in diameter and with feathers 18 inches or more in length and from two to
three inches wide. (See page 488.) In using these
gigantic bows and arrows, the string
and arrow are grasped in the right
hand which is braced, against the
right hip. The lower end of the bow
is rested upon the ground against the great toe of the
left foot and the bow is pushed
forward to the full extent of the left arm, instead of being drawn by the string in the
usual manner. Why these people
should prefer such immense unwieldy weapons, especially as the arrows are poisoned, is a mystery.
ALTHOUGH the existence of these people has been known, more or less
traditionally, for centuries, yet until recently no one had ever been able to
enter or pass through their
territory and live to tell of it. I was told by a Redemptorist priest that his
order had been trying for over 100 years to establish a mission in the bearded Indian country but without success,
although they had flourishing
missions among other tribes within a
few miles of the borders of the bearded Indians' district.
Not only were the bearded Indians reputed to be savage,
implacable, hostile cannibals but they
were well protected by nature. Their country was remote; it held little or
nothing to attract prospectors or other
adventurers, it was in the heart of
impenetrable jungle country and it could be reached only by traveling over
rapid-filled and dangerous streams.
FEW persons who have not had
experience in exploring the South
American jungles realize how completely isolated such a tribe may remain, or
how dangerous and difficult it is to reach it. The perils of the tropical jungles of South
America have been greatly exaggerated by many a traveler and even
more greatly exaggerated by romancers who have never entered the jungles. They have told hair-raising tales of
gigantic serpents attacking men, of poisonous snakes at every turn, of
multitudinous wild beasts and wilder men, of pestilential miasmas and noxious
insects.
Much of this is pure fiction.
Giant snakes are not common and are not particularly gigantic, and they never molest a man. During nearly 30 years of
exploration in South and Central America I have never seen or found a snake
over 24 feet long, despite large rewards offered for larger specimens, and a
20-foot anaconda or boa is about as dangerous to man as an ordinary black snake
here in the United States. They are
sluggish, timid, and will not attack any creature larger than a small deer, for
example.
Poisonous snakes are about the rarest denizens of the
tropical jungles of America
and are seldom seen unless one is clearing or burning land. Even when present they keep out of man's way if possible. The Indians
wander barefoot and nude everywhere, and in all my years of experience I have
known of only one Indian who was bitten.
Insects there are, it is true, sometimes in swarms,
sometimes not, and while jiggers or chigoes, ticks and ants are at times a
nuisance, mosquitoes are rarely seen except in low swamp areas. Nowhere in the tropics have I ever experienced as much trouble
with insects as in our northern
woods when the black fly season was
at its height.
LEAST of all dangers are wild
animals and Indians. There is not a wild animal in the
whole of South or Central America that will
attack a man unless wounded, and personally I do not believe that any Indian
ever molested a white man unless the
white man started trouble or unless the
Indians had suffered at the hands of
white men and did not discriminate. I have visited and lived among innumerable
tribes, many of whom had never met white men and still more of whom were
supposed to be savage and hostile, and never yet have I received anything save the most friendly and hospitable reception.
All these
dangers and hardships—and the latter
are enough without any exaggeration—are nothing when compared with the perils and hardships of river navigation which,
oddly enough, are seldom mentioned in tales of adventure in the vast stretches of any of the
American jungles. And yet, in order to penetrate any distance into the interior or to reach such a country as that of the bearded Indians, one must depend entirely upon
river travel. The craft used may be a frail canoe of bark or as it is called a
"woodskin"; it may be a cranky dugout; or it may be a strong, well
built craft with a dugout shell built up with planking. But in any case it must
be small and is in constant momentary danger of being capsized, smashed to
bits, sunk or hurled over a cataract. Manned by Indians or half-breeds, the craft is paddled through the
short stretches of smooth water, is dragged, hauled and lifted by main strength
upstream through foaming, churning, roaring rapids; is carried laboriously
through the jungle around falls and,
in many cases where falls are too high or too long to portage, it must be
abandoned and a new boat built in order to proceed.
PROGRESS is exceedingly slow.
Hauling up streams, the boat crew do
well if they cover 20 miles a day,
and very often only four or five miles are gained by a day's unceasing,
terrific toil.
Going down stream is in some
ways even worse. To be sure, progress is anything but slow. The boat sweeps
through rapids with the speed of an
express train, in a few hours covering the
distance which required weeks of labor to overcome on the
upstream journey. But the dangers
are a thousand times greater. One's life is in jeopardy every instant, and I
know of nothing so exciting and thrilling as to descend some unmapped tropical
jungle river in a native canoe manned by naked Indians and with one's life and
all one's possessions and food staked against the
chance of a broken paddle, an unseen rock or an error of judgment on the part of the
Indians. Tearing through the foaming
water and upflung spray, missing jagged rocks and certain disaster by a hair's
breadth; skirting the swirling
eddies of vast whirlpools, swinging about sharp bends at the
very brinks of cataracts for hour after hour, day after day, one gradually
becomes so accustomed to dangers and acquires such a confidence in the Indians that it all seems a matter-of-fact,
everyday affair.
AND yet, should an accident
occur, should the boat be capsized,
"washed out" or sunk and no lives lost—which would be a real miracle—
still the explorer and his men would
be face to face with death. Without outfit, arms or provisions there is not one chance in 10,000 of reaching
civilization or a distant Indian village. Despite all tales to the contrary it is practically impossible to live
off the tropical jungle even when
equipped with fire-arms and fishing tackle. Game is scarce and wary, and, as a
rule, it cannot be found when most needed, and even the
native forest Indians cannot sustain life on the
game and fish alone. Of nuts, fruits and roots there
are practically none. What there are
are usually devoured by birds and animals before they
are fairly ripe.
One's only hope if thus
stranded is to reach an Indian camp or village and, very often, in fact
usually, an Indian village is an unknown number of miles distant. These
tropical forests are very sparsely inhabited. Often, for hundreds, perhaps
thousands of miles, there will be no
Indians, and when they do exist their homes are usually carefully hidden near some small
stream deep in the jungle, and the stranger who hopes to find succor at one of these camps usually finds the
Indians short of supplies themselves.
Once we understand this and
realize the difficulties and
dangers, the innumerable hardships
and the heart-breaking dreary days
of toil, the incessant drenching
rains, the steaming heat of days and
the bone-chilling misty nights which
are all a part of penetrating these
districts, we can understand how and why such a tribe as the
Sirionos has remained isolated for so many years.
BUT, of recent years they have established a sort of armed truce with their neighbors and little by little have permitted
strangers to visit their outlying
homes and to trade with them,
Moreover, with the improvement of
transportation methods in the
settled portions of the country, and
with the pacification of tribesmen
occupying the districts between the settlements and the
Siriono country, the tribe has
become more easy of access.
I cannot state positively whether, or not these
Indians are cannibals. I have visited many reputedly cannibal tribes, but as
yet have never actually witnessed cannibalism nor found positive proofs of the custom: But there
is no reason to doubt that the
Sirionos are cannibals, as cannibalism is not uncommon among the tribes of the
interior of Peru, Brazil and Bolivia,
Next month the author will give his reasons for the
belief that the tribes he describes
are not actually Indians.
