Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1869-09-02

northvard into Bolivia snd Pesu. ~ Tson
|vsry sxtsnsivs rsssarchss AcoueAoat thu
entire region anA N aoquaintanee with
all tho different families, Mr.. Bliss has -
come satis6sd that this elasaiAoatioa Il
wroog. He IL also certain that the aum-
ber d spoken in Soath Amstica
has ben exaggerated tsn-fold. Writers,
ancisat and. modern, have given the
names Of one hundred and fifty tribes OF
Indians there. Il IL common TO read in
statlstical works that there are in the
world two thousand or three thousand
languages, and that there are twelve hum
dred in America, and Of course the great
or number In South Aneeioa, because the
least was known about that portion Of the
world. According to his observation, in
stead Of there bsing one hundred and fifty
languages spoken there, there were at the
most but twelve or fifteen. In sranmati-
cal structure they are all somewhst alike,
and they have the same general resen-
blanoe to the languages Of North America
that they have to each other. The geo
graphical classification of the brave In
dians of Chilli along with the dwarfed
inhabitants Of Guiana. and the degraded
Indians Of Terra Del Fuego with the
highly civilized indians Of Peru, is mani
festly absurd. Mr.. Bliss classified all the
tribes into twelve sections By their spoken
languages ~ follows; !, Aroncanians; !;
I2 and 8, Patagonians-two tribes; 4,
Fuegians or l'scherois; s, Abifones; 6,
Toba; Z, Ocole 8, Mataeuyos; 0, Chiqui-
,ian; 10. Guarrnni-PAragusy; II, Ma
chicuy; IL, Psyaguci.
Mr.. Bliss denoted ON the map the loca-
tions of these several tribes, and proceeded
to give great deal of interesting infor-
nation concerning them and the fallacies
which are stated in regard to them.
THE PATAGoNIANs AND THE FUEGIANs
The Indians Of Terra Del Fuego have
been supposed to be dwarfed in stature,
and the Patagonians to be giants This il
q mistake. The Indians Of Terra Del
Fuego (which has been regarded as an in
hospitable country, but is not.) are very
little below the usual stature; while, on
the contrary, the hsbitants Of Patagonia
are but little larger than the Anglo-Sax-
ons. They acquire their reputation for
great size probably from the manner Of
their dress, which il calculated to increase
their apparent hight. The PAtsgonisns
are u fine looking people, while the
Fuegians are sunkeu and beastly
race, having very low heads, which they
keep constantly besmeared with fish oil,
and paint the yourg unmarried women
red to distinguish them from the ina
trons." The Patsgonisns have the
name of being oannibals, but 40 far ~ Mr..
Bliss can find out the charge is untrue,
and also Of all the other nationa. Only
ono insGsaoS sf esnsibalisn evss c.me
within his knowledge. The Indians of
tho pamP~s Of Buenos Ayres are at the
present time nomadic. They wage = con-
slant war upon the Inhabitants Of the
frontiers, though not of . blood.thirsty
character, their main object being to 50
cure the cattle and horses- It is impos-
sible to distinguish them between the
tribes by their physical appearance. Their
hair and eyes are uniformly dark, and the
color of their skin is an ashen grey. They
are not long lived; they live upon the
banks of streams, and are migratory, and
never have permanent residence. Mr..
Bliss had travelled hundreds Of miles up
ON the rivers, but had never seen IN In
dian in possession Of canoe. Their wig
vans are made Of the branches of trees,
and covered with grass. They raise only
two edi ibles-corn and squash. Mr.. Bliss
stated that there is in the centre of the
Argentine Republic tribe of Indians OF
the same race as the Incas of Peru, living
several hundred miles apart from any
tribe, but speaking the same language
The Indians were the basis of the popu-
lation Of three countries-Peru, Bolivia
and Paraguay. Mr.. Bliss gave much
valuable information concerning the lam
guages Of the tribes, which he stated to
be very meagre-none of them possessing
over thousand root words. He found
the dialects changed very rapidly, and
that very few Of the words in vocabu-
larry prepared BY the Jesuits when they
first came to the country were at present
familiar to the people of tho tribe. An
other interesting fact stated was that
when the jesuits began their work they
persuaded several tribe speaking different
dialets to speak one aud the same lam
guage. in which they proceeded to instruct
them.
Several gentlemen, among whom was
Prof Arnold Guyot of Princeton College,
who presided, made remarks and inquiries
upon the subject. Only few persons
were present.
The followsng were the other papers
read:
On the Arrowheads Of the American
Indians and Aborigines. Illustrated by
John A. Wsrder.
Exhibition Of few interesting imple-
ments collected by r. W. Haskins from
Indian graves ON the banks Of the Ohio,
with special reference to the boring OF
holes in stone implements, BY F. W. Put
nam.
A Conjectural Explanation Of the Uses
Of the Embankments Of the Mound Build
ers, BY L. a. Morgan.
CopyvAry- MACHINE ron LOADING