Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/73

Rh and capybara-tooth awl, they turn out such finely finished work as the blow-pipe, made with infinite toil and patience from laths of hard wood, strips split off the trunk of the chonta palm.

Everything points to the conclusion that these tribes found their way to the Forest in a very primitive condition. The Forest has arrested, has stunted their growth, but it has not plunged them back from later cultures to the Stone Age.

Did space permit I would greatly like to touch on the disputed question of origin. I was continually struck by the prevalence of Mongoloid traits, especially the obliquity of eye, most noticeable in the Boro, but more or less common to all the groups. Tempting parallels of custom and belief can be drawn, too, with the peoples of similar cultures to be found among the pagan races of Malaya and New Guinea. Mr. T. A. Joyce in his recent book on the Archaeology of South America repudiates the idea that contact with any Pacific cultures could have exerted permanent influence on the indigenous population. Against any such supposition he advances the argument that there are no linguistic traces of Polynesian or Melanesian dialects to be found, and also avers that, to quote his own words,—"Any people arriving on the Pacific coast must have been skilled seamen, and it seems incredible that, after settling, they should have proceeded immediately to forget their craft, especially as their chief source of nourishment must have been the sea. Yet through the whole of the coast of South America nothing but the most primitive form of raft was found, and it appears that sails were entirely unknown south of Tumbez." But unwritten languages are surely a parlous guide. The tongues of Amazonia, at least, are still in constant flux. Yesterday's word may have other meaning to-day, and be changed out of all recognition to-morrow. The second