Transcriber’s Note
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By D. G. BRINTON, M. D.
PHILADELPHIA:
McCALLA & STAVELY, PRINTERS.
237-9 Dock Street.
1871.
BY D. G. BRINTON, M. D.
The Arawacks are a tribe of Indians who at present dwell in British andDutch Guiana, between the Corentyn and Pomeroon rivers. They callthemselves simply lukkunu, men, and only their neighbors apply to themthe contemptuous name aruac (corrupted by Europeans into Aroaquis,Arawaaks, Aroacos, Arawacks, etc.), meal-eaters, from their peacefulhabit of gaining an important article of diet from the amylaceous pithof the Mauritia flexuosa palm, and the edible root of the cassavaplant.
They number only about two thousand souls, and may seem to claim no moreattention at the hands of the ethnologist than any other obscure Indiantribe. But if it can be shown that in former centuries they occupied thewhole of the West Indian archipelago to within a few miles of the shoreof the northern continent, then on the question whether theiraffiliations are with the tribes of the northern or southern mainland,depends our opinion of the course of migration of the primitiveinhabitants of the western world. And if this is the tribe whosecharming simplicity Columbus and Peter Martyr described in such poeticlanguage, then the historian will acknowledge a desire to acquainthimself more closely with its past and its present. It is my intentionto show that such was their former geographical position.
While in general features there is nothing to distinguish them from thered race elsewhere, they have strong national traits. Physically theyare rather undersized, averaging not over five feet four inches inheight, but strong-limbed, agile, and symmetrical. Their foreheads arelow, their noses more allied to the Aryan types than usual with theirrace, and their skulls of that form defined by craniologists asorthognathic brachycephalic.
From the earliest times they have borne an excellent character.Hospitable, peace-loving, quick to accept the humbler arts ofcivilization and the simpler precepts of Christianity, they have everoffered a strong contrast to their neighbors, the cruel and warlikeCaribs. They are not at all prone to steal, lie, or drink, and theirworst faults are an addiction to blood-revenge, and a superstitiousveneration for their priests.
They are divided into a number of families, over fifty in all, thegenealogies of which are carefully kept in the female line, and themembers of any one of which are forbidden to intermarry. In thissingular institution they resemble many other native tribes.