Tupi people

“ It is somewhat doubtful if this peaceable tribe are really Tupi. ... The central Tupi live in several free hordes between the Tocantins and Madeira. ... Cutting off the heads of enemies is in vogue among them. ... The Mundrucu are especially the head-hunting tribe. The western Tupi all live in Bolivia. They are the only ones who came in contact with the Inca empire, and their character and manners show the influence of this. ”

“ In the morn it blew hard and before noon (to our great surprize) land was indeed in sight very high and far off. Many conjectures were made whether or not it was part of the land we had left but that can only be determind by future observations. We had most of us put great confidence in the intelligence we had got of the Indians in the last anchoring place, notwithstanding Tupia had even then warnd us much not to depend upon the people who he said he was sure were liars. ”

“ This morning we were very near the island of Huahine; some canoes very soon came off, but appeared very much frightened; one, however, came to us bringing a chief and his wife, who on Tupia's assurance of our friendship came on board. They resembled the Otahite people in language, dress, tattow, in short, in everything. Tupia has always said that the people of this island and Ulhietea will not steal, in which they indeed differ much from our late friends if they only keep up to their character. ”

“ Now this can no longer be on account of the great quarrel about a parrot, and the shedding of blood; for only by separating our two families can we save them from destroying one another. Come then, let us divide them and lead them away in opposite directions, so that when we settle again they may be far apart. Guarani consented, and he also said that Tupi was the elder and their head, and was called the Father, and it was therefore in his right to remain in possession of the village and of all that land and to end his days in it. ”

“ The purity of Tupí is kept up by frequent communication amongst the natives, from one end to the other of the main river; how complete and long-continued must be the isolation in which the small groups of savages have lived in other parts, to have caused so complete a segregation of dialects! It is probable that the strange inflexibility of the Indian organisation, both bodily and mental, is owing to the isolation in which each small tribe has lived, and to the narrow round of life and thought, and close intermarriages for countless generations, which are the necessary results. ”

“ Those who asked for Tupia had possibly not seen him, but had only heard of him from their countrymen, among whom he was very popular. The immorality of the natives met with during their visit to New Zealand appears to have been very flagrant, and it is sad to reflect that advantage was taken of it by the seamen, without the slightest rebuke or censure from their superiors; indeed, it cannot be discovered from the journals of the officers that they were at all aware of their duties as a Christian people with regard to heathen savages whose shores they visited. ”

“ The Tupi-Guarani.—In South America there exist a great number of tribes scattered from Guiana to Paraguay, from the Brazilian coast to the eastern slope of the Andes, who speak the different dialects of the Tupi linguistic family. [670] They may be divided into two groups: on one side, to the east, the tribes speaking the ancient Tupi language, which, in imitation of Quechua, was a “lingua geral,” and on the other, the numerous tribes to the west, speaking different dialects which have only a vague resemblance to Tupi, according to L. Adam. ”

“ Several times, as at Tolago and here, the people have put themselves into a heat by defending the custom, which Tupia, who had never before heard of such a thing, takes every occasion to speak ill of, exhorting them often to leave it off. They, however, universally agree that they eat none but the bodies of those of their enemies who are killed in war; all others are buried.
3rd. Many canoes visited us in the morning; one very large carrying eighty-two people. Dr. Solander and myself went ashore; we found few plants, and saw but few people, but they were perfectly civil. ”

“ Their stronghold on the point of Motuara hath been long deserted; and we found many forsaken habitations in all parts of the sound. We are not, however, wholly to infer from this, that this place hath been once very populous; for each family may, for their own convenience, when they move from place to place, have more huts than one or two.
It may be asked, if these people had never seen the Endeavour, nor any of her crew, how could they become acquainted with the name of Tupia, or have in their possession (which many of them had) such articles, as they could only have got from that ship? ”

“ The Tupi tribes of Brazil are an example of a race among whom the Thunder or the Thunderer, Tupan, flapping his celestial wings and flashing with celestial light, was developed into the very representative of highest deity, whose name still stands among their Christian descendants as the equivalent of God. ”

“ Of course, she never sat in chairs, anyhow, nor did Vai Etienne, but he had provided these for the whites.
The subject of the tapus of the South Seas was endless. The custom, tabu or kapu in Hawaiian, and tambu in Fijian, was ill expressed in our “taboo,” which means the pressure of public sentiment, or family or group feeling. Tapus here were the conventions of 258primitive people made awe-inspiring for enforcement because of the very willfulness of these primitives. The custom here and throughout society dated from the beginning of legend. ”

“ Or, were they more united under a settled form of government, they would have fewer enemies, consequently this custom would be less in use, and might in time be in a manner forgotten. At present, they have but little idea of treating others as themselves would wish to be treated, but treat them as they expect to be treated. If I remember right, one of the arguments they made use of to Tupia, who frequently expostulated with them against this custom, was, that there could be no harm in killing and eating the man who would do the same by them if it was in his power. ”

“ G. Turner of the Samoan religion itself; and the assertion that the Tupinambas of Brazil had no religion is one not to be received on merely negative evidence, for the religious doctrines and practices of the Tupi race have been recorded by Lery, De Laet, and other writers. Even with much time and care and knowledge of language, it is not always easy to elicit from savages the details of their theology. They try to hide from the prying and contemptuous foreigner their worship of gods who seem to shrink, like their worshippers, before the white man and his mightier Deity. ”

“ Since that time, they had enjoyed the blessing of peace; the people seemed to be as happy as any under heaven; and well they may, for they possess not only the necessaries, but many of the luxuries of life in the greatest profusion; and my young man told me that hogs, fowls, and fruits, are in equal plenty at Bola-bola, a thing which Tupia would never allow. To clear up this seeming contradiction, I must observe, that the one was prejudiced against, and the other in favour of, this isle.
The produce of the islands, the manners and customs of the natives, &c. ”

“ Those tribes which are supposed to be more nearly related to the Tupis are distinguished by their settled agricultural habits, their living in well-constructed houses, their practice of many arts, such as the manufacture of painted earthenware, weaving, and their general custom of tattooing, social organisation, obedience to chiefs, and so forth. ”

“ The Lingoa Geral is the Tupi, an Indian language found in the country by the Jesuits, and modified and extended by them for use among all the tribes included in their missions. It is now spread over all the interior of Brazil, and even extends into Peru and Venezuela, as well as Bolivia and Paraguay, and is the general vehicle of communication between the Brazilian traders and the Indians. It is a simple and euphonious language, and is often preferred by Europeans who get thoroughly used to it. ”

“ On the south of the Amazon we find the higher culture among the Tupi of the Brazilian coast. The new traits are: smoking tobacco in stone pipes, palisaded villages, fine stone tools, urn burial; but otherwise the culture compares concisely with that of the Arawak and Carib of Guiana. A few small stocks have similar culture, but on the interior plateaus were the Tapuya (the Botocudo, etc.) , who stand somewhat apart from their neighbors. [34] All reports considered, these tribes are of low culture and notorious cannibals. ”

“ Their religion is a simple animistic nature-worship.
The dead were buried in large urns, usually in localities set aside for the purpose. One such on the island Maraho, near the mouth of the Amazon, has yielded a rich harvest to archæologists.
The general culture of the Tupis was superior to that of any other Brazilian tribes, but much inferior to that of the Incas. They were to a slight extent agricultural, raising maize, manioc, tobacco, which they smoked in pipes, and several vegetables. Some fowls, monkeys and peccaries were tamed and used as food. ”

“ The Tupi Indian, who inhabited the coast, was mythologized. This term was a generic one used to designate the indigenous groups that spoke the Brazilian language described by Anchieta and Figueira in their grammars. These were the Tupiniquins, the Tupinambás, the Potiguaras, the Caetés, the Temiminós, the Tupis of São Vicente, etc. Meanwhile, the many Indians still living in the 19th century in Brazil were socially undervalued and discriminated against, and their languages were ignored. ”

“ We indeed fell into this opinion when I was here in 1769, and into some others still more absurd, which we had undoubtedly adopted, if Tupia had not undeceived us. A man of his knowledge and understanding we have not since met with, and consequently have added nothing to his account of their religion but superstitious notions. ”

“ Alatyan: dialect of Moghol, closely allied to Selenga. Small Vocaby. in Latham’s “Elements,” p. 84. See Tonquin.
Tupi.
American: native language of Brazil, classed as Guarani. There are: (1) Tupinaba, Tupinamba, called Nations of the Rio Real, in the province of Sergipe. (2) Tupininquin, a nation of Espiritu Santo. (3) Tuppinamba, called the largest tribe in Maranhao and Gran Para. Dictionary by Dias, Leipsic. 1858: and Da Silva’s “Lingoa Geral.”
⁂ It is allied to the Agaw. H. C.
[275]
Tupuan.
Negrito: dialect of Papuan.
Turaja.
Alfuru of Celebes.
Turanian. ”

“ Many of the large Indian nations spoken of by old authors are now much subdivided; thus of the Jibaros, on the eastern side of the Quitenian Andes, have been constituted in modern times the tribes Achuales, Pindus, Huambisas, etc.
“The Cucamas are a section of the great Tupi nation, and speak a very euphonious dialect of Tupi. They are now found scattered in most of the villages on the Marañon (or upper Amazon) in Peru, and formerly existed in much greater numbers than at present in the village of La Laguna, within the Huallaga. ”

“ It must be allowed that the people of this isle are in general more superstitious than at Otaheite. At the first visit I made the chief after our arrival, he desired I would not suffer any of my people to shoot herons and wood-peckers; birds as sacred with them as robin-red-breasts, swallows, &c. are with many old women in England. Tupia, who was a priest, and well acquainted with their religion, customs, traditions, &c. ”

“ While waiting for Pedro and Senhor Tom, I studied the shelter. I had seen the malocas of wild men farther south, but not until recently had I been in the Tucuna country, and this type of shelter was new to me. Instead of being circular in shape and walled with logs, it was oblong, with walls of palm-leaves; a place not built for defense, but the sort of house in which peaceable people ought to live. If those flimsy walls meant anything, these Indians were not warriors. ”

“ This island Tupia called Maurua, and said that it was small, wholly surrounded by a reef, and without any harbour for shipping; but inhabited, and bearing the same produce as the neighbouring islands: the 257middle of it rises in a high round hill, that may be seen at the distance of ten leagues.
When we were off Bolabola, we saw but few people on the shore, and were told by Tupia that many of the inhabitants were gone to Ulietea. In the afternoon we found ourselves nearly the length of the south end of Ulietea, and to windward of some harbours that lay on the west side of this island. ”

“ I have no hesitation in including in the Tupi family the Mundurucus, or Paris, on the upper Tapajoz. Their relationship was fully recognized by Professor Hartt, who was well acquainted with both dialects. [341] [232] They are a superior stamp of men, tall, of athletic figures, light in color, their naked bodies artistically tattooed. Their women are skilled in weaving cotton hammocks, and the men pursue some agriculture, and manufacture handsome feather ornaments. ”

“ They made many excuses for their conduct, and promised that in three days they would return, with all the principal people, and establish a [74] friendly intercourse with the Spaniards. These people will readily promise, whatever is demanded of them, but without any intention of performing their promise. Tupas, though King of the island, did not appear better entitled to respect, than any of the rest, and thought nothing of breaking his word, always, however, making some excuse on the succeeding visit. ”