that nothing should remain as a remembrance of him. In Panamá, Nata, and some other districts, when a cacique died, those of his concubines that loved him enough, those that he loved ardently and so appointed, as well as certain servants, killed themselves and were interred with him. This they did in order that they might wait upon him in the land of spirits. They held the belief that those who did not accompany him then, would, when they died a natural death, lose the privilege of being with him afterwards, and in fact that their souls would die with them. The privilege of attending on the cacique in his future state was believed to be only granted to those who were in his service during his lifetime, hence such service was eagerly sought after by natives of both sexes, who made every exertion to be admitted as servants in his house. At the time of the interment, those who planted corn for him during his lifetime had some maize and an implement of husbandry buried with them in order that they might commence planting immediately on arrival in the other world. In Comagre and other provinces the bodies of the caciques were embalmed by placing them on a cane hurdle, hanging them up by cords, or placing them on a stone, or log; and round or below the body they made a slow fire of herbs at such a distance as to dry it gradually until only skin and bone remained. During the process of embalming, twelve of the principal men sat round the body, dressed in black mantles which covered their heads, letting them hang down to their feet; at intervals one of them beat a drum and when he ceased he chanted in monotonous tones, the others responding. Day and night the twelve kept watch and never left the body. When sufficiently dried it was dressed and adorned with many ornaments of gold, jewels, and feathers, and set up in an apartment of the palace where were kept ranged round the walls the remains of his ancestors, each one in his place and in regular succession. In case a cacique fell in battle and his body could not be recovered, or was otherwise lost, the place he would have occupied in the row was always left vacant. Among other tribes the body after being dried by fire was wrapped in several folds of cloth, put in a hammock, and placed upon a platform in the air or in a room. The manner in which the wives, attendants, and servants put themselves to death was, with some, by poison; in such case, the multitude assembled to chant the praises of their dead lord, when those who were to follow drank poison from gourds, and dropped dead instantly. In some cases they first killed their children. With others the funeral obsequies of a principal chief were conducted differently. They prepared a large grave twelve or fifteen feet square and nine or ten feet deep; round the sides they built a stone bench and covered it with painted cloth; in the middle of the grave they placed jars and gourds filled with maize, fruit, and wines, and a quantity of flowers. On the bench was laid the dead chief dressed, ornamented, and jeweled, while around him sat his wives gaily attired with ear-rings and bracelets. All being prepared the assembled multitude raised their voices in songs declaring the bravery and prowess of the deceased; they recounted his liberality and many virtues and highly extolled the affection of his faithful wives who desired to accompany him. The singing and dancing usually lasted two days and during its continuance wine was freely served to the performers and also to the women who were awaiting their fate. At the expiration of such time they became entirely inebriated and in a senseless condition, when the final act was consummated by throwing dead and doomed into the grave, and filling it with logs, branches, and earth. The spot was afterwards held in sacred remembrance and a grove of trees planted round it. At the end of a year funeral honors were celebrated in memory of the dead. A host of friends and relatives of equal rank with the deceased were invited to participate, who upon the day appointed brought quantities of food and wine such as he whose memory they honored delighted in, also weapons with which he used to fight, all of which were placed in a canoe prepared for the purpose; in it was also deposited an effigy of the deceased. The canoe was then carried on men's shoulders round the court of the palace or house, in presence of the deceased, if he was embalmed, and afterwards brought out to the centre of the town where it was burned with all it contained—the people believing that the fumes and smoke ascended to the soul of the dead and was pleasing and acceptable to him.1039 If the body had been interred they opened the sepulchre; all the people with hair disheveled uttering loud lamenting cries while the bones were being collected, and these they burned all except the hinder part of the skull, which was taken home by one of the principal women and preserved by her as a sacred relic.
ISTHMIAN CHARACTER.
The character of the Costa Ricans has ever been that of a fierce and savage people, prominent in which qualities are the Guatusos and Buricas, who have shown themselves strongly averse to intercourse with civilization. The Talamancas are a little less untameable, which is the best, or perhaps the worst, that can be said. The Terrabas, also a cruel and warlike nation, are nevertheless spoken of by Fray Juan Domingo Arricivita as endowed with natural docility. The natives of Boca del Toro are barbarous and averse to change. In Chiriquí they are brave and intelligent, their exceeding courage having obtained for them the name of Valientes or Indios Bravos from the early discoverers; they are also noted for honesty and fair dealing. The same warlike and independent spirit and fearlessness of death prevails among the nations of Veragua, Panamá, and Darien. The inhabitants of Panamá and Cueba are given to lechery, theft, and lying; with some these qualities are fashionable; others hold them to be crimes. The Mandingos and natives of San Blas are an independent and industrious people, possessing considerable intelligence, and are of a docile and hospitable disposition. The inhabitants of Darien are kind, open-hearted, and peaceable, yet have always been resolute in opposing all interference from foreigners; they are fond of amusements and inclined to indolence; the latter trait is not, however, applicable to all, a noticeable exception being the Cunas and Chocos of the Atrato Valley, who are of a gentle nature, kind, hospitable, and open-hearted when once their confidence is gained; they are likewise industrious and patient, and M. Lucien de Puydt says of the former: "Theft is altogether unknown amongst the Cunas." Colonel Alcedo, speaking of their neighbors, the Idibaes, calls them treacherous, inconstant, and false. In the interior and mountain districts the inhabitants are more fierce than those from the coast; the former are shy and retiring, yet given to hospitality. On the gulf of Urabá the people are warlike, vainglorious, and revengeful.1040
Thus from the icy regions of the north to the hot and humid shores of Darien I have followed these Wild Tribes of the Pacific States, with no other object in view than faithfully to picture them according to the information I have been able to glean. And thus I leave them, yet not without regret: for notwithstanding all that has been said I cannot but feel how little we know of them. Of their mighty unrecorded past, their interminable intermixtures, their ages of wars and convulsions, their inner life, their aspirations, hopes, and fears, how little do we know of all this! And now as the eye rests upon the fair domain from which they have been so ignobly hurried, questions like these arise: How long have these backings and battlings been going on? What purpose did these peoples serve? Whence did they come and whither have they gone?—questions unanswerable until Omniscience be fathomed and the beginning and end made one.
TRIBAL BOUNDARIES.
The Wild Tribes of Central America, the last groupal division of this work, extend from the western boundary of Guatemala, south and eastward, to the Rio Atrato. I have divided the group into three subdivisions, namely: the Guatemalans, the Mosquitos, and the Isthmians.
The Guatemalans, for the purposes of this delineation, embrace those nations occupying the present states of Guatemala, Salvador, and portions of Nicaragua.
The Lacandones are a wild nation inhabiting the Chammá mountains on the boundary of Guatemala and Chiapas. 'Mountains of Chammá, inhabited by the wild Indians of Lacandón … a distinction ought to be drawn between the Western and Eastern Lacandónes. All the country lying on the W., between the bishopric of Ciudad Real and the province of Vera Paz, was once occupied by the Western Lacandónes. … The country of the Eastern Lacandónes may be considered as extending from the mountains of Chammá, a day and a half from Cobán, along the borders of the river de la Pasion to Petén, or even further.' Escobar, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xi., pp. 93–4. Upon the margin of the Rio de la Passion. Juarros' Hist. Guat., p. 271. 'Un tribu de Mayas sauvages appelés Lacandons, qui habitent un district immense dans le centre du continent, embrasse toute la partie occidentale du Peten; erre sur les bords supérieurs de l'Usumasinta et le pays qui se trouve au sud de l'endroit d'où j'écris.' Galindo, in Antiq. Mex., tom.
