UNKNOWN INDIANS

Evening Star, Issue 18698, 29 July 1924, Page 6

UNKNOWN INDIANS

PRDITnVB PANAMA TRIBE. DISCOVERY DUB TO' PLEA FOR HELP. Tho British Muscunn has acquired a remarkable ethnographical collection of objects used for domestic, religious, and warlike purposes by a tribe of Indians living in a remote part of tbo isthmus of Panama, of whoso -existence. it appears, nothing has hitherto been known.

Tho tribe was discovered by Mr F. A. Mitchell-Hedgos and Lady (Richmond) Brown, who have boon engaged for two years in exploration and deep-sea research work in the Caribbean Sea to the north of Panama. Landing from their yacht vat tho Gulf of San Bias, about 200 miles east of the Panama Canal, they had been engaged for some days giving medical aid to sick San Bias Indians (a comparatively well-known tribe), when the nows of their magical powers, penetrating inland, brought to tho coast four men of a different tribe of Indians.

They arc known to the San Bias Indian® as “ Chncunaques,” but, according to the explorers, not even the white population of the Panama Republic, (ho territory within which they live, know anything of them. The explanation given of the seclusion and obscurity of tbo tribe is that few white people visit San Bias, as the uncharted waters of the gulf are difficult to navigate, and that the habitation of the Chucunnques is separated from San Bias by about twenty miles of dense and almost impenetrable forest and bush. , If the Chncunaques had been heard of at all in Panama proper the talk was so vague and uncertain that their existence was regarded as mythical. The purpose of the visit of the four men of the tribe to Sian Bias was to invite the two explorers, as “ magic workers,” to visit tho tribe, among which, it was said, sickness was very rife. S'MA LLP OX PRE -VALENT.

Mr Mitchell-Hcdges and Lady Brown decided to undertake tho expedition, and with seme San Bias Indians as interpreters and tho four Chucunaques as gfuclcs they succeeded in reaching the place in two days, travelling partly by water and partly on foot. Tho Bahama Isthmus—that narrow nook of land connecting the American continents—is at its narrowest point at San Bias, being no more than thirty-one miles wide, so that the home of the Chucunaques—a clearing in the dense jungle—is rather near tho shore of the Bay of Panama, an arm of the Pacific on the south.

Tho explorers found smallpox very prevalent in. the tribe. For ethnographical purposes, or tie scientific study of the races of men, tho most remarkable discovery was that tho Chucunaque Indians arc a most primitive people, knowing nothing of the uses of metal or even of stone. All their belongings, whether for domestic or other purposes, were of wood or bone, save for some pottery of tire rudest ldml_ that can bo made by hand from clay. Living in the twentieth century, they recall a time antecedent to the Stone Age. Tho men and women of the tribe, number about 6,000, and there aro numerous chffdren. The average height of the adults is 4ft 6in. They live in the open huts and wear the scanty clothing common among the Indians of the Panama, -and in their habits and customs resemble, to some extent, their more civilised neighbors at San Bias. VIVIDLY-COLO BED CLOTHS. Among the objects brought back by Mr Mitcholl-Hedges and Lady Brown and presented to the museum aro earthenware braziers, necklaces made of tho bones and teeth of rodents and sharks, also of quills and shells, and such, weapons as wooden dubs, bows and arrows. A most interesting part_ of tho collection is a largo number of vividly-colored cloths of applique work, with intricate patterns, purely formal or representative _of human beings, beasts, birds, and reptiles. Tho materials arc obtained by trade with tho San Bias Indians, who get them from Panama or some other part of America. But tho patchwork designs with which, they aro decorated aro done by the Chucunaqucs by cutting narrow strips of tho cloths and stitching them with needle and thread on tho orange, crimson, and blue backgrounds. They show a barbaric tasto in color and design. The use to which the cloths are put is obscure, but it is supposed they are related in some way to religious rites and ceremonies. The collection also includes some human fin-ures rudely carved in wood, which, no doubt, are tho gods of the tribe. All these are about the same size and no more than a foot, and a-half long. Ono of thorn resembles a parson of the eighteenth century in a low, broad hat and a long coat, which suggests that a missionary once found his way to the Chucunaqucs; and another is like a sailor, indicating likewise (some touch with tho white, man, as an explorer, at ono time or another.