Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Travelling
Caribs Were The Bokharians Of Equinoctial America.
The necessity of
counting the objects of their little trade, and transmitting
intelligence, led them to extend and improve the use of the quipos,
or, as they are called in the missions, the cordoncillos con necos
(cords with knots).
These quipos or knotted cords are found in Canada,
in Mexico (where Boturini procured some from the Tlascaltecs), in
Peru, in the plains of Guiana, in central Asia, in China, and in
India. As rosaries, they have become objects of devotion in the hands
of the Christians of the East; as suampans, they have been employed in
the operations of manual arithmetic by the Chinese, the Tartars, and
the Russians. The independent Caribs who inhabit the little-known
country situated between the sources of the Orinoco and those of the
rivers Essequibo, Carony, and Parima, are divided into tribes; and,
like the nations of the Missouri, of Chili, and of ancient Germany,
form a political confederation. This system is most in accordance with
the spirit of liberty prevailing amongst those warlike hordes who see
no advantage in the ties of society but for common defence. The pride
of the Caribs leads them to withdraw themselves from every other
tribe; even from those to whom, by their language, they have some
affinity.
They claim the same separation in the missions, which seldom prosper
when any attempt is made to associate them with other mixed
communities, that is, with villages where every hut is inhabited by a
family belonging to another nation and speaking another language.
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