'homo silvaticus' or 'forest-man' has become the 'salvage man' or savage. European opinion of the native tribes of the New World may be judged of by the fact that, in 1537, Pope Paul III. had to make express statement that these Indians were really men (attendentes Indos ipsos utpote veros homines).[1] Thus there is little cause to wonder at the circulation of stories of ape-men in South America, and at there being some indefiniteness in the local accounts of the selvage or 'savage,' that hairy wild man of the woods who, it is said, lives in the trees, and sometimes carries off the native women.[2] The most perfect of these mystifications is to be found in a Portuguese manuscript quoted in the account of Castelnau's expedition, and giving, in all seriousness, the following account of the people called Cuatas: 'This populous nation dwells east of the Juruena, in the neighbourhood of the rivers San Joâo and San Thome, advancing even to the confluence of the Juruena, and the Arinos. It is a very remarkable fact that the Indians composing it walk naturally like the quadrupeds, with their hands on the ground; they have the belly, breast, arms, and legs covered with hair, and are of small stature; they are fierce, and use their teeth as weapons; they sleep on the ground, or among the branches of trees; they have no industry, nor agriculture, and live only on fruits, wild roots, and fish.'[3] The writer of this record shows no symptom of being aware that cuata or coata is the name of the large black Simia Paniscus, and that he has been really describing, not a tribe of Indians, but a species of apes.
Various reasons may have led to the growth of another quaint group of legends, describing human tribes with tails
- ↑ Martius, vol. i. p. 50.
- ↑ Humboldt and Bonpland, vol. v. p. 81; Southey, 'Brazil,' vol. i. p. xxx.; Bates, 'Amazons,' vol. i. p. 73; vol. ii. p. 204.
- ↑ Castelnau, 'Exp. dans l'Amér. du Sud,' vol. iii. p. 118. See Martius, vol. i. pp. 248, 414, 563, 633.
vation of the Bosjesman's name from his nest-like shelter in a bush, given by Kolben and others since, is newer and far-fetched.
