Friday, February 22, 2019

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Orejona Chief and Family

George Catlin (1796 –1872) Orejona chief and family

"In 1744 La Condamine, entered the Amazon River Valley  at Peru by the mouth of the Napo, calculated its breadth geometrically, or else estimated it simply with the eye, and continued his journey as far as Para, where he embarked for Europe.  The natives quartered on its banks belong to the Orejona nation, which is divided into 3 tribes: the true Orejones, the Ccotos, and the Anguteros. For 40 years the Orejones have flocked to the villages of the Amazon. The Ccotos inhabit, in the interior, the right bank of the Napo, while the Anguteros dwell in the forests on its left...All the Indians of the Orejona race are tall of stature; and their well-balanced proportions and suppleness add somewhat of elegance to the combined strength and beauty of their forms. They have a square face, and somewhat oblique small eyes, rather screwed at the corners. The nose, large at the base, is very flat and broad; the mouth is prominent, and literally extends all round the face. They wear their hair long and loose, and insert through the partition of their nostrils a stick of palm-wood, as large as a penholder, to each extremity of which they suspend a shell. Instead of a strip of palm-thread round their loins, they wear a belt of tahuari-bark, shaped like a wreath. The distinctive feature in their physiognomy lies in their ears, of which the lobes are so elongated that they hang down to their shoulders, and resemble pieces of shapeless flesh. The Ccotos and the Anguteros pierce this lobe, enlarge the opening, and fit into it circular carvings of cecropia-wood of an astonishing size. The Orejones also lengthen their ears, but are satisfied with carrying simple pendants, without any ornament, a peculiarity which distinguishes them from their congeners."  Tumbuya, Sarayacu, Tierra Blanca, Nauta, Tabating, Santa Maria de Belen, Scribner, Armstrong, 1875