GUAHIBAN, an independent linguistic stock of South Ameri can Indians, so called from the Guahibas, one of its most impor tant tribes. The tribes composing this stock occupy or once occu pied a large area in eastern Colombia, which extended from the Orinoco river westward between the Meta and Vichada rivers to the eastern slopes of the Andes. Some outlying tribes, however, such as the Churoyas, Cofanes and Macas, were much farther south, extending as far as the upper Caqueta and Aguarico rivers. The Guahibas (Guaybas) and the closely affiliated Chiricoas are described as a purely nomadic hunting and fishing folk, going al most naked. They are wandering traders, thievish, and adepts at cheating, and were likened by the early writers to gipsies. No ade quate modern studies of these tribes appear to have been made.
See J. Rivero, Historia de las Misiones de los Llanos de Casa nare, etc. (1736, new ed. Bogota, 1883) ; J. Chaffanjon, L'Ore noque et le Caura (Paris, 1889).