CAR.ARIAN, a group of tribes of South American Indians, supposed on very meagre evidence to constitute an independent linguistic stock. The Canaris lived at the period of the Spanish conquest in the highlands of Southern Ecuador, from Alausi southward to the Jubones river, and extended west as far as the Gulf of Guayaquil. They were conquered and largely destroyed by the Incas in the course of expansion of their empire in the I 5th century. The Canaris were sedentary, agricultural folk, wearing poncho-like garments of cotton or woollen textiles, and living in thatched roof houses of poles plastered with mud. They were skilful workers in copper and gold. Their chief weapons were a wooden sword, a javelin and club. Chiefs were buried with much treasure in deep, well-graves. In their religious ceremonies they practised human sacrifice (chiefly of children) on a scale rare in South America.
See F. G. Suarez, Estudio historico sobre los Canaris (Quito, 1878) .