GUARANIES, gwa'ra-nEz, a numerous family of Indians inhabiting the greater part of the Rio de la Plata region, Paraguay, and a very considerable region in Brazil. They reach westward to the foothills of the Andes. The Guaranies are divided into small tribal bands each of which has its own tribal leader. In addition to this vast extension of tribes of the same great family ethnologists are inclined to the view that numerous tribes of Argentina are also of the same origin as the Guaranies. At the time of the conquest the Guaranies were very much less civilized than the tribes by which they were surrounded. They lived by hunting and on wild fruits, roots and vegetables, and went practically naked. Their customs were apparently very simple; but they were great lovers of their homes which they defended stubbornly and bravely against the Spanish and Portuguese invaders. They seem to have lived in villages and to have been of a very social nature. The Jesuit missionaries visited them and succeeded in gaining a strong influence over many of their villages, among which they introduced European arts and industries, which very considerably improved their social condi tion. Long wars and epidemic diseases have reduced to a comparatively small population this once numerous family of Indians. How ever the mixed race that sprang from the Guaranies and the Spaniards is of consider able extent and of importance in the industrial life of Brazil. A mestizo race, a cross between
negroes and Guaranies is also found to-day in parts of Bolivia, in Panama, in Argentina, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) and in Paraguay. For the most part this large mestizo population speak the native Indian tongue. Owing to the work of the mission aries, the language of the Guaranies is one of the best known of the native tongues of South America. Guarani is considerably mixed with Spanish or Portuguese words, or both, and, in this form, is the speech of a great part of the rural districts of Paraguay.
Biblio"ar Aragon, Mons° de, (Vo cabulario de a lengua guarani' (Madrid 1624); Bernal, Padre, (Catecismo en castellano y en guarani) (Buenos Aires 1800) ; Insorralde, Padre, (Arapor6) (Madrid 1759) ; Montoya, Antonio Ruiz de, (Vocabulario de la lengua guarani); Ruiz, Padre Antonio, CArte y Vo cabulario de la Lengua Guarani' (Madrid 1639); Tapugay (ExplicaciOn del Catecesmo en guarani' ' • (Manuale ad usum patrum So cietatts Jesu Parroquial, en espanol y guarani); 'Sermones y ejemplos en la lengua guarani) ; Velazquez, Padre, (Diccionario Guarani) (Ma drid 1624).