CARIB, Icarlb, a native American race which attained its highest development in the West Indies. Originating in the valley of the Orinoco, this race spread along the coasts, northward and southward, to a great distance, and especially from island to island of the Lesser and Greater Antilles and the Bahamas. At the time of the discovery of America its language was spoken, with dialectic variations, from the coast of Florida to lower Brazil,— wherever large canoes could carry the swarm ing, warlike tribes. The Caribs were the vikings of South America. The race name survives in uCaribbeans Sea, Islands, the word etc.; the race itself is still well represented at various points in South America. In the West Indies, however, the large native population disappeared rapidly after the Spanish conquest, Caribs and other tribes of the same stock (Arawaks, Lucayos, Boriquefios, etc.), either succumbing under the new conditions or losing their distinctive char acteristics by blending with Europeans and Africans. Surviving groups of West Indian Caribs may be studied to-day in the island of Dominica. A few remained in Martinique and Saint Vincent up to the time of the volcanic eruptions in 1902. Great Britain deported 5,000 Caribs from Saint Vincent to the island of Ruatan in the Gulf of Honduras in 1796; thence they migrated to the Central American coast, where their numerous descendants have become a not inconsiderable element in the population of the mainland. In the (Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science' (Vol. LI, 1902), Mr. J. Walter Fewkes of the Bureau of American Ethnology calls attention to the different characteristics which the Caribs displayed in different circumstances and localities. Thus the natives in the Baha mas, Cuba, Haiti and Porto Rico were mild, agricultural people who had lost in vigor, while gaining a rudimentary knowledge of the arts of peace, by their sedentary life. On the other hand, constant incursions from the home of the race (the Orinoco region in Venezuela) kept alive the savage customs and ferocious spirit of the Caribs of the Lesser Antilles. Such incur sions took place even after the date of the Spanish settlements. The houses of the more peaceful Carib communities did not differ greatly from those of the peasantry in the same regions at the present time. In lieu of clothing, Carib men and girls covered their bodies, as well as their faces, with paint, to protect them from the bites of insects and the heat of the sun. A woven cloth of palm fibre, called nagua,
—a breech-cloth with long ends,— was worn by the chiefs and the married women. For purposes of decoration, and to distinguish members of one family or community from those of another, designs of animals and plants were painted on the body. Their social organ ization closely resembled that of the North American Indians, the unit of organization being the clan, ruled by a cacique (chief). Combinations were sometimes formed by a number of caciques for mutual defense, and extensive territories were subjected to the con trol of the more ambitious leaders. Among the insignia of the cacique's rank were the gold disc called guarim, worn on his breast, and a stone amulet tied to his forehead. His numer ous wives were practically slaves. Ex officio, he was a member of the priesthood. Columbus at first received the impression that the Caribs lacked spiritual insight; longer sojourn among them, however, convinced him that they wor shipped many supernatural beings whom they represented by idols, called zemis; they had temples for this purpose, in which rude idols were set up to be consulted as oracles by the priests. It is probable that belief in a future life, although not universally held, as some authorities assert, was generally taught by the priests; and it is quite certain that the latter possessed great influence, being physicians to the people as well as ministers to the semis.
Like other savage races of the region from which they came, the Caribs were anthro pophagi; yet the evil prominence given to them through the coining of the word cannibal (a Latinized form of Carib) is not wholly merited. The discoverers, finding a great num ber of human skulls in the Canb houses, jumped to the conclusion that each skull was the trophy of some revolting feast. In point of fact, the Caribs, being ancestor-worshippers, preserved these relics in honor of defunct mem bers of their family. Consult Adam, 'Le Caraibe du Honduras et le Caraibe des Isles' (in Internat. Vol. XIV, 1904); Rat, J. N., 'The Carib Language as now Spoken in Dominica' (in Journal Anthrop. Inst., Vol. XXVII, London 1897-98) ; Koch Griinberg's (in An thropos, Vol. III, 1908) ; id., 'Zwei Jahre unter den Indianern> (Berlin 1909-10).