TAPUYA, ta-poTqa (alien). A collective designation for a group of tribes holding an ex tensive area in Eastern Brazil, constituting a dis tinct stock, and apparently more ancient in oc cupancy than any of the surrounding tribes. Their general territory extends from latitude 5° to 20° S., and from the Atlantic coast inland to the Xingu 'River. They are sometimes also known as Crcu or Gucrcn, the `Ancient People.' The Tucano (q.v.) and several other tribes upon the Uaupes and Yapurii, on the Brazil-Colombia border are also thought to be of the same con nection. The Tapuya tribes, among which the Botoeudo (q.v.) are the most noted and typical, have every characteristic of an ancient primitive race. They are believed to have been the authors of the numerous shell moods along the adjacent Atlantic coast, and it is even held that skulls and other human bones found in caves within their territory, in connection with bones of animals now extinct, are of the peculiar type belonging to this people. In physique the Tapuya are of middle stature, with long arms and short legs, broad faces, small deep-set eyes, retreating fore heads, and projecting lower jaws. Their fea
tures are frequently disfigured by huge labrets in the lower lip. Their culture is of the lowest. In their native forests they go absohitely naked and have no other dwellings than temporary shelters of brushwood. They make no pottery, build no canoes, have no dogs, and apparently have no tribal organization. Before interfered with by the Brazilian Government, they were can nibals. On the other hand, they are skillful hunt ers with the bow and arrow, make polished stone axes, and weave baskets of rusbe$. The men have but one wife at a time. They are much in fear of ghosts wandering in the night, and are fond of dances to the accompaniment of a flute which is played with the nose. Their language, of which specimens have been published by Ehren reich, is difficult in its phonetics. with a marked tendency to simple word forms rather than agglu tination. The Indians of Tupi descent about Parti and on the Lower Amazon are incorrectly called Tapuya.