The Indians are divided into nations, and each one of these has a chief, whom they denominate the _capitán_. They are enemies of polygamy, and both men and women are jealous in the extreme. The latter cultivate fields, while the men dedicate themselves to hunting, fishing, and rubber collection.
These poor people, "simple," not cannibal, lived there happily until Arana and his brigands invaded them. Then began the Tantalus for all of them--men, women, children, and aged folk.
The chiefs of sections, such as the famous bandits, Norman, Agüero, the two Rodríguez brothers, and others, already known and enumerated, all impose upon each Indian the task of delivering to them 5 _arrobas_[111] of rubber every _fabrico_.[112] When the time comes to deliver the rubber, these unhappy victims appear with their loads upon their backs, accompanied by their women and children, who help them to carry the rubber. When they reach the section the rubber is weighed. They know by experience what the needle of the balance should mark, and when it indicates that they have delivered the full amount required, they leap about and laugh with pleasure. When it does not, they throw themselves face downwards on the ground and, in this attitude, await the lash, the bullet, or the _machete_. This is at the option of the chief of section, but they are generally given fifty lashes with scourges, until the flesh drops from their bodies in strips, or else are cut to pieces with _machetes_. This barbarous spectacle takes place before all the rest, among whom are their women and children.
When they deliver the full amount of rubber required from them, they are given a mouth-organ, worth 30 centavos[113], a coloured cotton handkerchief, worth 50 centavos, a few beads, or similar trash. This they receive with great pleasure, for, on the contrary, they are flogged or shot to death.
They do not worry about the Indians' food, and as to the clothes of these unfortunates, they have none, for both men and women live in the most complete nakedness.
All these tribes, fifteen years ago, amounted to over twenty thousand persons; to-day they do not reach ten thousand. Desolation invaded these selvas together with the Aranas, worse even than the _cholera morbus_ and the bubonic, terrible and awful plagues that from time to time leave Asia to traverse other parts of the globe, sowing panic, pain, death, and mourning.