Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

18 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 44
guage. Ribas also (145) mentions a tradition that this tribe came
from the north with the Ahome, and, although speaking a different
language and occupying localities widely separated, maintained con-
stant friendship. As the language was still spoken as late as 1678,
after the missionaries had established themselves in that section, and
probably obtained this tradition from them, it is possibly reliable.
According to Zapata (396), the Baimena (or Baitrena, as the name
appears there) occupied the pueblo of Santa Catalina de Baitrena,
situated some six leagues southeast of San Jose del Toro, the head of
the partido, and spoke a language somewhat different from that of
the Troe (Zoe). The latter resided in a neighboring pueblo bearing
their own name and, like that of the Baimena, bordering the Tubar
("confinan tambien con los Tubares"). The padre who ministered
to these pueblos at the time Ribas wrote (1617-1640) was Jose de
Tapia.
The evidence appears to warrant, therefore, in the absence of vocabu-
laries, the acceptance of Zoe as a distinct idiom and Baimena as identi-
cal or closely related to it. There is, perhaps, justification for considering
both as dialects of the Yaqui group, or at least Nahuatlan„ and
they are so marked in the List of Linguistic Families and Tribes.
Their area is designated on the map accompanying this paper.
The territory in which the Tepahue (Tepave), Conicari, and
Macoyahui dialects are said to have been spoken is situated on the
northern border of the territory of the Yaqui group where it meets
that of the Lower Pima and the Tarahumare.
According to Zapata (385), the language spoken in the pueblo of
Asuncion de Tepave (Tepaiie or Tepahue), situated five leagues northeast
of Conicari, was "particular," and was known as "Tepave"
(Tepahue) ; this was different from that of the other pueblos (Conicari
and Macoyahui), though the latter people understood the Tepahue
tongue and also that of the Yaqui group, but did not speak it. All
three dialects are included by Orozco y Berra in the territory he
marks "Tepahue" on his map, in the fork of the upper Mayo river.
Ribas (253) speaks of them as friends of the Tehueco, and adds (265)
that the pueblo of Conicari was distant from Chinipa sixteen leagues
[west]. Zapata (384) says that the language spoken at this peublo
is "particular," but that some of the inhabitants are Mayo "en la
nacion y en la lengua."
The pueblo of Asuncion de Macoyahui, in which the Macoyahui language
was spoken, was situated about seven leagues north of Conicari
(Zapata, 386), though Orozco y Berra on his map places it west of
the latter pueblo. The language, according to Zapata, was "particular"—
"la lengua es particular macoyahui con que son tres las lenguas
de este partido"—these are Conicari, Tepahue, and Macoyahui.
Although they were extinct at the time Orozco y Berra wrote his