PIJAO

extinct Indian people of the southern highlands of Colombia. The Pijao spoke a language of the Chibchan family, related to that of the Pez, their neighbours to the south. They were agriculturists, raising corn (maize), sweet manioc (yuca), beans, potatoes, and many fruits; they also hunted and fished. They lived in settlements of several families in houses built of wood and plastered with mud and clay. They made pottery, wove cotton, worked stone, and smelted and worked gold and copper. They generally wore no clothing except palm-leaf hats, though they painted the body and adorned it with feathers and sometimes gold ornaments. They deformed the skulls of their infants by tying boards against them. They were also cannibals who devoured their slain enemies. The Pijao worshipped idols and believed that the dead were reincarnated as animals. They refused to make peace with the Spaniards and were completely annihilated by the mid-17th century.