under the broad shade of the Ceiba trees. The Ceiba was considered a symbol of the Great Home of a rich, generous and motherly nature. Here they carried out war ceremonies, crowning of chiefs, wedding rituals and other major events. Most were accompanied by dancing to the beat of maracas, fotuto, yaporojas and drums. Young single women (virgins) were decorated with flowers. Agriculturalists, the Pijao lived close to the earth in homes made of wood and rammed earth. Due to the tropical climate and excellent soil in the highlands, they were able to grow, harvest and cultivate many crops including potatoes, yucca, maize, mangoes, papayas, guavas and many other fruits and vegetables. They also fished and hunted for meats. They wore, as a custom dress, beautifully decorated golden clothes which did not cover their genitals. They painted their bodies with dyed tops of bija. The Spanish conquerors initially called them Bipxaus (Bija), the same name as one of the Paez chiefdoms. Later they referred to the people as the Pijao, which came to be considered a pejorative. The Pijao practiced ritual cannibalism of their enemies. The Spanish captain Diego de Bocanegra (one of many military leaders who battled against the Pijao) accused them of having cannibalized up to 100,000 Spaniards in approximately 50 years. Despite regularly driving back the invading Spaniards, the Pijao population kept decreasing and they were pushed further south in the highlands. They began to clash with neighboring tribes such as the Coconuco, Páez, Puruhá, and Cana. By the mid-18th century, the Pijao people had suffered drastic losses, mostly due to new infectious diseases. Missionary Christians had also taken a toll through conversion and re-education of many natives. The Spanish followed their invasions with colonization of most of the central highlands and the Andes mountain ranges. Through these measures they established the New Kingdom of Granada. Language The Pijao language is extinct since the 1950s and has not been classified. It is not listed in Kaufman (1994). References Further reading (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. . (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. . (Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com). (1994). "The native languages of South America", in C. Mosley & R. E. Asher (Eds.), Atlas of the world's languages (pp. 46–76). London: Routledge. External links Pijao Ethnologue Pijao at Encyclopædia Britannica Indigenous peoples of