Several tribes inhabited the Gran Chaco. The principal one--the least
sunk in barbarism--were the Guanas. They lived in towns arranged in
some symmetrical order, composed of palm-trees. Each house formed an
enclosed square composed of posts and arches. To these were fixed
horizontal beams, the whole covered with mud and straw. There was but
one door, and the structure was sufficiently large to contain a dozen
families. They had bed-places on square frames, covered over with
boards and straw and skins, while their houses were kept scrupulously
clean.
They were noted for their hospitality, and subsisted chiefly by
agriculture. They cut off the hair in the middle of the forehead; some
shaved sometimes the front half of the head, and others half-moons over
the ears. Though the marriage ceremony was simple in the extreme, a
contract as to various points was invariably entered into. The men
greatly exceeded the women in number, in consequence of the unnatural
custom prevailing among them of putting to death the female children.
Old women acted the part of doctors.
Their dead were buried outside the doors of their houses, and a
considerable time was spent in bewailing their loss. Though they fought
bravely with bows and arrows, as well as with spears or clubs, they were
of a peaceable disposition, and never made war except in self-defence.
The great ambition of a Chaco Indian is to possess a horse, saddle, and
gun. Once mounted, he soon becomes a bold rider.
Their mode of crossing a river is curious. As their canoes cannot carry
their animals over, they first drive the horse into the river up to his
shoulders in the water, then launch the canoe--after tying the animal's
head to the top of the gunwale--with the children and luggage on board.
As the horse's feet are off the ground, he cannot injure the canoe.
When travelling, however, without canoes, they form small rafts, into
which they put their children; and lance in hand, and with bow and
quiver at their backs, they bestride their steeds and tow them across, a
curious spectacle to witness.
The children go perfectly naked; indeed, so do the people generally,
except those who come into the settled districts. The women wear their
masses of black hair almost covering their heads and shoulders. They
dress in a short skirt, with a scarf over the shoulders. "The old
women," observed Captain Kennedy, "are terrible to behold, they having
all the hard work to do. They even paddle the canoes, while the men and
young women sit looking on."
Their villages consist of rows of wretched hovels. They appear to have
no superstitious ideas, but they believe in an evil spirit, against whom
they try to guard by charms and incantations. They are under a chief
cacique; and after the other chiefs in conclave have determined on war,
or rather, on a plundering expedition, and it is concluded, they
separate into their original tribes, each taking opposite directions
with their share of the plunder, to escape the risk of being captured.
A considerable portion of the almost unexplored district--the Gran
Chaco--which they inhabit is a dreary waste of lagoons and marshes,
traversed by rapid, muddy, and tortuous rivers.