WHY THE ABIPONES ARE SO VIGOROUS AND LONG-LIVED.
The Abipones are indebted for their strength and longevity partly to
their parents, partly to themselves. The vigour of youth, preserved by
temperance, accompanies them during the whole of their lives, and is
even transmitted to their children. The Abipones never indulge in
licentious gratifications during youth, and though of a fiery
temperament, debilitate their constitutions by no irregularities. They
amuse themselves with conversation, mirth, and jesting, but always
within the limits of modesty. By a sort of natural instinct peculiar to
themselves, both boys and girls, hold in abhorrence all means and
opportunities of infringing the laws of decorum: you never see them
talking together either publicly or privately; never idling in the
street. The girls love to assist their mothers in domestic employments;
the continual exercise of arms and horses engrosses the chief attention
of the young men.
The Indians of other nations are often shorter, slenderer, and less
robust. Many of them consume away before they arrive at manhood; others
grow prematurely old, and die an untimely death. Do you enquire the
cause? I will tell you my opinion on the subject. Many are unhealthy
because their parents are so; others from being oppressed with Labour,
and very poorly provided with food, clothes, and lodging; the majority
because they have exhausted their natural vigour by indulging from their
earliest youth in shameful pleasures. _Libidinosa etenim, et intemperans
adolescentia effœtum corpus tradit senectuti_, as Cicero observes, in
his treatise on Old Age. How many of those who die a premature death
would deserve to have this epitaph engraven on their tomb, _Nequitia est
quæ te non sinit esse senem_. Too early marriages are often a cause why
we find the other Indians weaker and less vigorous and long-lived than
the Abipones, who never think of entering the matrimonial state till
they are near thirty years old, and never marry a woman under twenty;
which, as philosophers and physicians say, conduces much to the
preservation of strength, lengthening of life, and producing robust
children. It cannot be doubted, that tender parents never produce very
strong children; and since the affections of the mind are consequences
of the habit of the body, as Galen teaches with much prolixity, it
cannot be wondered that such children should be as imbecile in mind as
in body.
Their education also conduces greatly to form the manners and strengthen
the bodies of the Abipones. For, as Quintilian observes, in his first
book of Institutes, that soft kind of breeding, which we call
indulgence, relaxes all the nerves both of the mind and body. No one can
object to the education of the Abipones on account of its delicacy. The
children are plunged into a cold stream, if there be one at a convenient
distance, as soon as they see the light. They know of no such things as
cradles, feathers, cushions, swathing-clothes, blandishments, and toys.
Covered with a light garment of otters' skins, they sleep wherever
chance directs, and crawl upon the ground like little pigs. Whenever a
mother has to take a journey on horseback, she places the child in a bag
made of boars' skins, and suspended from the saddle along with the
puppies, pots, gourds, &c. The husband will often come and snatch his
little son, as he is sucking, from its mother's arms, set him on his own
horse, and behold him riding with eyes sparkling with pleasure. When a
mother is swimming in a river for the sake of a bath, she presses her
infant to her breast with one hand, while she uses the other as an oar.
If the child be pretty big, it is thrown into the water, that it may
learn to swim while it is but just beginning to walk. You seldom see
little boys but just weaned walking in the street without a bow and
arrow. They shoot birds, flies, and all kinds of small animals. Their
usual amusement is shooting at a mark. They go out every day on
horseback, and ride races with one another. All these things undoubtedly
conduce much towards strengthening and enlarging the body. Would that
European mothers could be brought to discard the unnatural artifices and
indulgences used in the bringing up of their children! Oh that they
would moderate the bandages and cloths with which they bind, and as it
were imprison and enchain the tender little bodies of their infants!
then should we see fewer bandy-legged, hump-backed, dwarfish, weak, and
diseased persons in Europe.
The Abipones wear a garment not tight to their bodies, but loose and
flowing down to their heels; calculated to cover, not load and oppress
the body, and to defend it from the injuries of the weather, without
preventing the perspiration, or impeding the circulation of the blood.
All the wise people of the east, and most of the ancient Germans, made
choice of a large wide garment. What if we say that their bodies were
consequently larger, and filled a wider space? Those who wish to enjoy
their health, should attend to the maxim _ne quid nimis_, in dress as
well as in other things. On the other hand too scanty clothing is
assuredly prejudicial to health. Prudent persons vary their dress
according to the state of the air, as seamen shift their sails. Even the
Abipones of both sexes, and of every age, though satisfied at other
times with a woollen garment, put on a kind of cloak, skilfully sewed,
of otters' skins, when the cold south wind is blowing. This skin garment
bears some sort of resemblance to the cloak which we priests wear to
sing vespers in the church.
Galen, in his work on the preservation of the health, boldly and truly
asserts that too great repose of body is highly prejudicial, but
moderate and proper motion, on the other hand, of the utmost utility.
This is consonant to the words of Celsus, Lib. I. c. 1. _Ignavia corpus
hebetat, labor firmat; illa præmaturam senectam, iste longam
adolescentiam reddit._ You cannot therefore be surprized that the
Abipones are athletic like the Macrobii. They are in continual motion.
Riding, hunting, and swimming are their daily employments. War, either
against men or beasts, occasions them to take very long excursions.
Their business is to swim across rivers, climb trees to gather honey,
make spears, bows, and arrows, weave ropes of leather, dress saddles,
practise every thing, in short, fatiguing to the hands or feet. But if
they indulge themselves with an intermission of these employments, they
ride horseraces for a sword which is given to him who reaches the goal
first. Another very common game amongst the Abipones is one which they
play on foot. The instrument with which it is performed is a piece of
wood about two hands long, rounded like a staff, thicker at the
extremities and slenderer in the middle. This piece of wood they throw
to the mark, with a great effort, in such a manner that it strikes the
ground every now and then, and rebounds, like the stones which boys
throw along the surface of a river. Fifty and often a hundred men stand
in a row and throw this piece of wood by turns, and he who flings it the
farthest and the straightest obtains the sword.
This game, which from boys they are accustomed to play at for hours
together, amuses and fatigues them with wonderful benefit to their
health. The same piece of wood which serves both as an instrument of
peace and war, is made formidable use of by many of the savages to crush
the bodies of their enemies and of wild beasts. The Abipones hate to
lead the life of a snail, idle and listless, and consequently do not
undergo a swift and miserable decay, like those who are stupefied with
sloth, confined to their bed, table, or gaming-table, and seldom stir
out into the street or country. The Abiponian women, though debarred
from the sports and equestrian contests of the men, have scarce time to
rest or breathe, so much are they occupied day and night with the
management of their domestic affairs. Hence that masculine vigour of the
females in producing almost gigantic offspring, hence their strength and
longevity.
The food also to which the Abipones are accustomed, in my judgment
contributes not a little to prolong their lives. What Tacitus says of
the ancient Germans is applicable to them: _Cibi simplices, agrestia
poma, recens fera, aut lac concretum, sine apparatu, sine blandimentis
expellunt famem_. They feed, as chance directs, upon beef, or the flesh
of wild animals, mostly roasted, but seldom boiled. If the plain afford
them no wild beasts to hunt, the water will supply their hunger with
various kinds of fish besides otters, ducks, capibaris, &c. From the air
also they receive birds that are by no means to be despised, and from
the woods divers fruits, to appease the cravings of appetite. Should all
these be wanting, roots concealed beneath the ground or the water are
converted into food. Necessity alone will induce them to taste fishes,
though excellent. Tigers' flesh, spite of its vile odour, is in such
esteem amongst them that if one of them kills a tiger, he cuts it into
small portions, and divides it amongst himself and his companions, that
all the hordesmen may share in what they think so delightful a delicacy.
It is an old complaint amongst physicians that new seasonings of food
imported from the new world have brought with them new diseases into
Europe. This complaint cannot affect the Abipones, who are unacquainted
with seasonings, and feed upon simple fare. They detest vinegar; and
salt, though as fond of it as goats, they are seldom able to obtain,
their land producing neither salt nor salt-pits. To remedy this
deficiency they burn a shrub called by the Spaniards _vidriera_, and
sprinkle its ashes, which have a saltish taste, on meat and on tobacco
leaves, previously chewed and kneaded together with the saliva of old
women. But as many of the Abiponian hordes are destitute of this shrub,
the ashes of which are used for salt, they generally eat their meat
unsalted. No one ever denied that the moderate use of salt is wholesome,
for it sucks up noxious humours, and prevents putrefaction: but the too
frequent use of it deadens the eye-sight, exhausts the better juices,
and creates acrid ones injurious both to the blood and skin, by which
means physicians say that the urinal passages are frequently hurt. We
found in Paraguay that horses, mules, oxen, and sheep fattened only in
those pastures where plenty of nitre, or some saltish substance was
mixed with the grass; if that be wanting the cattle very soon become
ragged and lean. Meat sprinkled with salt will keep a long time, but the
more plentifully it is salted the sooner it stinks and putrefies, the
moisture into which salt dissolves united with heat accelerating
putrefaction. Beef hardened by the air alone, and fish dried with
nothing but smoke, will keep many months without a grain of salt, as I
and all the savages know from experience. When we sailed back from
Paraguay to Europe our chief provisions consisted of meat part salted,
part dried by the air alone. The latter from having no salt in it
remained well tasted and free from decay till we reached the port of
Cadiz, while the other soon putrefied and was thrown into the sea even
by the hungry sailors. Now hear what inference I draw from all this.
Since the Abipones, though they use salt but seldom and in small
quantities, are generally healthy and long-lived, I cannot but suspect
that abstinence from salt conduces more to the well being of the body
than the too unsparing use of it.
That diet regulating both meat and drink is the source of a late old
age, firm health, and long life is unanimously agreed by all the great
physicians and philosophers. I have repeatedly affirmed that the
Abipones are vigorous, and long-lived, yet who can call them studious of
diet? They eat when, as much, and as often as they like. They have no
fixed hours for dinner or for supper, but if food be at hand will dine
as soon as they wake. Hungry at all hours they eat at all hours; and an
appetite will never be wanting if they have wherewith to exercise it
upon. You would think that the more they devour the sooner they are
hungry. They are voracious, and, like the other Americans, cram
themselves with flesh, but without injury to their health; for their
stomachs, which will bear both a great quantity of food, and long
abstinence from it, are weakened neither by gormandizing nor by extreme
hunger. They undertake JOURNEYS of many months unfurnished with any
provision. A sufficiency of proper food is often not to be met with on
the way, either from the want of an opportunity of hunting, or from the
unintermitting haste with which the desire of surprizing, or necessity
of flying the enemy obliges them to pursue their journey. Yet an empty
belly and barking stomach never do them any harm, nor even prevent them
from cheerfully conversing to still the sense of hunger. On such
occasions you see them betray no sign of impatience, nor complain of any
indisposition of body. I do not pretend to deny that temperance in
eating and drinking is the parent of longevity, and gluttony that of
disease and premature death; knowing that many saintly hermits have
prolonged their lives to an hundred years, spite of continual fasting,
and that perhaps they would have attained a still greater age had they
taken more nourishment. Yet I scarce wonder that these Christian heroes
lived so long, upon poor and sparing diet, because they were always
celibate, and remained fixed to one spot without ever experiencing great
fatigue. Neither, on the other hand, does it surprize me that the
Abipones should enjoy such singular longevity, united with so much
voracity; for they, who are all married, weary themselves with running,
hunting, swimming, riding, and military exercises, and consequently to
recruit their strength, require, and easily digest a greater quantity of
food: for their vigour would decay and their great bodies languish were
they not frequently reinvigorated with plenty of victuals. The Abipones
are daily obliged to assuage their thirst with river or marsh water,
which is generally tepid or warm, very seldom cold, and not always quite
fresh: might not this be a circumstance conducive to health? For
physicians prefer river or rain water to that of a spring, because it is
lighter and impregnated with fewer noxious particles. The Chinese never
taste a drop of cold water. Many think that snow and ice-water cause
divers disorders. Snow, ice, springs of water, and subterranean cells
for cooling liquors are no where to be found in the territories of the
Abipones, who are also unacquainted with wine expressed from grapes, or
burnt out of fruits by chemic art. But though they use nothing but water
to quench their thirst, yet on the birth of a child, the death of a
relation, a resolution of war, or a victory, they assemble together to
drink a strong liquor made of honey or the alfaroba infused in water,
which when fermented causes intoxication, but taken moderately is of
much service to the health. For it is universally thought that the
alfaroba and wild honey conduce much to prolong life and confirm the
health. The Abipones are in the habit of drinking honey, in which the
woods abound, very frequently; what if we call this a cause of their
vigour and longevity? Both however they partly owe to the use of the
alfaroba, which they either eat dried, or drink in great quantities, as
wine, when fermented in water by its own native heat. Taken either way
it possesses singular virtue, for it restores the exhausted strength,
fattens the body, clears and refreshes the breast, quickly and copiously
discharges the bladder by its diuretic property, radically cures many
disorders, is extremely efficacious against the stone, and affords a
strong alleviation to nephritic diseases. Persons who had tried it
assured me of its possessing those virtues. More robust and healthy
horses are no where to be found throughout the wide extent of Paraguay,
than those born in the territory of St. Iago del Estero, because they
feed principally upon the alfaroba.
Add to this that the Abipones bathe almost every day in some lake or
river. Bathing was certainly much practised, and reckoned of singular
utility amongst the ancients. For as the dirt is washed off by the
water, the pores of the skin are opened, and the perspiration of the
body rendered easier and more commodious; a great advantage to the
health. Some prefer cold bathing to bleeding, for by the one process the
blood is only cooled, by the other it is exhausted. To continual bathing
therefore, the Abipones are in a great measure indebted for the health
and longevity which they possess to such an enviable degree. This
opinion is confirmed in Bacon's History of Life and Death, where it is
asserted that "washing in cold water contributes to lengthen life, and
that the use of warm baths has a contrary effect." P. 131. The same
author is of opinion that "persons who pass great part of their lives
out of doors are generally longer-lived than those that stay more
within." The Abipones spend most of their time out of the house, and
consequently breathe the pure air of heaven which is so salutary to the
human body. Though they dwell under mats spread like a tent, or in fixed
huts, they never suffer the air to be entirely excluded. Nor are they
content with living in the open air, they also choose to be buried
there, entertaining an incredible repugnance to sepulchres within the
church. As the Abipones live long and enjoy excellent health, though
entirely destitute of physicians and druggists, I can hardly help
reckoning their absence amongst the causes which co-operate to render
the savages superior in vigour and longevity to most Europeans, amongst
whom as physicians are numerous, and medicine in general use, there are
many sick persons and few very old men. The Abiponian physicians, of
whom I shall speak more fully hereafter, are impostors more ignorant
than brutes, and totally unworthy the splendid title of physicians,
being born not to heal the sick, but to cheat them with juggleries and
frauds.
That health of body depends in a high degree upon tranquillity of mind
is incontestible: the functions of the brain are disturbed, the stomach
grows languid, the strength fails for want of food, and the better
juices are destroyed, when the mind is oppressed by turbulent
affections, by anxiety, love, fear, anger, or sadness. The body will be
sane if inhabited by a sane mind. This being the case, we cannot wonder
that the Abipones are possessed of great vigour and longevity. Their
minds are generally in a tranquil state. They live reckless of the past,
little curious about the present, and very seldom anxious for the
future. They fear danger, but either from not perceiving or from
despising the weightiness of it, always think themselves able to subdue
or avoid it. When a numerous foe is announced to be at hand they either
provide for their safety by a timely flight, or await the assault, and
amidst jocund songs quaff mead, their elixir, which inspires them with
courage, and banishes fear. Gnawing cares about the augmentation of
their property, or concerning food and raiment, have no place amongst
them. They make no mortal of such account as to die, or run mad, for
hate or love of him. No affections with them are either violent or of
long duration. This tranquillity of mind cherishes the body, and
prolongs their lives to extreme old age. I allow that the climate in
which they live, and which is neither starved with cold nor parched with
heat, is one strengthener of the health, but I deny that it is the only
one; for neither the Spaniards nor the other Indians, though they enjoy
the same temperature of air, live and thrive like the Abipones.
Europeans, if they envy the longevity of the Abipones, should imitate,
as far as possible, their manner of life. They should tranquillize their
minds by subduing vehement passions. They should interpose a little
exercise of body between inaction, and sedentary occupations; they
should mingle water with wine, rest with labour. They should moderate
their luxuries in dress and eating. They should use simple food, not
such as is adulterated by art, and for the purpose of satisfying, not of
provoking the appetite, but make sparing application to medicines and
physicians. And lastly, which is of the greatest importance for
preserving vigour, they should abhor pleasures, the sure destruction of
the body, as much as they desire a green old age.