OF THE FORM AND MATERIALS OF CLOTHING, AND OF
THE FABRIC OF OTHER UTENSILS.
Those persons are egregiously mistaken, who imagine that all the
Americans, without distinction, wear no other clothes than those in
which they were born. This error seems to have arisen from the
misrepresentations of pictures or engravings, in which every American
Indian is pourtrayed like a hairy Satyr, or like one of the Cyclops,
Brontes, or Steropes, or naked Pyracmon. I do not deny that there do
exist in America nations entirely destitute of clothing; but that this
nakedness is common to them all, is very far from being true. The
Payaguas are abominated by the other Indians, because they are
unacquainted with dress and with modesty. They think themselves
elegantly attired when they are painted with various colours from head
to foot, and loaded with glass beads. We found that the Mbayas had
plenty of clothes, but made a bad use of them: for they cover those
parts of the body which may safely be exposed to the eyes of all, and
bare those which modesty commands to be concealed. The Abipones, when I
asked them their opinion of the Mbayas, said they thought them like
dogs, because they were as impudent. My companions too, who dwelt
amongst them, complained much to me of their shamelessness and public
indecencies. The women, however, of both nations wear that degree of
clothing which modesty requires. In the woods called Mbaeverà, or
Mborebiretâ, the country of the antas, I found the men clothed up to the
middle with a thin veil, and naked every where else; but the female
Indians are decently clothed from the shoulders to the heels, with a
white cloth which they weave themselves. I observed the same amongst the
wood-Indians who wander on the shores of the Tapiraguaỹ and the Yeyuy,
crowds of whom were brought by the Jesuits to the new colony of St.
Stanislaus. An old Indian woman and her daughter fifteen years of age,
whom I found in the woods betwixt the rivers Mondaỹ and Empalado, wore
nothing but a net woven of the hemp caraquatà, in which they slept at
night, so that the same dress, which was certainly too transparent,
served them both for bed and clothing.
I can truly say of the Abipones, that whilst they were in a state of
barbarism, and roamed up and down like brutes, they were all decently,
and, in their fashion, elegantly clothed. They will not suffer a female
infant, a few months old even, to remain naked. We have often vainly
desired to see this decency imitated by the Spaniards in Paraguay,
especially those of the cities Asumpcion and Corrientes. How often do
grown women allege the excessive heat of the sun as an excuse for
throwing off their clothes, without the least regard to modesty, in the
public street! For this they are frequently reprehended by preachers,
both in public and private. Do you wish to be made acquainted with the
kind of clothing which the Abipones wear? They use a square piece of
linen, without any alteration, or addition of sleeves, thrown over their
shoulders, tying one end of it to the left arm, and leaving the right
disengaged. They confine this woollen garment, which displays various
colours, and flows from the shoulders to the heels, with a woollen
girth. In leaping on to a horse they keep back their dress with their
knees, that they may not be quite bare: for they know of no such things
as shoes, stockings, or drawers, and are for that reason better prepared
to swim rivers, and ride on horseback. Besides this vest which I have
described, they throw another square piece of linen over their
shoulders, by way of a cloak, which, tied in a knot under the neck, both
defends them against the cold, and gives them a respectable appearance.
When they are hewing down a tree, and are afraid of being fatigued, they
will sometimes throw off their clothes, if they be out of sight. Some
strip themselves quite naked when they are going to join battle with the
savages, partly that, being lighter, they may be so much the more
expeditious in avoiding their adversaries' weapons, partly, that they
may appear to despise wounds. In long JOURNEYS, they generally go
bareheaded amidst rain, heat, and wind. Some, however, tie a piece of
red woollen cloth round their forehead, which is a great defence against
the heat of the sun and pains in the head. They greatly prize a European
hat, especially the young men, who likewise are much delighted with
Spanish saddles, with spurs, and iron bridles. The women wear the same
dress as the men, adjusted in rather a different manner.
The clothing of the Abipones is the chief employment of the women, who
are commendable for their assiduity, and almost avidity in labour: for
not to mention the daily business of the house, they shear sheep, spin
the wool very neatly, dye it beautifully, by the aid of alum, with any
colours they may have at hand, and afterwards weave it into cloth,
adorned with a great number of lines and figures, and with a variety of
colours. You would take it for a Turkey carpet, worthy of noblemen's
houses in Europe. The loom and the instruments of which it consists are
confined to a few reeds and sticks. The American women seem to have a
natural talent for making various useful articles. They can mould pots
and jugs of various forms of clay, not with the assistance of a turning
machine, like potters, but with their hands alone. These clay vessels
they bake, not in an oven, but out of doors, placing sticks round them.
They cannot glaze them with lead, but they first dye them of a red
colour, and then rub them with a kind of glue to make them shine. There
is never any snow, and very little frost, in the region inhabited by the
Abipones: but when the South wind blows hard, the air becomes very
piercing, and sometimes intolerably so to persons thinly clad. The
Abipones shield themselves from the cold with a cloak made of otters'
skins. This garment, which is likewise square, is laboriously and
elegantly made by the women: whose business it is to strip off the skins
of the otters, after they have been caught by dogs, and then fix them to
the ground with very slender pegs, that they may not wrinkle. After
being dried, they are painted red, in square lines like a dice box. The
Indian women cannot dress hides like curriers, but after having well
rubbed and softened them with their hands, they sew them with a very
thin thread, with so much skill, that the seams escape the quickest eye,
and the whole cloak looks like one skin. For needles they use very small
thorns, with which they pierce the otters' skins, as shoemakers do
leather with an awl, so that the slender thread of the caraquatà can be
passed through it. This cloak is commonly used both by men and women,
when the air is cold; but the old people of both sexes will not part
with a hair of these otters' skins, even in the hottest weather. Some of
the poorer sort appear clothed in the skins of stags, does, and tigers.
All the Americans, who are not entirely devoid of modesty, cover
themselves with skins to keep out the cold. Others substitute, or wear
in addition, the many coloured feathers of birds, sewed together with
singular art; but this is more for the sake of adorning than of covering
the body. The savages who inhabit the mountains, generally make threads
of the caraquatá, or of the bark of the tree pinô, with which they weave
a kind of cloth to serve in part for a covering. The Abiponian widows,
whilst they mourn for their husbands, cover their shorn heads and their
shoulders with this same kind of cloth. When the Abipones are bathed in
sweat, the otters' skins, from not being dressed, exhale, I confess, a
by no means balsamic odour. On coldish nights they are used for
counterpanes. These skins and cloaks, when worn by use, generally serve
to wrap and cover infants, and, when they have no linen in the house, to
bind up wounds.
In former ages the Americans preferred nakedness to clothing so greatly,
that they refused or threw away the garments offered them by the
Europeans. Now, however, the ardour with which the Paraguayrian Indians
seek fine dresses exceeds belief. Give them a handsome hat, some pieces
of red linen or cloth, or a string of glass-beads, and they will pay you
the profoundest homage and obedience. Day and night did the Abipones
pester us with the following petition: Give me a dress, father! _Paỳ!
Tachcauê hihilalk_, or _aapar̂aik_. There is no surer method of gaining
the hearts of the Indians than giving them clothes. No American colony
will abound in Christian inhabitants, unless it also abound in sheep and
oxen; the wool of the former being necessary to clothe, and the flesh of
the latter to feed the bodies of the Indians. If both or either of these
articles be wanting, they will return to their retreats, and think
themselves richer in being foes than friends to the Spaniards. For, as I
have often heard them complain, they found war with the Christians more
to their advantage than peace. In times of declared enmity, they
acquired by arms what, when peace was established, they failed of
obtaining by prayers. The most eloquent teacher of God's word will do
but little good in Paraguay, unless he be liberal in clothing and
feeding his disciples. Should an angel descend from Heaven to make the
Abipones acquainted with God and his commandments, if he should come
empty handed, unprovided with clothes, food, and other gifts, it would
be all in vain, he would scarce obtain a hearing. Were the blackest
demon to come up from hell, and offer them chests full of clothes, food,
knives, scissors, rings, and glass-beads, he would be called captain,
and find all the Abipones tractable and obedient. If you ask me why the
Americans have not all been induced to embrace Christianity, I will tell
you the reason. It is chiefly owing to the pernicious examples of the
old Christians, and to their want of liberality to the Indians; the
former deter them from embracing our religion, while the latter renders
them apostates to it. Another cause is to be found in the extreme, and
almost incredible scarcity of priests to instruct them, and indeed of
all things. After perusing the latter part of my history, you will
perhaps be better inclined to credit what I say.