OF THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ABIPONES.
The Abipones, in their whole deportment, preserve a decorum scarce
credible to Europeans. Their countenance and gait display a modest
cheerfulness, and manly gravity tempered with gentleness and kindness.
Nothing licentious, indecent, or uncourteous, is discoverable in their
actions. In their daily meetings, all is quiet and orderly. Confused
vociferations, quarrels, or sharp words, have no place there. They love
jokes in conversation, but are averse to indecency and ill-nature. If
any dispute arises, each declares his opinion with a calm countenance
and unruffled speech: they never break out into clamours, threats, and
reproaches, as is usual to certain people of Europe. These praises are
justly due to the Abipones as long as they remain sober: but when
intoxicated, they shake off the bridle of reason, become distracted, and
quite unlike themselves. In their assemblies, they maintain the utmost
politeness. One scarcely dares to interrupt another, when he is
speaking. Whilst one man relates some event of war, perhaps for half an
hour together, all the rest not only listen attentively, but assent at
every sentence, making a loud snort, as a sign of affirmation, which
they every now and then express with these words: _quevorken_,
certainly, _cleerà_, very true, and _chik akalagritan_, I don't in the
least doubt it. _Ta yeegàm_, or _kem ekemat!_ are exclamations of
wonder. With these words, uttered with great eagerness, they interrupt
the preacher in the midst of his discourse, thinking it a mark of
respect. They account it extremely ill-mannered to contradict any one,
however much he may be mistaken. They salute one another, and return the
salute in these words: _La nauichi?_ Now are you come? _La ñauè_, Now I
am come. But in general, for the sake of brevity, both parties only use
the word _Là_, pronounced with much emphasis. The same manner of
saluting is usual to the Guaranies, who say _Ereyupà_? Are you come?
_Ayù angâ_, I am come. When tired of a conversation, they never depart
without taking leave of the master of the house. The one who sits
nearest to him, says: _Ma chik kla leyà?_ Have we not talked enough? the
second accosts the third, and the third the fourth, in the same words,
till at length the last of the circle, seated on the ground, declares
that they have talked enough: _Kla leyà_, upon which they all rise up
together at one moment. Each then courteously takes leave of the master
of the house in these words, _Lahikyegarik_: now I am going from you; to
which he replies, _La micheroà_: now you are going from me. The plebeian
Indians say _Lahik_, now I am going. When at the door of the house, that
is, at the place where they go out, for they have no doors, they turn to
the master, and say, _Tamtařa_, I shall see you again, an expression
commonly made use of in our country. They would think it quite contrary
to the laws of good-breeding, were they to meet any one, and not ask him
where he was going: so that the word _Miekauè_ or _Miekauchitè_? where
are you going? resounds in the streets.
The men think polygamy and divorce allowable, from the example of their
ancestors, and of other American nations; but very few of the Abipones
indulge in this liberty. Repudiation is much more common than a
plurality of wives. But very many are content with one wife during the
whole of their lives. They think it both wicked and disgraceful to have
any illicit connection with other women; so that adultery is almost
unheard-of amongst them. Both boys and girls display a native hilarity
in their countenances, yet you never see them in company, or talking
together. Some time after my arrival, I played on the flute in the open
street. The crowd of women were delighted with the sweetness of a
musical instrument they had never before seen; and the youths flocked in
numbers to hear it; but as soon as they approached, the women every one
disappeared. The custom of bathing in a neighbouring stream is agreeable
to them, and practised every day, except when the air is too cold. But
do not imagine that, as syrens and dolphins are seen sporting on the
same waves in the ocean, males and females swim and wash in the same
part of the lake, or river. According to the Abiponian custom, the
different sexes have different places assigned them. Where the women
bathe, you cannot find the shadow of a man. Above a hundred women often
go out to distant plains together to collect various fruits, roots,
colours, and other useful things, and remain four or eight days in the
country, without having any male to accompany them on their journey,
assist them in their labours, take care of the horses, or guard them
amidst the perils of wild beasts, or of enemies. Those Amazons are
sufficient to themselves, and think they are safer alone. I never heard
of a single woman being torn to pieces by a tiger, or bitten by a
serpent: but I knew many men who were killed in both ways.
I do not deny that the Abipones have been savage, inhuman, and
ferocious, but only against those whom they believed to be their
enemies. Before peace was established, they afflicted all Paraguay, for
many years, with fire, slaughter, and rapine; but this they looked upon
as the privilege of war, and indeed a thing to be gloried in, because
they always found or suspected the Spaniards their enemies. They thought
they were only repelling force by force, and returning injuries for
injuries, slaughters for slaughters; which they deny to be wrong or
dishonourable; seeing the same so frequently done, in time of war, by
the Spaniards to the Portugueze, and by the Portugueze to the Spaniards.
Led by their example, they insisted upon it that they should not be
called assassins, and thieves, but soldiers, whose duty it is to offend
their adversaries, and defend themselves and their possessions to the
utmost of their power. The heads of the Spaniards severed from their
shoulders, they called their trophies, and preserved as testimonials of
their valour. The innumerable herds of cattle, the thousands of horses,
in short whatever they took from the Spaniards, they called booty justly
obtained in war. They always disown the name of robbers, in the plea
that all the cattle of the Spaniards, by right, belongs to them;
because, born on lands which the Spaniards forcibly wrested from their
ancestors, and which, in their opinion, they at this day unjustly usurp.
To eradicate these errors, we all ardently strove to instil into their
ferocious minds an affection and friendship for the Spaniards; but our
efforts were not crowned with success. Although they burnt with
hereditary hatred to the Spaniards, yet, in their very manner of killing
them, they displayed a sort of humanity. They inflicted death, but
thought it unworthy of them, after the mortal blow, to torture,
excruciate, tear, and mangle them, like other savages; though they were
wonderfully solicitous about cutting off their heads, by displaying
which they thought to testify their valour to their countrymen at home.
They generally spared the unwarlike, and carried away innocent boys and
girls unhurt. They used to feed infants, torn from their mothers'
breasts, with the juice of fruits and herbs, during a long journey, and
carried them home uninjured. If ever mothers, or their children, were
slain, it was done by youths thirsting for the blood of the Spaniards,
or by grown men enraged at the deaths of their countrymen whom the
Spaniards had slain.
The Spaniards, Indians, Negroes, or Mulattoes, taken by them in war,
they do not ill-use like captives, but treat with kindness, and
indulgence; I had almost said like children. If a master wants his
captive to do any thing, he signifies it in an asking, not a commanding
tone. _If you please_, he gently says, or _take compassion on me_, and
_bring me my horse, Amamàt gröhöchem_, or _Grcáuagiikàm, yañerla
ahöpegak tak nahörechi ena_. I never saw a captive, however dilatory or
hesitating in performing his master's orders, punished either with a
word or a blow. Many display the tenderest compassion, kindness, and
confidence towards their captives. To clothe them, they will strip their
own bodies, and though very hungry, will deprive themselves of food to
offer it them, if they stand in need of it. An old woman, wife of the
chief Cacique Alaykin, has frequently got the horse ready and saddled
it, in my presence, for a Negro captive of her's. Another old woman,
mother of the Cacique Revachigi, gave up her bed for many nights to a
sick boy, one of her captives, and, lying miserably on the floor
herself, watched day and night in attendance upon him. By this kindness
and wish to gratify, they bind their captives so firmly to them, that
they never think of taking advantage of the daily opportunities afforded
them of flight, being perfectly well satisfied with their situation. I
knew many, who, after being ransomed, and brought back to their own
country, voluntarily returned to their Abiponian masters, whom they
follow both to the chase and to the combat; little scrupulous about
shedding the blood of Spaniards, though Spaniards themselves. What a
subject for lamentation have we here! How many Spaniards by birth,
brought up from childhood amongst the Abipones, and instructed in their
ceremonies, customs, and a hundred arts of injury, became the destroyers
of Paraguay, their native soil! Whenever these men were present at the
bloody expeditions of the savages, they were not only companions of the
journey, but guides and partakers in all the slaughter, burning, and
plundering committed at such times; in a word, instruments of public
calamities, in the same manner as the Portugueze, Spanish, and Italian
renegadoes, who did so much service to the pirates of Algiers and
Morocco, by intercepting the vessels of their countrymen.
Now at this moment I have before my eyes the countenances and wicked
actions of many of these captives, whom I knew amongst the Abipones, and
who, in desire of injuring the Spaniards, and indeed in savageness,
exceeded the savages themselves. The soldiers of St. Iago, whilst
resting at noon in an excursion to Chaco, happened to cast their eyes
upon a scull, and after much debate about whom it could belong to,
clearly discovered that a short time previous, four Spaniards had been
slain in that place, and that the perpetrator of the murder was a
Spaniard, a captive, and leader of the Abipones, and more formidable to
the Spanish nation than any Abipon. Many things worthy of relation will
occur respecting this base crew, respecting Almaràz, Casco, Juanico, a
Negro of Corrientes, Juan Joseph, an Ytatingua Indian, and above all,
respecting Juan Diaz Caëperlahachin. This last, an Abipon by origin, had
been taken in war by the Spaniards, when a boy, and afterwards converted
to their religion. During twenty years which he spent in the town of St.
Iago, in the service of the Spaniard Juan Diaz Caëperlahachin, he
evinced much probity, and even piety. Every year, in the last week of
Lent, did he publicly mangle his back with a bloody scourge; but after
having effected his escape, and got back to his countrymen, he became
the scourge of the Spaniards, and shedding torrents of their blood,
obtained a high renown amongst his own people, to whom his knowledge of
roads and places rendered him eminently useful; for, in expeditions
having the slaughter of the Spaniards for their object, no man
discharged the offices of scout and leader more gloriously or more
willingly than he. Peace being subsequently established with the
Spaniards, and the colony of Concepcion founded for the Abipones, this
man, who was acquainted with many languages, performed the part of
interpreter there; abusing which office to his own purposes, he left no
stone unturned to render the friendship of the Spaniards suspicious, the
religion of Christ, and us, the teachers of that religion, odious to the
Abiponian catechumens. Feigning, however, piety and friendship, this
crafty knave succeeded in gaining an excellent character amongst the
credulous Spaniards and Abipones, though dangerous to both, and
perfectly intolerable to us who governed the colony. But lo! the
pestilent son had a still more pestilent mother. This woman, the chief
of all the female jugglers, a hundred years old, venerable to the people
on account of her wrinkles, and formidable by reason of the magic arts
she was thought to be acquainted with, never ceased exhorting her
countrymen to shun and detest the church, our instruction, and baptism,
even when administered to dying infants. Behold! a mother worthy of her
son—a bad egg of a bad crow! But the vengeance of God overtook this
accursed old woman. Flying from the town, with a band of her hordesmen,
she was killed by the Mocobios, along with many others. Of what death,
or in what place Caëperlahachin died, I am still ignorant.
The liberty of wandering at will, the abundant supply of food and
clothing, the multitude of horses, the power of being as idle and
profligate as they chose, and the completest impunity, where neither law
nor censure is to be apprehended, bind the Spanish captives to the
Abipones with so sweet a chain, that they prefer their captivity to
freedom, forgetful of their relations and their country, where they know
that they must live in obedience to the laws, and labour daily, unless
they choose to endure stripes and hunger. I have known captives of so
bad a disposition that their masters were glad to get rid of them
without ransom. In many of the captives you would look in vain for the
least trace of a Christian, or even of a man. Very few of the Abipones
have many wives at a time, though they account polygamy lawful; the
captives, seldom content with one, marry as many Spanish or Indian
captives as they can. For the Abiponian women scorn to marry either
Spaniards, or Indians of any other nation, unless, by the splendour of
their achievements, namely, slaughters and rapine, they be reputed
Abipones in nobility. The men too, accounting themselves more noble than
any other nation, never deign to marry the Spanish captives, much less
to have any clandestine intercourse with them: so that their virtue
would be safer in captivity amongst the savages, than in freedom amongst
their own countrymen, could they escape the seductive arts of their
fellow captives. In confession, I found most of the female Spaniards,
after a very long captivity amongst the Abipones, guilty of no trespass
upon the laws of chastity. They all agreed in confessing that no woman
need go astray amongst these savages, unless she herself chose it. I can
say as much for the continence of the young men, who had been long
captives amongst them.
The gentle reader will pardon this digression concerning captives, if
indeed it be a digression, because it does much towards establishing a
good opinion of the chastity and benevolence of the Abipones, which form
the subject of the present chapter, and will be further confirmed by
additional arguments. They hospitably entertain Spaniards of the lower
order, Negroes or Christian Indians, who have run away from their
masters, lost their way, or, by some other means, chanced to enter the
hordes of the Abipones, and, in the most friendly manner, offer them
food or any thing else they may stand in need of; this they do the more
cordially the more liberally these strangers abuse the Spanish nation;
but if they neglect this they are taken for spies, and undergo
considerable danger. They diligently watched over the safety of us
Jesuits, to whom was committed the management of the colonies. If they
were aware of any danger impending over us from foreign foes, they
acquainted us with it immediately, and were all intent upon warding it
from us. In JOURNEYS, when rivers were to be crossed, the horses got
ready, sudden and secret attacks of the enemy to be avoided or repelled,
it is incredible how anxiously they offered us their assistance. See!
what mild, benevolent souls these savages possess! Though they used to
rob and murder the Spaniards whilst they thought them their enemies, yet
they never take anything from their own countrymen. Hence, as long as
they are sober, and in possession of their senses, homicide and theft
are almost unheard of amongst them. They are often and long absent from
their homes, during which time they leave their little property without
a guard, or even a door, exposed to the eyes and hands of all, with no
apprehension of the loss of it, and on their return from a long journey,
find every thing untouched. The doors, locks, bars, chests, and guards
with which Europeans defend their possessions from thieves, are things
unknown to the Abipones, and quite unnecessary to them. Boys and girls
not unfrequently pilfered melons grown in our gardens, and chickens
reared in our houses, but in them the theft was excusable; for they
falsely imagined that these things were free to all, or might be taken
not much against the will of the owner. Though I have enlarged on the
native virtues of the Abipones more than it was my intention to do, I
shall think nothing has been said till I have made a few observations
relative to their endurance of labour. Who can describe the constant
fatigues of war and hunting which they undergo? When they make an
excursion against the enemy, they often spend two or three months in an
arduous journey of above three hundred leagues through desert wilds.
They swim across vast rivers, and long lakes more dangerous than rivers.
They traverse plains of great extent, destitute both of wood and water.
They sit for whole days on saddles scarce softer than wood, without
having their feet supported by a stirrup. Their hands always bear the
weight of a very long spear. They generally ride trotting horses, which
miserably shake the rider's bones by their jerking pace. They go
bareheaded amidst burning sun, profuse rain, clouds of dust, and
hurricanes of wind. They generally cover their bodies with woollen
garments, which fit close to the skin; but if the extreme heat obliges
them to throw these off as far as the middle, their breasts, shoulders,
and arms are cruelly bitten and covered with blood by swarms of flies,
gad-flies, gnats, and wasps. As they always set out upon their journeys
unfurnished with provisions, they are obliged to be constantly on the
look out for wild animals, which they may pursue, kill, and convert into
a remedy for their hunger. As they have no cups they pass the night by
the side of rivers or lakes, out of which they drink like dogs. But this
opportunity of getting water is dearly purchased; for moist places are
not only seminaries of gnats and serpents, but likewise the haunts of
dangerous wild beasts, which threaten them with sleepless nights and
peril of their lives. They sleep upon the hard ground, either starved
with cold, or parched with heat, and if overtaken by a storm, often lie
awake, soaking in water the whole night. When they perform the office of
scouts, they frequently have to creep on their hands and feet over
trackless woods, and through forests, to avoid discovery; passing days
and nights without sleep or food. This also was the case when they were
long pursued by the enemy, and forced to hasten their flight. All these
things the Abipones do, and suffer without ever complaining, or uttering
an expression of impatience, unlike Europeans, who, at the smallest
inconvenience, get out of humour, grow angry, and since they cannot bend
heaven to their will, call upon hell. What we denominate patience is
nature with them. Their minds are habituated to inconvenience, and their
bodies almost rendered insensible by long custom, even from childhood.
While yet children they imitate their fathers in piercing their breasts
and arms with sharp thorns, without any manifestation of pain. Hence it
is, that when arrived at manhood, they bear their wounds without a
groan, and would think the compassion of others derogatory to their
fortitude. The most acute pain will deprive them of life before it will
extort a sigh. The love of glory, acquired by the reputation of
fortitude, renders them invincible, and commands them to be silent.
Most of the observations I have just been making apply both to men and
women, although the latter possess virtues and vices peculiar to
themselves. All the Americans have a natural propensity to sloth, but I
gladly pronounce the Abiponian women entirely free from this foible.
Every one must be astonished at their unwearied industry. They despatch
the household business with which they are daily overwhelmed, with
alacrity and cheerfulness. It is their task to make clothes for their
husbands and children; to fetch eatable roots, and various fruits from
the woods; to gather the alfaroba, grind it, and convert it into drink,
and to get water and wood for the daily consumption of the family. A
ridiculous custom is in use amongst the Abipones, of making the most
aged woman in the horde provide water for all domestic purposes. Though
the river may be close at hand, the water is always fetched in large
pitchers on horseback, and the same method is observed in getting wood
for fuel. You will never hear one of these women complain of fatigue,
however many cares she may have to employ her mind. A noble Spaniard had
a captive Abiponian woman in his service many years, and he assured me
that she was more useful and valuable to him than three other servants,
because she anticipated his orders, and did her business seasonably,
accurately, and quickly. They justly claim the epithet of the _devout
female sex_. No sooner do they hear the sound of the bell than they all
fly to hear the Christian religion explained, and listen to the preacher
with attentive ears. They highly approve the law of Christ, because by
it no husband is allowed to put away his wife, or to marry more than
one. For this reason they are extremely anxious to have themselves and
their husbands baptized, that they may be rendered more certain of the
perpetuity of their marriage. This must be understood only of the
younger women; for the old ones, who are obstinate adherers to their
ancient superstitions, and priestesses of the savage rites, strongly
oppose the Christian religion, foreseeing that if it were embraced by
the whole Abiponian nation, they should lose their authority, and become
the scorn and the derision of all. The young men amongst the Abipones,
as well as the old women, greatly withstood the progress of religion;
for, burning with the desire of military glory and of booty, they are
excessively fond of cutting off the heads of the Spaniards, and
plundering their waggons and estates, which they know to be forbidden by
the law of God. Hence, they had rather adhere to the institutes of their
ancestors, and traverse the country on swift horses, than listen to the
words of a priest within the walls of a church. If it depended upon the
old men and the young women alone, the whole nation would long since
have embraced our religion.
Honourable mention has been frequently made by me of the chastity of the
Abiponian women: it would be wrong to be silent upon their sobriety and
temperance. It costs them much labour to prepare a sweet drink for their
husbands of honey and the alfaroba: but they never even taste it
themselves, being condemned to pure water the whole of their lives.
Would that they as carefully abstained from strife and contentions, as
they do from all strong drink! Quarrels certainly do arise amongst them,
and often end in blood, upon the most trivial occasions. They generally
dispute about things of no consequence, about goats' wool, as Horace
expresses it, or the shadow of an ass. One word uttered by a scolding
woman is often the cause and means of exciting a mighty war. The
Abipones, in anger, use the following terms of reproach: _Acami
Lanar̂aik_, you are an Indian, that is, plebeian, ignoble; _Acami
Lichiegar̂aik_, you are poor, wretched; _Acami Ahamr̂aik_, you are dead.
They sometimes dreadfully misapply these epithets. Who would not laugh
to hear a horse, flying as quick as lightning, but which his rider
wishes to incite to greater speed, called _Ahamr̂aik_, dead? When two
women quarrel, one calls the other poor, or low-born, or perhaps
lifeless. Presently a loud vociferation is heard, and from words they
proceed to blows. The whole company of women crowd to the market-place,
not merely to look on, but to give assistance as they shall think
proper. Some defend the one, some the other. The duel soon becomes a
battle-royal. They fly at each other's breasts with their teeth like
tigers, and often give them bloody bites. They lacerate one another's
cheeks with their nails, rend their hair with their hands, and tear the
hole of the flap of the ear, into which the roll of palm-leaves is
inserted. Though a husband sees his wife, and a father his daughter,
bathed in blood and covered with wounds, yet they look on at a distance,
with motionless feet, silent tongues, and calm eyes; they applaud their
Amazons, laugh, and wonder to see such anger in the souls of women, but
would think it beneath a man to take any part in these female battles.
If there appears no hope of the restoration of peace, they go to the
Father: "See!" say they, "our women are out of their senses again
to-day. Go, and frighten them away with a musket." Alarmed at the noise,
and even at the sight of this, they hasten back to their tents, but even
from thence, with a Stentorian voice, repeat the word which had been the
occasion of the combat, and, neither liking to seem conquered, return
again and again to the market-place, and renew the fight. It seems to
have been a regulation of divine Providence, that the Abiponian women
should abstain from all strong liquors, for, if so furious when sober,
what would they have been in a state of intoxication? The whole race of
the Abipones would have been utterly destroyed.