OF THE CUSTOMARY REMOVAL OF THE BONES.
A few things remain to be said of the ceremonies with which the bones of
the dead are honoured by the Abipones when they are removed to their
native land, and thence to the family burying-places. Many translations
of this kind have I witnessed: I will briefly relate that of the Cacique
Ychamenraikin, who was killed in battle by the savages at a place full
forty leagues distant from the town of St. Jeronymo. A drummer came
announcing that the bones of the deceased leader would be carried into
the town next day about evening. After the flesh had been stripped off
and buried by his companions, they were put into a hide and conveyed on
a horse. To receive these bones with due honour, preparations were made
by Hanetrain, the chief of the jugglers, and his companion Lamamin, and
a house to place the sad remains in appointed and properly furnished.
The whole company of the women hastened to meet the funeral at three
leagues distance. At the entrance of the town the order of the funeral
profession was this: the mournful train was led by two jugglers, mounted
on horses ornamented with bells, horse-cloths and ostrich feathers. They
brandished in their hands a spear, to which was affixed a brazen bell.
They did not keep with the rest, but galloping forwards, rode up and
down as if they were skirmishing, then returned into the path like
persons making an assault, and rejoined the rest of the company. These
were followed by a train of women lamenting in the manner I have
described. Six Abipones in place of an umbrella held up at the end of
their spears an elegant square cloth woven like a carpet, under which
they carried the sack of bones. The company was closed by the troop of
the other Abipones, all mounted on horses, furnished with a spear, a
bow, and a quiver, and with their heads shaven. The victors were
followed by a band of women and children lately taken in war, so that
this otherwise mournful spectacle bore more the appearance of a triumph
than of a funeral. On each side was seen a multitude of horses hastening
to their pastures after the military expedition. All the ways were
crowded with boys and girls careless of the lamentations, but struck
with the novelty of the spectacle. The bones being placed in a house
prepared for their reception, the regular mourning was carried on for
nine days. Nocturnal wailings were as usual added to those of the day.
That the lamentations might be carried on without intermission, the
jugglers, carrying a spear with a bell at the end of it, visited all the
houses to admonish the women at what hours to mourn. The funeral
compotation, meantime, and the conducting of it as magnificently as was
due to the memory of so great a leader, was the sole care of the men—a
care admirably calculated to abate the poignancy of their grief; and
indeed it would be difficult to decide whether the men drank, or the
women mourned most pertinaciously. Whilst this was going on at home,
persons of both sexes were chosen to accompany the bones of
Ychamenraikin to his family burying-place, and there inter them
agreeably to the rites of their country. These ceremonies were observed
by the savages before they were instructed in the Christian religion
only. Other removals of bones were conducted in exactly the same manner,
with the exception of the canopy, which was reserved exclusively for
their leaders. The bones of seven Abipones, who had been slain by the
Spaniards, were brought home on one day, and skilfully constructed into
as many images; hats being placed on their skulls, and clothes on their
bodies. These seven skeletons were placed in a savage hut, honoured for
nine successive days with mourning and drinking, and thence transported
to their graves.
Should there be any European who makes little account of sepulture,
saying with Virgil,
_Cælo tegitur qui non habet urnam_,
that man is of a very different way of thinking from the Abipones, who
esteem it the greatest misfortune to be left to rot in the open air.
Hence amongst them, persons inflamed with the desire of revenge
contemptuously cast away the carcasses of their enemies, making fifes
and trumpets of their bones, and using their skulls for cups. On the
other hand, they honourably inter the smallest bone of one of their
friends, paying it every possible mark of respect. We have known savage
Guaranies, who, in all their migrations, carried with them little boxes
containing the relics of their jugglers, and in them, as in holy
preservatives, placed all their hopes. These monuments of savage
superstition were at length taken away by the missionaries, and burnt by
them in the presence of all. The Guaranies newly brought from the woods
to our colonies had no stronger inducement to embrace the Catholic
religion than the seeing their countrymen buried by us with honourable
ceremonies and a solemn chaunt. But now, after I have discoursed with
prolixity on the diseases, physicians, medicines, death, and sepulture
of the Abipones, it cannot be thought foreign to the course of my
history to treat of the serpents and noxious insects which inflict death
on many, and threaten it to all: it will also be agreeable to Europeans
to know by what means the Americans defend themselves against serpents,
or expel the poison of their wounds.