CONTINUATION OF THE SAME SUBJECT.
The hotter parts both of North and South America breed a little worm,
the daily cause of many groans, and not a few deaths. In appearance, and
in its manner of skipping, it resembles the smallest of all possible
fleas, and is hardly visible to the keenest eye, except in a very strong
light, but so pungent that it must be felt by every one that is not made
of stone or iron. This insect has so sharp a proboscis that it will
pierce shoes, boots, gaiters, and every kind of clothing. It adheres a
little while to the skin, and then penetrates the flesh, causing an
intense itching: concealed there, as under a burrow, it surrounds itself
with a round whitish little bladder, which it fills with eggs like the
smallest nits. If this bladder remain many days under the skin, it
increases to the size of a pea. This is a common sight. The longer the
bladder adheres to the body, the more is the sense of pain deadened.
Children are much the fittest to rout this enemy from his station, for
the strong sight they possess enables them immediately to discover the
little red spot which denotes the place where the worm has entered the
flesh. The circumference of that spot they prick with a needle,
gradually open the skin and flesh, and at length pluck out the whole
bladder with the little worm buried amongst its nits. When this is put
to a candle, it goes off with a noise like gunpowder. But if the bladder
be broken in the operation, the humour effused from thence will occasion
further pain, and the nits, by being scattered, will breed fresh worms
in the same place. That this gnat teems with poisonous matter is evident
from the circumstance that the hollow from which it has been eradicated,
not unfrequently inflames, swells, and, unless quickly remedied, becomes
gangrenous. The nails of the feet, which they frequently attack, always
decay and fall off, and, to preserve life, it is often necessary to
amputate the toes. Those who wish to guard against this inconvenience,
should study cleanliness in their houses, for the said worms derive
their origin from dust, excrement, and urine in a hot climate, and are
bred in places which are seldom swept, which have been long uninhabited,
and where the cold air has no access to dry the moisture. The stalls of
oxen, horses, and mules, though in the open air, and without a roof,
swarm with them. In the southern parts of Paraguay, where the air is not
so hot, this noxious insect is unknown; indeed it is seen no where but
in the territories of Buenos-Ayres, and Cordoba of the Tucumans. After
passing six years in Paraguay, I was only acquainted with it by name,
and it was not till my removal to the colony of St. Ferdinand, that I
began to see, to suffer and to execrate this pest. Persons who live in a
place infested by these insects, should have their feet daily examined;
for however troublesome this inspection may be, much greater
inconvenience will be incurred by the neglect of it. At one sitting a
boy will often take out twenty or more worms, and when your fingers and
nails are almost all filled with holes, and the soles of your feet so
lacerated as to prevent you from walking a step without difficulty, you
will yourself deplore your neglect and procrastination. I have known
many persons confined to their beds for weeks, and others entirely
deprived of the use of their feet on this account. Though these worms
chiefly attack the feet, yet they sometimes, with still greater danger,
creep to the other parts of the body, and make their nest in the arm or
knee. Dogs, from their always lying on the ground, are most troubled
with these insects; but they dexterously remove them from their flesh
with their tongues, and heal the wound by licking it. Sows, tame
monkeys, cats, goats, and sheep, are dreadfully tormented by them; but
horses, asses, mules, and oxen, are protected against the common enemy
by the hardness of their hoofs. The Americans should take care to fill
up the hollow left by the bladder with tobacco-powder, ashes, or soap,
otherwise the wound made by the needle, and infected with the poison of
the insect, will become ulcerous, conceive matter, and, on occasion of
inflammation, or violent motion of the feet, will end in a gangrene, or
St. Anthony's fire. Hen's fat and a cabbage leaf applied to the feet, to
allay the inflammation, have often been found of service. They write
that the Brazilians, to keep off these worms, anoint their feet with an
oil expressed from the unripe acorns of the acaju. Sailors daub
themselves with pitch for the same purpose. All of us, in the fear of
these and other insects, wore sheepskin leggings, but we found them weak
and inefficient defences.
The common fleas of Europe, diffused like æther throughout every part of
the air, are not only bred in Paraguay, but domineer most insolently
here, as in their native soil. It is a remarkable circumstance that the
plain itself, which is covered with grass, swarms with fleas. Persons
sailing on the Paraguay, when they leave the vessel to pass the night or
noon on the shore, though they lie on a green turf, where no man or dog
ever trod, will return to the ship blackened with fleas. If this occurs
in the green plain, what must we expect in the dry floors of an
apartment, covered neither with brick, stone, nor board? In apartments
of this kind have I dwelt seven years amongst the Abipones, during which
time I had to contend with countless swarms of fleas. Do you enquire the
remedy for fleas in America? There is but one, namely, patience.
Columella, Kircher, and others, are indeed of opinion that these insects
are not only driven away but destroyed by a decoction of odoriferous
herbs scattered on the floor; and the Guaranies do certainly boil for
this purpose a strong-scented herb, sprinkling the chamber with the
water when boiling hot, and sweeping it once or twice. But if the fleas
are destroyed by this means, I attribute it, not to the strong smell of
the herbs, but to the water in which they are boiled, and to the mops by
which they are swept away. Let the houses be cleared of dust and dogs,
and rendered pervious to frequent winds; these are the best precautions
against the smaller insects. Lice are never to be met with amongst the
Abipones, except in the hair. The Spanish colonies abound in bugs, but I
never beheld one in the towns of the Indians. Flying bugs, called
_binchuccas_, are common in Cordoba, and other parts of Tucuman. By day
they lurk in the chinks of roofs and chests, but fly out at night and
make bloody war upon sleepers. They affect the part upon which they
fasten with an intolerable heat, seeming rather to burn than bite the
body. The red spots caused by the pain appear as if they had been raised
by a caustic. Fatigued with fifteen days hard riding, through a
continuous desert, and amid unceasing showers, I reached the town of
Salabina, where repose was not only desirable, but almost indispensable
for me; yet the whole night passed away without my being able to obtain
a wink of sound sleep. I felt all my limbs pricked and heated, but was
unable to discover the cause of this unusual pain. When day-light
appeared, all who saw me covered with red spots pitied my misfortune,
and assured me that the flying bugs were the cause of it. In another
journey I passed the night in company with a noble priest, who, after we
had partaken of a light supper, set out with me and his domestics to
sleep in a neighbouring field. In that part of the country this is both
customary and necessary, for in hot nights the houses swarm with bugs to
such a degree that it is impossible to get any sleep in them.
Amongst pernicious insects no inconsiderable place should be assigned to
the _garrapata_, which is about the size of a lentil, and in form
resembles a land tortoise, except that it is more spherical, wearing on
its back a mail like that animal. It is of a dark tawny colour, partly
variegated, has a flat body, eight little feet, and a prominent head or
proboscis, which it inserts into the skin, fastening, at the same time,
the hooks of its feet into it, and whilst it sucks blood from every part
of the body, creates an itching and inflammation, followed by swelling
and matter, which often lasts four days or more, while the ulcer will
hardly heal within a fortnight. When the insect has fixed its head deep
into the flesh, it is very difficult to pull it out entire; and if it
remain sticking in the flesh you will be in a bad condition; for the
venom will not be got rid of till matter has flowed for a long time from
that itching ulcer. The plains and woods are filled with this insect, so
hostile both to man and beast. Where you see rotten leaves, or reeds,
there you will find swarms of this little animal. When we travelled in
the woods to discover the hordes of the savages, we disregarded tigers,
serpents, and caruguàs, in comparison with these noxious insects: it was
our constant complaint that we had not eyes enough to avoid them, nor
hands sufficient to drive them away. The Spaniards employed in seeking
the herb of Paraguay, when they daily return to their hut, lay down the
bundles of boughs with which they are laden, and hasten to the next lake
or river to bathe, where, having stripped themselves naked, they examine
one another's bodies, and pluck out the garrapatas sticking in their
flesh; unless this precaution were adopted, they would be killed in a
few days with the superabundance of matter, and of ulcers. Goats, does,
monkeys, tamanduas, dogs, and every wild animal that inhabits the plains
or woods, all swarm with these insects. The lesser garrapatas are much
more mischievous than the larger ones.
There are many species and incredible numbers both of creeping and
flying ants in Paraguay. The worst and most stinging kind are the least
in size, and of a red colour. They carry off sugar, honey, and every
thing sweet, so that you have need of much ingenuity to defend provision
of this kind from them. From eating sweet things they increase their
bile, and acquire a subtle venom. As soon as they get upon the skin,
they create a pustule, which lasts many days, and causes severe pain. To
this very small species of ants, I subjoin the largest I had an
opportunity of seeing, which are formidable on account of their
undermining buildings. They make burrows with infinite labour, under
churches and houses, digging deep sinuous meanders in the earth, and
exerting their utmost strength to throw out the loosened sods. Having
got wings they fly off in all directions, on the approach of heavy
showers, with the same ill fortune as Icarus, but with this difference,
that he perished in the sea, they on the ground, to which they fall when
their wings are wetted by the rain. Moreover those holes in the earth,
by which the ants used first to pass, admit the rain water, which
inundates the caves of the ants, and undermines the building, causing
the wooden beams that uphold the wall and roof, first to give way, and
unless immediately supported, to fall along with the house. This is a
common spectacle in Paraguay. The whole hill on which St. Joachim was
built was covered with ant-hills, and full of subterranean cavities. Our
house, and the one adjoining, suffered much from these insects. The
chief altar was rendered useless for many days: for, it being rainy
weather, the lurking ants flew in swarms from their caves, and not being
able to support a long flight, fell upon the priest, the altar, and
sacred utensils, defiling every thing. Ten outlets by which they broke
from their caves being closed up, next day they opened twenty more. One
evening there arose a violent storm, with horrible thunder and
lightning. A heavy shower seemed to have converted our court-yard into a
sloping lake, the wall itself withstanding the course of the waters. My
companion betook himself to my apartment. Mean time an Indian, the
churchwarden, arrives, announcing that the floor of the church was
beginning to gape, and the wall to open and be inclined. I snatched up a
lamp and ran to the place, but had hardly quitted the threshold of my
door, when I perceived a gap in the earth; and before I was aware of any
danger, sunk up to the shoulders in a pit, in the very place of the
chief altar, but scrambled out of it by the help of the churchwarden, as
quickly as I had got in, for under that altar the ants seemed to have
made their metropolis: the cavern was many feet long and wide, so that
it had the appearance of a wine-cellar. As often as earth was thrown in
by the Indians to fill it, so often was it dug out by the ants. In this
universal trepidation, all the Indians were called to prop the gaping
wall of the church with rafters and planks. The greatness of the danger
rendered it impossible to remain quiet, whatever arts were adopted. That
same night I removed from my apartment, which was joined to the church
with the same beams and rafters in such a manner, that if one fell, the
other could not avoid being involved in the ruin. I have read, that in
Guayana, rocks and mountains have been undermined, walls thrown down,
and people turned out of their habitations by ants, which I can easily
believe, having myself witnessed similar, or even more incredible
events.
In Paraguay I was made thoroughly acquainted with the powers of ants.
They are weak, and, compared with many other insects, diminutive, but
numbers, labour, and unanimity render them formidable, and endow them
with strength superior to their size. In the plains, especially those
near the Paraguay, I have seen ant-hills, like stone pyramids, three or
more ells high, with a broad base, and composed of a solid material as
hard as stone: these are the store-houses and castles of the ants, from
the summits of which they discern sudden inundations, and safely behold
the floating carcasses of less industrious animals. Elsewhere I have
seen an immense plain, so covered with low ant-hills that the horse
could not move a step without stumbling. In the plains you may often
observe a broad path, through which you would swear the legions of
Xerxes might have passed. The Spaniards hollow out these pyramidal
heaps, and use them for ovens, or reduce them to a powder, which, mixed
with water, serves admirably to floor houses. Pavements of this kind
resemble stone in appearance and hardness, and are said to prevent the
breeding of fleas, and other insects. But hear what mischief ants commit
within doors. They flock in a long and almost endless company to the
sacks of wheat, and in a journey uninterrupted by day or night, (if
there be a moon,) carry off, by degrees, some bushels. They will
entirely strip fruit trees of their leaves, unless you twist a cow's
tail round the trunk to hinder their ascent, and eat away the crops so
completely that you would think they had been cut with a sickle.
Moreover, ants of various kinds are extremely destructive both to
vineyards and gardens, devouring vegetables and pulse to the very root.
Set a young plant in the ground and the next day you will seek it in
vain. They refrain from pepper, on account of its pungency. If you leave
meat, either dressed or raw, in your apartment, you will soon find it
blackened with swarms of ants. They devour all sorts of trash, the very
carcasses of beetles, toads, and snakes. On returning to my apartment, I
found a little bird which I kept in a cage devoured by ants. Nor do they
abstain from the bodies of sleeping persons. In the dead of the night an
army of ants will issue from the wall or pavement, get upon the bed, and
unless you instantly make your escape, sting you all over. This happened
so frequently in the Guarany colonies, that we were obliged to burn a
candle at night: for lighted sheets of paper thrown upon the swarm, are
the only means of driving them away. The Portugueze have an old saying,
that the ants are queens of Brazil. Certainly we have found them the
sovereigns of Paraguay. There may be said to be more trouble in
conquering these insects, than all the savages put together; for every
contrivance hitherto devised serves only to put them to flight, not
banish them effectually. Should you hire workmen at a great expense to
throw fire upon the caves of the ants, and destroy their eggs, fresh
ones will be found next day in other parts of the garden. If swine's
dung, chalk, urine, or wild marjoram be put into their cave, they will
depart, but only to dig themselves fresh habitations in the
neighbourhood. Sulphur is superior to other remedies, and the way in
which it is to be used we learnt from the Portugueze. You seek out the
principal lurking-place of the ants, lay a chafing dish of lighted coals
in the largest opening by which they enter the earth, blow them into a
flame, and add sulphur to make a smoke. You carefully stop up the other
openings, through which you perceive the smoke issue, with mud, that the
sulphureous smoke may not be permitted to escape. You then light all the
sulphur you have at hand, by means of bellows, and the smoke filling the
whole cave will suffocate all the ants that lurk there. This has been
successfully practised by many persons in Paraguay. But if sulphur be
wanting in these solitudes, or patience to use it, then grapes and the
productions of the trees and plains must fail also. The ants will
devastate every thing, and elude all the arts of the cultivator, unless
destroyed by the smoke of sulphur.
It were to wrong the Paraguayrian ants, if, after having so minutely
described all the mischief they commit, I were to be silent on their
benefits. Some of the larger sort have a little ball in the hind part of
their bodies full of very white fat, which, when collected, and melted
like butter, is eaten with pleasure both by Indians and Spaniards. Other
very small ants, in those shrubs which bear the quabyra-miri, deposit a
wax naturally white, and consisting of small particles, which is used to
make candles for the use of the altar, and when lighted exhales an odour
sweeter than frankincense, but quickly melts, and though double the
price of any other wax is sooner consumed. There are also ants that
convey to their caves particles of fragrant rosin, which serve for
frankincense. In certain parts of Asia small particles of gold are
collected by the ants, from mountains which produce that metal. The
inhabitants, in order to get possession of the gold, attack their caves,
the repositories of this treasure, especially in the heat of the sun;
but the ants stoutly defending their riches, they often return
empty-handed, and sometimes are obliged to make a precipitate retreat. I
have long wished that those Europeans who have to feed larks and
nightingales would come to this country, and load their ships with
ant-eggs: they would certainly return with great profit, and at the same
time do a signal service to America.
There are also incredible numbers of very large toads, especially in
deserted, or but lately inhabited places. In the town of Concepcion,
removed to the banks of the Salado, about evening all the streets were
so covered with toads, that they were rendered as slippery as ice. They
filled the chapel, our house, every place. They not unfrequently fell
from the roof on to the floor, bed, or table. They could creep along the
wall, and ascend and descend like flies. When the kitchen fire is
kindled on the ground toads sometimes creep into the pans and kettles.
Once, as I was pouring boiling water from a brass vessel into a gourd,
to mix with the herb of Paraguay, I perceived that the water was bad,
and of a black colour; and, on inspecting the vessel, found a toad
boiled with the water, which had given it that dark hue, and was so
swelled that it entirely choked up the mouth of the vessel. In the
colony of the Rosary, which I founded on the banks of a lake, there was
the same abundance of toads. Whilst I performed divine service the
chapel swarmed with them, and though many were slain every hour of the
day, for two years, their numbers seemed rather to increase than
diminish. A species of toad, called by the Spaniards _escuerzos_, and
much larger than European ones, are not only troublesome, but, when
provoked, dangerous: for by way of revenge they squirt their urine at
those by whom they are offended, and if the least drop of this liquid
enter the eye it will immediately produce blindness. It is moreover
indubitable that not only their urine, but their saliva, blood, and gall
possess a poisonous property. We learn from creditable authors that the
Brazilian savages roast toads, and then reduce them to a powder, which
they infuse into the meat or drink of their enemies to cause their
death; for it occasions a dryness and inflammation of the throat,
together with vomiting, hiccups, sudden fainting, delirium, severe pains
in the joints and stomach, and sometimes dysentery. Persons afflicted in
this manner, if the force of the poison admit of medicine, should
immediately have recourse to purging and vomiting, with repeated
walking, or the bath, to produce perspiration. For the same purpose the
sick man is sometimes put into a tolerably hot oven, or placed inside a
beast that has been newly slain. Various herbs and roots are also made
use of to dissipate the poison, the chief of which is one called
_nhambi_. If the juice of this herb be thrown on the back or head of the
toad, after those parts have been rubbed a little on the ground, it will
instantly kill the pestilent animal. This also is effected by means of
tobacco. American toads are of a cinereous or light red colour,
sometimes variegated, covered with warts, and bristly like a hedgehog. I
have read that certain savages feed on a species of toad, but never
witnessed it myself. European physicians say that toads, properly
prepared by druggists, are useful as diuretics in dropsy, plague, and
fevers, and they advise a bruised toad to be applied to the back, about
the kidneys, by way of a cataplasm, in cases of dropsy. The oil of toads
is useful for curing warts, according to Woytz. River crabs, hartshorn,
the flowers of the vine, and other things, are recommended by the same
authors as remedies for the poison of toads. There is also a great
variety and abundance of frogs, which croak away in the mud, equally
annoying to the inhabitants and to travellers. In other respects they
are neither useful nor prejudicial, though in Europe they are employed
both as medicine and food; but there is nothing to which you would not
sooner persuade an American than to eat frogs, or make any other use of
them.
Leeches are always to be found in pools supplied solely with rain water;
but I never saw any so large as ours. In the town of the Rosary, after a
heavy shower the streets seemed full of leeches, and the Abipones, who
always go barefoot, complained that they clung to their feet wherever
they went; but in the space of an hour these troublesome guests all
disappeared, having betaken themselves, most probably, to the adjoining
lake. Of bats I have spoken in a former part of my history.
Paraguay may be called the Paradise of mice and dormice. From the number
of oxen daily slain, such abundance of offal is every where to be had,
that dormice, which in our country can hardly find anything to eat, here
feast day and night, which, of course, must wonderfully increase their
numbers. At Buenos-Ayres, to my astonishment, I beheld dormice, larger
than our squirrels, issue by crowds out of the old walls into the court,
about sun-set. At Cordoba in Tucuman, an ox, stripped of its hide and
entrails, but entire in every other respect, was suspended from a beam
in the clerk's office. The lay-brothers, on entering the office, beheld
the ox entirely covered with dormice, and drew near to see how much they
had devoured in the night. On handling the flesh, they found it
completely hollowed, and three hundred dormice lurking within. Upon
hearing this, I conceived such a disgust of meat gnawed by these
animals, that for two days I carefully avoided the eating-room, and
contented myself with bread alone. The fruit of my abstinence was, that
the meat was thenceforward kept cleaner, and in a more appropriate
place. An innumerable host of dormice not unfrequently came thronging
from the southern parts of Buenos-Ayres, filled the fields, garners, and
houses of Tucuman, and laid waste every thing. They swam across rivers
without fear. They left the immense tract of plain country through which
they took their way beaten and pressed as if by waggons. The
Paraguayrian countrymen, frightened by their multitudes, chose rather to
quit their huts, which were exposed on all sides, than take up arms
against the foe. Nor should you imagine the Paraguayrian dormice are
fond of nothing but beef; they delight in human flesh, for they
frequently bite you when you are sound asleep, and that with no sluggish
tooth. Moreover, there is no kind of trash which they will not steal and
hide in their store-houses, to serve either for food or bed. They tear
the silken markers out of the prayer-books to make their nests. They run
off with aprons, bandages, stockings, linen and woollen articles of
every kind, carrying them to their holes for bed-clothes and cushions.
These troublesome pilferers not only commit daily thefts upon the
inhabitants, but frequently set fire to the houses themselves. For they
carry away burning tallow candles in their mouths, and in hastening to
their caves, often set fire to the cottages of the Spanish peasants.
They occasioned us much trouble in the colony of the Rosary. A light was
forced to be kept up at night there on several accounts. When tallow was
not to be had, I used oil expressed from cows' feet for this purpose.
Almost every night the dormice snatched up the iron plate with the
burning wick, in order to suck the oil when it cooled. To restrain their
audacity, it was found necessary to bind the plate of the match to the
lamp with a little brass chain, a weight of iron being added.
A most frequent, and almost annual calamity to Paraguay are the locusts,
which are horrible to the sight and of immense size, being longer than a
man's middle finger. When an infinite swarm of them approaches, a
terrible darkness breaks from the farthest horizon, and you would swear
that a black cloud pregnant with rain, wind, and lightning was drawing
nigh. My Abipones, on such occasions, often snatched up arms, and placed
themselves in battle array; for the locusts, beheld from a distance,
looked like a cloud of dust stirred up by a troop of hostile savages.
Wherever the locusts settle, they deprive the fields of their
productions, the trees of their leaves, the plain of grass, and men and
cattle of food; while the numerous offspring which they leave behind
continue the devastation to another year, and create further misery. The
army of locusts is prevented from flying to the ground, and feeding in
the fields sowed with various kinds of grain, by the sound of drums, the
shouting of voices, the firing of guns, and continual rustling of boughs
in the air; if these methods fail of driving them away, all the men in
the Guarany towns are employed in collecting and killing them. In one
day we have often with pleasure beheld many bushels full of these
insects, and have condemned them either to the fire or the water. The
Abipones had rather eat locusts than drown or burn them; on which
account, as they are flying, they knock them down to the ground with
long sticks, roast them at the fire on the same, or on spits, and devour
them with as much avidity as we do partridges or beccaficos, rejecting
however the males. It has been my intention to treat here of all the
noxious insects that occasion death, disease, or damage: but what a
field should I have, were I also to describe the harmless ones both of
the land and water. Good Heavens! what an abundance is there of flies,
worms, bees, hornets, drones, and grasshoppers! What an immense
diversity of glow-worms, shining here and there by night like stars!
Some, which are about the size of a grass-worm, by moving their wings,
others from their eyes alone, emit a light strong enough for one to read
by. Some glow only behind, others in every part of their bodies. Wood,
reeds, leaves, and roots of plants, when putrefied, scatter at night,
particularly in moist places, a green, red, yellow, or blue radiance,
resembling diamonds, emeralds, chrysolites, rubies, &c. This was a
nightly spectacle to us in the woods between the rivers Acaray̆ and
Monday̆. I carried some rubbish which I had observed to glitter in this
manner, to my town, where it shone as long as it continued moist; when
wetted, it regained its former splendour, which, however, ceased at
last, in spite of fresh supplies of water. I never perceived phosphoric
lights of this nature in any other part of Paraguay. Innumerable
butterflies, of a beautiful variety of colours, adorn the sides of the
rivers and woods, as flowers the meadows; but of these and other
insects, many and accurate accounts have been already written, which are
now in the hands of all. We must return to the Abipones, more
destructive to Paraguay than any insect, who, though looked upon by the
Spaniards in the light of robbers and murderers, do nevertheless profess
themselves warriors and heroes; whether justly or no, I leave to the
arbitration of my readers, to whom I shall proceed to describe their
military discipline and method of warfare.