OF THE ARMS OF THE ABIPONES.
No man can obtain celebrity amongst the Abipones except by warlike
prowess. Hence to have their arms properly made, in good order, and
ready when needed, is their chief care. To defend themselves, and offend
their enemies, they principally make use of the bow and spear. Their
native soil produces a kind of wood not to be met with in any other part
of Paraguay, called _neterge_, which is of a red colour while fresh, and
as hard as steel. They cleave this tree, cut out an oblong piece of
wood, and shape it with a knife or a sharp stone. You would think it had
been made by a turner. To straighten it they heat it every now and then
by fire, and twirl it about between two logs of wood. By this method the
Abipones make spears scarce smaller than the Macedonian pikes; for they
are more than five or six ells in length, pointed at both ends, that if
one end gets blunt, the other may still be of service, and also for the
convenience of sticking the spear into the ground when they pass the
night in the plain. Formerly when they were unacquainted with the very
name of iron, they fought with wooden spears, fixing a cow's or stag's
horn to the end of them by way of a point. But when the Abipones
obtained iron points from the Spaniards, they dexterously inserted them
into their spears, and used them to slaughter those from whom they had
received them. When going to fight they grease the point of the spear
with tallow, that it may enter more readily and deeper into the flesh.
We have sometimes seen spears four palms deep in hostile blood, with
such force had the Abipones driven them into the sides of the savages
who attacked our colony. As their tents and huts are in general rather
low, they fix their spears at the threshold of the door to have them
always in readiness. By the number of spears you may know the number of
warriors which the horde contains. As European generals, to conceal the
scanty number of their forces, and to supply the want of warlike
instruments, have sometimes placed machines of painted wood, on mounds,
to frighten their more numerous adversary; we, in like manner, availing
ourselves of the same species of cunning, fixed spears hastily made of
reeds or wood, in the houses of the absent Abipones; deluded by which
the enemies' scouts reported to their countrymen that the town was full
of defenders. The Abipones are commendable not only for their skill in
making their weapons, but also for their assiduity, in cleaning and
polishing them. The points of their spears always shine like silver. I
was often ashamed for the Spaniards, when I saw them furnished with
mean, dirty, and incommodious arms, in the presence of the Abipones, who
ridiculed their poverty and laziness. Most of them make use of a reed, a
rude stake, a knotty club, the bough of a tree, or a twisted piece of
wood, with a broken sword or knife tied to the end of it. The richer
sort have guns, but generally bad ones, fitter to terrify than to slay
the enemy; and moreover, you will find few able to handle them properly.
Remember that I am speaking of the Spanish husbandmen who are ordered to
fight against the savages; for you never see the regular troops without
the cities of Buenos-Ayres and Monte-Video.
Bows as well as spears are made of the neterge. They are equal to a
man's stature in length. When unbent, they are like a very straight
stick, not being curved like the bows of the Turks and Tartars. The
string of the bow is generally made of the entrails of foxes, or of very
strong threads supplied by a species of palm. When about to shoot off
their arrows, that they may be able to bend the cord forcibly without
hurting their hands, they wear a kind of wooden gauntlet. The quiver is
made of rushes, and adorned with woollen threads of various colours. The
arrows, which are an ell and a palm in length, consist of a reed, to
which a sharp point of bone, very hard wood, or iron is prefixed. Wooden
points are more formidable than iron ones, but those of bone, which are
made of a fox's leg, are the most to be dreaded of all; for they break
in being extracted, and the part remaining in the body causes a
swelling, and a very virulent ulcer, which leaves the wounded person no
rest. Any wood, from being imbued with a kind of native poison, causes
more pain and tumour than iron. The Abipones never poison their arrows,
as is usual amongst many other people of America. The Chiquitos are
dreaded by the neighbouring savages on this account, that if an arrow of
theirs wound the outermost skin, and bring the least drop of blood, all
the limbs will swell, and in the course of a few hours death will ensue.
The deadly poison in which they dip their arrows, the Chiquitos, alone
know how to prepare from the bark of an unknown tree, and to this day
they reserve to themselves the knowledge of the cruel mystery. In
hunting too they kill wild animals with arrows dipped in the same
poison, and cutting out the wounded part of the body, eat them with
safety, like the Guaranies, who fear not to feed on oxen stung to death
by serpents, rejecting that part only which has been infected by the
animal's tooth. Father Gumilla relates that the savages of the Orinoco
prepare a most fatal poison to dip their arrows in.
The feathers which expedite the flight of the arrows are taken from the
wings of crows, so that when the Abipones went out to shoot these birds
we guessed that war was at hand. Each feather is tied on both sides, to
the extremity of the reed, by a fibre of very slender thread. The
Vilelas excite the admiration of all Paraguay by their skill in archery.
They dexterously fasten the feathers to the arrow with a glue made from
the bladder of the fish vagre, inserting the point very lightly into the
reed; an artifice which renders their arrows extremely dangerous,
because whilst the reed is extracted the point remains sticking in the
flesh. The Guaranies, less curious in these matters, apply the feathers
of parrots, or other birds, to their arrows. When more than four hundred
shoot at a mark, at the same moment, and they go to gather them up, each
knows his own by the colour of the feathers. Every nation, in short, has
a peculiar fashion in forming bows and arrows. The shorter are more
dangerous than the longer ones, inasmuch as they are more difficult to
be seen and avoided; but the longer have the advantage of going to a
greater distance, and striking with more force. It is certain that the
Abipones are very skilful archers: they are accustomed to the bow from
children, and even in infancy can shoot little birds on the wing. In
sportive contests, when a reward was proposed to each of the winners, a
citron placed at a considerable distance served for a mark. Considering
the number of archers, very few missed their aim, to the astonishment of
the Spaniards who witnessed such dexterity. The Guaranies are also
reckoned very expert in this art.
The Abipones have a great variety of arrows. Some are longer and
thicker, as being intended to kill larger beasts. The form of the points
is also various. Some are plain and have a straight point; some are
barbed either on one or both sides, and others armed with a double row
of barbs. You can never extract an arrow of this kind from the flesh,
unless you turn it about with both hands, by which means you will open a
way to extricate the barbs, but with what pain! When the Abipones see
the remains of an arrow occupying any fleshy part of the body, as the
thigh, or arm, they cut out the piece of flesh with the inherent
particle themselves. The Cacique Ychoalay, in a sharp contest with his
rival Oaherkaikin, was dangerously wounded with a bone arrow, which
stuck in the back part of his head, and breaking in being extracted,
remained fixed there as firm as a nail. At our advice he visited Sta.
Fè, to obtain the aid of a surgeon, who found it necessary to make an
incision before he could lay hold of the bony arrow point with his
forceps. The operation was successfully performed, but not without
severe pain, which the Indian bore with the utmost fortitude, not
allowing a single expression of pain to escape him; he even exhorted the
surgeon, who, unwilling to inflict so much torture, was hesitating in
his task, to proceed; "Do you see me shrink?" said he: "fear nothing, I
beseech you; cut, pierce, do what ever you like with confidence. I have
long been accustomed to pain, wounded as I have so often been with
different weapons." At length when the bony point was extracted, such a
quantity of blood gushed out, you would have thought an artery had been
opened. The Indian beheld this with a calm countenance, and thanked his
deliverer in the best terms he was master of.
Before entering a battle, they lay aside their finest arrows to be
employed on the blow which they think of most importance, generally
having one of tried virtue in readiness to defend themselves in urgent
peril, or to slay some one whose death they particularly desire. When
they wish not to kill, but to take alive, birds and other small animals,
they use arrows furnished with a little ball of wood or wax, instead of
a point: with this they stun and knock down the animal, but do not kill
it. Whenever they are unable to direct the weapon straight to the mark,
on account of some intervening obstacle, they shoot it archwise, giving
it a curved direction, in the same manner as in besieging camps, balls
of fire are cast from mortars. The Abipones stand in no need of these to
set fire to houses; for they fasten burning cotton or tow to the ends of
their arrows, and casting them against roofs of wood or straw, set fire
to whatever they like, from ever so great a distance. Many towns of the
Spaniards were reduced to ashes by this fatal artifice. In the town of
the Rosary, I had the thatch of my house plastered over with thick mud
to protect it from the flames cast by the arrows of the neighbouring
savages. With the same view, I covered a wooden observatory, constructed
for the purpose of watching the motions of the savages, with hides; nor
did the contrivance disappoint my hopes.
The spear and the bow, though the chief arms of the Abipones, are not
the only ones. They have a weapon composed of three stone balls, covered
with leather, and fastened together by as many thongs meeting in one:
this they whirl round, and then cast, with a sure aim, at men and
beasts; by which means they are either killed or so noosed, as to
prevent them from moving. This formidable weapon, which the Spaniards
call _las bolas_, is much used by the southern savages. The lower orders
of Spaniards, and all the Indians and Negroes, whenever they ride out
are constantly seen with these balls hanging at their saddle or girth;
indeed they are in very general use. I have spoken at large in the
seventh chapter, of the wooden club _macana_, which they use at home for
amusement, and abroad for killing men and beasts. The sling, in the use
of which the Guaranies are so expert, is thought little of by the
Abipones; amongst them it is only used by boys to knock down small birds
with. They have a bow which, instead of a string, is furnished with a
piece of cloth, three inches wide, and made of a material very like
hemp; stretching this with the hand, they shoot off small clay balls,
instead of arrows, to kill birds and other small animals. That wooden
tube from which little balls or nails, furnished with silken or linen
threads to aid their flight, are blown by the mouth, is unknown to the
Abipones, but I am informed that it is used by certain Peruvian Indians
dwelling amongst the Moxos and Baures. These people, not being provided
with iron nails, put thick thorns imbued with a poisonous juice into a
wooden tube, and blowing hard into it, aim them against wild beasts, and
their enemies, by which means they slay them with impunity.
The Abipones are unacquainted with shields and targets, but they cover
greatest part of their bodies with a sort of defence, made of an
undressed anta's hide, a tiger's skin being sewed either in the in or
outside; it is open in the middle, that the head may come through, and
extended on each side as far as the elbows and middle; it is
impenetrable to common arrows, but not to spears and bullets, though it
somewhat diminishes their force. To this coat of mail they added a girth
wider than a man's hand, of the dressed hide of the same animal, when
they saw their leader Debayakaikin wounded in the belly with a spear.
They make use of this armour when they have to fight with the other
Indians. Most of them, however, expose their bodies entirely naked to
the weapons of their enemies, and seem the more secure, as they are more
expeditious in avoiding the fatal blow. For the weight and hardness of
such armour prevents that agility, which, in their method of fighting,
is of such importance to their safety, as much as its thickness protects
the body. When they engage with the Spaniards they neglect their bow and
wooden breastplates, which would be of little service against leaden
bullets. In a strong spear, a swift horse, and a crafty ambuscade, they
then place all their hopes of victory, and seldom engage on foot, unless
absolutely obliged. They had rather combat the enemy from a distance,
than close at hand, when they fear for their lives. They oftener kill
piecemeal than with downright blows. Though the major part have either
purchased swords from the Spaniards, or taken them in war, they seldom
make use of them in skirmishing.