An Account of the Abipones, an Equestrian People of Paraguay, (1 of 3)

LITTLE FLYING-FISH

Flying-fish are about the size of a large herring; their body is oblong and smaller at the tail; their head large and flat; their eyes round and big, with immense pupils, and surrounded by a yellow circle, and another larger blackish one: their mouth is middle-sized, destitute of teeth, but armed with jaws slightly denticulated. The tail is wide and forked; the wings very large, and composed of a membrane thinner than paper, of a whitish grey colour. They are furnished with six small fins, a bony shell, pointed at the end, and scales of various colours and forms, but shining like those of a herring. They fly out of the water to avoid the dorados, which try to catch them; but in a few moments, as soon, in fact, as their wings are dried by the air, fall back into the sea, and being again moistened are enabled to renew their flight. In various seas they are of various forms and sizes. The Portugueze sailors do not refuse to eat their flesh.

THE SHARK

But as men of this description have generally too large appetites, and capacious stomachs to be satisfied with "such small deer," they prefer larger fish, especially sharks, numbers of which they caught, during their voyage, with an iron hook many pounds weight. Sharks generally follow ships, and swallow whatever is thrown out of them, whether it be dead bodies or any other filthy trash. They are of such vast size and weight, that twelve stout sailors are scarce sufficient to drag one with a rope from the sea into the ship. Nor should you be surprized at this, for a shark is about nine feet long, and three or more wide. Its horrid jaws, which contain a triple row of serrated triangular teeth, are prepared to tear any thing. It has a fierce, and ever watchful look. It is covered with very rough skin of various colours. Whenever a shark was taken and gutted by the sailors, its stomach presented a ridiculous spectacle; it looked like a broker's shop full of all sorts of trumpery. In it we found worn out garments, old drawers, hats, whole fowls, and whatever had been thrown by the sailors into the sea. When I found this, I always suspended stones, or cannon balls, to human bodies before I committed them to the waves, that they might sink to the bottom, lest floating on the surface, they should be torn to pieces by sharks. The flesh of this fish, though very white, was tasted by none but hungry sailors; though the females are despised by them even. One, which I had seen them take with immense labour, they threw back into the sea, on discovering its sex. I cannot tell why they make this distinction. The Abipones roast and eat female locusts, but loathe and reject the males, for reasons known to themselves alone.

DOLPHINS

During nine months spent in sailing on the Mediterranean and the Ocean, I have frequently seen many others of the scaly tribe, with forms terrible to the sight; but except middle-sized fishes and sharks, I never saw any of the family of Neptune caught by the sailors. When the sea was smooth, and the air tranquil, we frequently observed dolphins tossing themselves merrily about, and appearing as it were to dance; a spectacle by no means pleasing to us, who had so often found this leaping of dolphins the forerunner, and annunciation of an impending whirlwind and tempest.

WHALES

Immense whales were a very terrible, and by no means uncommon sight to us on the ocean, though they never approached the ship. On the desert shores of Brazil we thought we perceived a pirate ship. Fearing some mischance we called for the captain, who from the top of the mast by the help of a telescope discovered it to be an enormous whale. This immense animal, as it tossed itself about on the waves, presented the appearance of a ship. A projecting fin, which is said to be sometimes fifty feet high, had been taken for a mast. From the horrid pipe, or fistula of his head, as from a great fire-engine, he spouted up a vast quantity of water, which, when dispersed by the wind, and shone upon by the rays of the sun, looked white like the sails of a ship. In returning to Europe we observed the water leaping up and breaking itself in an unusual manner, not far from the ship. Imagining that rocks or shoals must be at hand, the captain ordered the prow of the ship to be turned in another direction. But an intolerable stench relieved our minds by discovering the putrid carcass of a very large whale, against which the waters had been dashed. Whales perish in the same way as ships, and die by degrees from being knocked against quicksands and shoals. We sometimes, however, see the carcasses of whales cast on to the shore by the tide. I have spoken elsewhere of melotas, enormous fish, innumerable shoals of which we met during some weeks in the month of November. From the water let us now proceed to the woods and plains of Paraguay, which abound in so many curious plants and trees.

PLANTS

The Jesuit priest Thomas Falconer, an Englishman well versed in medicine and botany, frequently and openly declared that Paraguay had been enriched by the bounty of nature with so many wholesome plants, roots, gums, woods and fruits, that whoever was skilled in the knowledge of those things would have no occasion for European druggists to cure any disease. Out of many which Paraguay affords either for medicinal or other purposes, I will describe a few in the order in which they enter my mind. I doubt not that botanists have written on this subject more clearly and methodically; whether more faithfully also, I dare not determine with regard to all.

CHINA CHINÆ, or PERUVIAN BARK

This tree is peculiarly worthy of note on account of its bark, which is called china chinæ, Peruvian bark, or the remedy for fever. It is of middling height, and not very large, and bears an almost orbicular fruit, somewhat raised in the middle, and by no means fit to be eaten, but which contains two yellowish nuts indented all over like the rind of an almond. It is filled with a balsamic odour of a dusky colour, and a very sweet scent, but extremely bitter. With this balsam the Indians allay pains in the eyes, head and stomach, if they arise from cold. The bark is naturally white, but when torn from the tree gradually assumes a dark yellow on the surface, a little varied with pale spots: but within, it is of a red colour, not like blood, but like cinnamon, being tinged with a yellowish cast. The taste is bitter, but the smell aromatic and pleasant, though somewhat rancid. Some call the Peruvian bark Jesuits' powder, because the Jesuit missionaries in Peru were the first who made known its singular efficacy in expelling fevers. The celebrated physician Woytz tells us that this medicine was first brought to Europe, in the year 1650, by Cardinal de Lugo, a Spanish Jesuit.

ZARZA PARRILLA

Zarza parrilla is the root of a green, creeping plant, armed at intervals with very small thorns. It has leaves almost a span long, from the beginning of which proceed two tendrils, with which it entwines itself with other plants. The flowers grow in clusters, and give place to berries, which are first green, then red, and when quite ripe, black, and wrinkled like dry cherries, which they resemble in size and form. This plant is called by the Spaniards zarza parrilla, on account of its thorns, for zarza in Spanish means a thorny plant; parrilla, in the same language, signifies a gridiron; as therefore the leaves of this plant bear some sort of resemblance to a gridiron, three pretty large veins running lengthways, crossed by a number of smaller ones, it has received the name parrilla or gridiron; but botanists call it smilax aspera Peruviana, or sarmentum Indicum. The zarza parrilla is very common on the banks of the Uruguay, and the Rio Negro, the waters of which are celebrated for their salubrity; it is also found near the Rio Tercero, in the territories of Sta. Fè, and other parts of America. The most famous is that which comes from the bay of Honduras. The roots of the zarza parrilla, which possess a medicinal virtue, are scarce thicker than a goose's quill, wrinkled on the surface, and of a dusky colour, but white within; all of them grow from the same joint or knot of the plant. They have no particular taste or smell. They consist of rosin, and gum which is the softer part of them. The various uses of these roots are too well known to physicians to need an explanation from me.

RHUBARB

Rhubarb is the root of a plant of the dock kind. From out the sheath of the leaves rises a little bunch of flowers divided into many branches, on which hang four blossoms, surrounded with leaves, and bearing a triangular seed. The roots are long, and rather spungy, tolerably heavy, yellowish on the outside, but within of the colour of a nutmeg, variegated like marble, and of a sharp bitter taste. When eaten they create nausea, and have an aromatic flavour. In divers parts of Paraguay, especially in the mountains called La Cordillera, near the city of Asumpcion, as well as at the banks of the rivers Ỹpane miri, and Tapiraguaỹ, there grows a kind of rhubarb, similar to that of Alexandria in colour, taste, smell, and virtue, but with this difference, that the leaves of the Alexandrine rhubarb are pointed at the bottom, and broader at the end; whereas the leaves of the Paraguayrian are wide at the beginning, and terminate in a point, like the leaves of lilies. I understand that the East Indian rhubarb, as well as that of Persia, Muscovy, and Tartary, is preferred by physicians to that of America.

THE ROOT JALAP

Paraguay abounds in the root jalap, the plant of which is called by botanists Mirabilis Peruviana. These roots are long, thick, and resinous. Without they are of a dusky brown, but within of a pure white, without any decay. They not only cure bile, and rheum, but expel other noxious humours from the body. The rosin of jalap is prepared from them.

MECHOACHÀN

Mechoachàn is a large light root, entirely white at the beginning, but of a dusky colour above. Some call it bryonia Indica, but though it resembles the bryonia, its plant is a convolvulus, and bears heart-shaped leaves, and small berries. The mechoachàn is well calculated for gently purging infants; for the powder to which the root is reduced has no taste, and looks like flour.

SASSAFRÀS

The tree sassafràs, which is very common throughout the whole of America, may be commended for its beauty, as well as its salubrity. The trunk is perfectly straight and plain, to the length of about thirty feet, when the top unfolds into branches, and leaves. Not only the wood of this tree, but also the bark and root smell very strong of fennel, which keeps off decay and rottenness. Like santalum it is of a dusky yellow colour, and has a sharp aromatic taste, and a pleasant smell. Druggists should examine carefully that the wood of the red fir, boiled in fennel, may not be palmed upon them by foreign traders for the real wood. There is also another kind of sassafràs, which has leaves like those of a laurel, and bears an odoriferous and blackish fruit. The bark is of a darkish red colour. This other species is said to possess the same virtue as the former, in provoking perspiration, and urine, in healing maladies arising from cold, syphilis, obstructions in the bowels, disorders in the womb, &c. The apeterebî, a tree common in the North of Paraguay, is also thought by some to be a species of sassafràs.

HOLY WOOD

The tree called holy wood is very broad, but not very lofty. It has little and almost round leaves, two of which proceed from single stalks, and are indented at the top. It bears yellow flowers, which grow either single or two together, at the extremity or in the middle of the boughs. The wood is exceedingly hard, and will last almost for ever, even under water. The pith is of a lead colour. The rosin which exudes from this tree is bitter, aromatic, and said to possess equal medicinal properties with the wood: it, as well as the gum, is reduced to a powder which the Paraguayrians drink in cold water, as a cure for dysentery. For what disorders, and in what manner this salutary wood is to be used, it is not my province to explain. This tree does not grow in the South of Paraguay, but in the North, where the Abipones and Mocobios dwell; it is also found in some parts of upper Tucuman.

THE GUAYACÀN

It is a great mistake to suppose that holy wood, and guayacàn are the same; for though the wood of both possess the same power of healing almost any disease, yet the two trees differ as much in form as in name: for the guayacàn is loftier than the other, and almost resembles a nut-tree. It abounds in boughs, and bears small hard leaves. The flowers are yellow and produce fruit full of seeds. The blacker the pith of the tree is the more it abounds in rosin. The bark of this tree is hard, resinous, and composed of several little skins, spotted with grey on the outside, but within of a pale red: it has a bitter taste, but not an unpleasant smell, and is thought to be more efficacious in medicine than the wood itself.

THE ZUYÑANDỸ

The zuyñandỹ, a large, lofty tree, consists of a soft wood, a thick bark turgid with copious moisture, and red flowers which seem to be composed of one large expanded leaf, as soft as silk. The bark, when stripped of the rough outer skin, and properly ground, is of much efficacy in healing wounds inflicted by the teeth or claws of a tiger.

THE ZAMUÛ

The zamuû is ridiculous both in name and form; for the Spaniards call it palo borracho, the drunken tree. It is lofty. It has a trunk surrounded with largish thorns, and bears middle-sized flowers of a beautiful red colour, but is of very singular appearance in other respects. For the highest and lowest parts of the trunk are small, while the middle swells out to a great width, like a barrel: on which account its very soft wood is easily made into tubs, and barrels. The farther this tree grows from rivers the wider it swells, so great is its dislike to water. It bears a round fruit like certain large gourds, with a very strong rind, which fruit, when ripe, bursts open and discovers woolly flakes, like cotton, and softer than silk, but with so short a fibre that it is very difficult to draw them out into a thread. The thorns of this tree when bruised to powder, and boiled, tinge the water with a red colour which is said to cure sore eyes.

THE MANGAỸ

The mangaỹ is about the size of a cherry-tree, and bears white flowers, which exhale a very delightful odour. It produces fruit of a golden colour, and equal in size to a large plum, which, when ripe, are agreeable to the taste, but hurtful to the stomach. Both the tree and the fruit overflow with a kind of milky, and resinous juice, called mangaỹci, in the Guarany tongue, which streams out plentifully, when you cut the bark, and is caught by the hand, or by a board. The air curdles it, and gives it the appearance of a little skin. In this state, it is rolled up into balls, which are so remarkably elastic, that when thrown lightly upon the ground they leap up very high in the air. This liquor, mangaỹci, is said to be very useful in cases of dysentery. It is much to be lamented that so very few take the trouble to collect this rosin, which would be useful in Europe in various ways.

DRAGON'S-BLOOD

The tree caà verà, which produces the dragon's-blood, is middle-sized both as to height and bulk. Some botanists call these trees palmæ pruniferæ foliis jaccæ, but in my opinion they have no affinity whatever with palms. When a deep incision is made into their trunks, a kind of juice flows from them, resembling blood in colour and consistence, and which, when boiled on the fire, condenses into a liver-coloured rosin. Physicians complain that foreign traders sell them goat's-blood, bolo, or red Brazil wood, mixed with gum arabic, for dragon's-blood.

THE CUPAỸ

The Paraguayrian trees, though they offer their fruits spontaneously to the natives, do not yield the oil, with which they are impregnated, without being cut. Amongst these is the cupaỹ, a large, tall tree, remarkable for its leaves, which are half a foot long, with red nerves and veins. Besides the wood, which is of a dark red colour, hard, and fit for carpenter's work, it affords a fruit which is dusky on the surface, but has a kernel resembling a walnut in size and form, and which is reckoned eatable by the Indians, and a dainty by the apes. But this tree owes its celebrity and value to the excellent oil with which it teems. To extract this most useful juice both arms, and arts are requisite. The trunk of the tree, which should neither be very old, nor too young, is cut to the pith with a knife. Soon after the incision is made, you will hear a slight crackling, caused by the oil flowing from the top and from the boughs: for the warm air, insinuating itself more freely into the pores of the wounded tree, seems to rarefy and liquidate the oil, which is naturally resinous and thick. To effect this sooner and with more certainty apply dry burning boughs to the opposite side of the tree into which the incision has been made; by their heat, the oil is more dispersed amongst the fibres of the tree, and more liquefied, which causes it to flow freely into the vessel placed beneath the trunk. Within a few hours you will find a jug full of oil. If you wish to fill many jugs cut many of these trees, which are most abundant in the northern woods of Paraguay; there are none, or very few, elsewhere. This operation must be performed in spring, in the month of September, when the moon is at full; if you undertake it in the absence of the moon, in winter, or summer, you will lose your labour. This oil, in colour, could not be distinguished from water; it has a bitter taste, exhales an odour neither sweet nor the contrary, and is useful both to painters and physicians. I will now make you acquainted with its virtues, which I learnt from others, but never tried myself. When warmed and applied to a wound, it is said to stop the flowing of the blood, and to heal the wounded person very speedily. It will cure the bites of serpents, and remove scars. Placed by way of plaster on the breast, it eases languor in the stomach; when applied to the belly, it assuages colic, and pains arising from cold. Two or three drops, swallowed with a boiled egg, will remove dysentery, and other hurtful fluxions, restore the tone to the bowels, and impart strength. Sometimes it is used as an injection with sugar from plaintain water, or oil of roses. From the oil of the cupaỹ the Brazilians make the balsam cupaỹba, of such high repute in Europe, especially the inhabitants of the province of Maranham, which abounds in those trees. But other rosins, chiefly that from the tree ybir̂apayè, of which we shall speak hereafter, are mixed with this balsam, as the singular fragrance of the smell discovers. American as well as European painters derive much benefit from the oil of the cupaỹ, for when mixed with garlick, it brightens pictures better than any varnish, and will never be obscured by time, if mixed with the colours instead of linseed oil. In wooden images, particularly, nothing is better for painting the face, hands, and every thing of flesh, of a natural colour. I can scarce persuade myself that the oil of the cupaỹ is brought quite pure from America to our shops; and that merchants do not adulterate it to increase the weight. There are three trees in Paraguay, all materially different, but much alike in name; I mean the cupaỹ, the curupaỹ, and the curupicaỹ. The curupaỹ affords bark like that of the çevil, which the Indians use to dress ox-hides with. To give them a red colour they mix the bark of the curupaỹ with that of another tree, (the caatigua, which the Abipones call achitè). The curupicaỹ, a tree not larger nor harder than the elder, has a spungy kind of wood, unfit for any purpose, that I know of, which at the slightest touch, sheds a milky juice commonly thought to be poisonous.

PIÑON DEL PARAGUAY,or THE CATHARTIC NUT

This is a shrub resembling the fig tree of our country, in its leaves, its form, and the softness of its wood. The trunk and leaves, when pressed with the hand distil a milky juice abounding in serum. It bears fruit like dark walnuts, beneath the hard black rind of which lie three white kernels, covered with a white membrane and divided into as many separate compartments; in sweetness, and in shape they resemble almonds. These kernels, piñones del Paraguay, or piny nuts of Paraguay, are called by physicians, cathartic nuts, ricini Americani, or purging beans; for two or three kernels, which many say ought to be first stripped of their white skin, then bruised in wine, and roasted a little on the fire, to mitigate their purging qualities, when eaten, will cause vomiting, purge the bowels, and expel noxious humours. Whether these nuts are sold in the druggists' shops in Europe, and whether physicians prescribe the use of them, I do not know. This is certain, that they must be taken cautiously, and with regard to the strength of the sick person. A branch of this tree, when cut and committed to the earth, soon takes root, and grows up very quickly.

THE VAYNILLA

The vaynilla, a sweet name to those who love chocolate, is a creeping plant which grows in moist places, and entwines itself with certain palm trees, which serve it for a prop. It bears large leaves about a hand long, and small white flowers. Like pulse, for fruit it bears little hulls, or sheaths, a quarter of an ell long, triangular, and when ripe dark on the surface, and of a bright colour; they have a most delicious odour, and are full of very small seeds, like figs. Of these seeds the Indian women make rosaries to adorn their necks with: the savages formerly knew no other use of the vaynilla, which however birds and apes eagerly devour. The little bag or sheath, in which the fruit is inclosed, occasioned the Spaniards to give it the name of vaynilla. The description of this plant, which became extremely profitable to the Americans after the discovery of the use of chocolate, I owe to Father Joseph Sanchez, who had travelled over the land of the Chiquitos, where that fruit grows, as well as in Peru and elsewhere. For this plant grows in no other part of Paraguay that I am acquainted with, which must be attributed to the inhabitants, not to the climate, as it doubtless would grow in the northern parts of Paraguay, were it cultivated there.

THE CACAÒ

With the vaynilla we must speak of the cacaò, which is produced by a tree resembling an orange tree in its leaves, but larger, and having a kind of crown on the top. It bears a fruit like large melons, containing oily kernels, as big as almonds, and separated from one another by a white and very sweet skin, as by a kind of fence. The Peruvian Indians, throwing away the kernels which they did not then know how to use in preparing chocolate, were accustomed to chew and suck the little skin only, which is sweeter than honey. These trees in their native woods grow to a great size, and cover the melons which they bear so entirely with their immense leaves, that you cannot see them without standing close by. They never grow so large when planted in any other soil. In Peru, amongst the Mojos Indians, in Mexico, and other countries of America, the woods abound in this most profitable fruit: both the tree and the kernel, however, vary in different countries.

THE TAMARIND

Tamarinds, which are very well known in European druggists' shops, are a species of plum, with a dark rind, rather acid, of an agreeable taste, and full of a number of beautiful kernels. Taken inwardly, after being steeped for some time in cold water, they conduce much to allay the most burning thirst, and gently to purge the bowels. They grow upon trees which resemble palms, and have boughs and leaves long enough to cover a number of men, and with their dark shade protect them from the heat of the sun. Tamarinds, which botanists call dactyli acidi, grow in the territories of the Chiquitos, and elsewhere, but are unknown to the other parts of Paraguay.