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

MAIZE

That grain, which the Spaniards call mayz, is the principal provisions of the Americans. It bears grains of divers colours. The Guaranies sow various kinds of it. Those best known to me are the abati hatâ, composed of very hard grains, the abati morotî, which consists of very soft and white ones, the abati mir̂i, which ripens in one month, but has very small dwarfish grains, and bisingallo, the most famous of all, the grains of which are angular and pointed: when pounded in a wooden mortar, they yield a sweet and very wholesome flour, and drunk with water, either alone, or mixed with honey or sugar, quickly allay hunger and the most burning thirst. This flour is the delicious food of the soldiers of St. Iago, when they pursue the fugitive savages, and by its aid they often accomplish long and arduous excursions in a few days, without ever being obliged to light a fire to cook their victuals. This flour was likewise a great relief to myself in calamitous journeys under a burning sun. Of the grains of each kind of maize, either whole, or pounded in a mortar, the Indian women make various sorts of food, and even a thin bread, dressed on the hot coals, which, however, hunger alone would render palatable to a European. The Spanish ladies, of maize flour, carefully strained through a sieve, make a white bread, which, while new, has an agreeable flavour, and is to my taste preferable to wheaten bread. The grains of maize, when pounded in a mortar, and sprinkled with water, ferment in a few hours, and frequently afford the lower orders of Spaniards, and still oftener certain Indians, a fermented liquor called chicha or aloja. The Abipones, who abound in honey and the alfaroba, though very fond of maize, never use it in that manner. Many and great are the advantages of maize, for it does not require a very rich soil. One grain often yields the cultivator more than a thousand-fold. The ears, when young and milky, are much relished both by Europeans and Americans, either roasted or boiled with meat. The Indians find this grain, however prepared, highly useful in strengthening the body, increasing the blood, and lengthening life. Neither could we discover any thing better for fattening hens and other animals.

BATATAS.2

Amongst articles of food used by the Indians, a high place is given to certain roots which the Spaniards call batatas, and the Germans earth-apples (erdäpfel). It would be superfluous to describe with prolixity a thing so commonly seen. Those of Paraguay are decidedly superior to the German ones in size and flavour. These roots, or rather bulbs, are sometimes white, sometimes red, and sometimes yellow, in Paraguay. In my opinion the red ones are by far the worst, and the yellow the best of all.

THE MANDUBI

The mandubi, a fruit which Europe may envy America the possession of, resembles an almond in oiliness, sweetness, and, with the exception of the bark, in appearance. It grows under ground from a very beautiful plant about two feet high, which has a square hairy stalk of a reddish green colour. Its slender boughs are covered with four small leaves of a bright green on one side, and a whitish hue on the other, and are clothed with tender down. At the beginning of the little boughs grow small yellow flowers with red edges, hanging by a short stem, and surrounded by three leaflets. The roots of this plant are short, slender, and tortuous, and on them hang yellow oblong pods with a soft rind. Each of these pods contains either one or two kernels, (for there are various species of the mandubi,) beautifully covered with a red skin, and inclosing a very white and very rich pulp. These kernels, slightly fried or roasted, are much liked even by Europeans. The oil expressed from them is used instead of oil of olives, to which indeed it is superior, on lettuce; and many eat it with food in the place of butter or beef fat. I have often wished that this excellent fruit grew in Europe, where it certainly would be useful in many ways.

VARIOUS KINDS OF VEGETABLES

Besides lentils, beans, fasels, and other kinds of vegetables, there is an infinite variety of melons, gourds, and cucumbers, brought from England, Italy, Germany, and Africa, into Paraguay, which, dressed in various ways, serve excellently both to fill the stomach and delight the palate. The curuguà, a kind of gourd, is of great size. Hanging from its stalk, it creeps like ivy along the neighbouring hedges and trees. This gourd is a by no means unpleasant dish, and a celebrated medicine for persons afflicted with the tertian ague. After being kept at home for many months, it fills the room with a delightful fragrance, which virtue the seeds likewise possess. Melons of almost too great sweetness grow every where here, but, unless plucked as soon as ripe, immediately get bitter and are filled with most offensive bugs. Water-melons are very plentiful and of great size. The soil of St. Iago del Estero, which is sandy, produces exceedingly sweet and enormously large melons. Their pulp, which is sometimes red, sometimes yellow, and always cold, greatly refreshes the mouth when parched with heat, and the other parts of the body, without injuring the stomach. They will keep great part of a year, if suspended in any open airy place. Rainy weather is extremely injurious to the young melons, for they absorb so much water that they either burst before they are ripe, or when ripe quickly putrify.

LETTUCE

Lettuce grows in the winter months, if rightly cultivated, but very seldom in the summer, unless it be planted on the banks of rivers; for in a garden, by reason of the excessive heat of the sun, it soon blossoms, and turns to seed. European rapes grow successfully the first year they are planted, but degenerate to black and very pungent radishes the next.

THE RADISH

Indeed the soil of Paraguay seems peculiarly favourable to radishes, which grow every where to an amazing size, and are very pernicious to wheat, by choking up the fields like tares.

MUSTARD SEED

Mustard seed, a wholesome seasoning for food, is always to be seen in the more careful gardens.

NASTURTIUM

The European nasturtium is almost unknown to the whole of Paraguay; though the garden, or water-nasturtium, grows spontaneously in moist places.

SAFFRON

The European saffron is found in no part of Paraguay. The American, which is saffron in name and appearance only, is not used for seasoning food, but for dying things of a yellow colour.

ASPARAGUS

Asparagus grows wild in the plains, but is very bitter, and slenderer than a thread; if cultivated in gardens, it would become quite gigantic.

ONIONS AND GARLICK

Onions and garlick are diligently cultivated with great care and expense by the Spaniards, and are even eaten raw with avidity by hungry persons.

FUNGUSES

Various funguses are found both in the woods and plains, but no one would venture either to touch or taste them. Verengena, called by the Latins melongena, tomates, which the Germans call apples of Paradise, and other condiments of this kind, better known to Spaniards than Germans, are frequently seen in gardens and at table. The Indians like sweet things, and detest radishes, mustard-seed, garden-nasturtium, lettuces sprinkled with vinegar, in short, every thing acrid, acid, or bitter. The Abipones, who, leading a vagrant life, never take the pains to sow, nor find occasion to reap, subsist, like birds and beasts, on whatever their predatory habits supply, or liberal nature gratuitously offers to hunters in the plains, woods, rivers, and lakes. If the surface of the earth yields no food, they seek under the earth, or the waters, for esculent roots, of which they call some neeyeka, others hakamìk, and others again leèkate. There is also a kind of very small bean, which they call nauvirgila, and which is commonly found in the woods. These beans, when boiled, though not very savoury to the palate, serve in some measure to fill the bellies of the Indians.

WHEAT

The soil of Paraguay, particularly in the territories of Buenos-Ayres, Monte-Video, and St. Iago of the Tucumans, is extremely fruitful of wheat. It is nevertheless no less true than surprizing that greatest part of the Spanish nation never taste wheaten bread, to avoid the difficulty of sowing and grinding this grain: for you never see any thing like a water-mill here. The mill-stone is turned about by horses, in some places by the wind. I saw but two wind-mills of this kind, and those were in the city of Buenos-Ayres. European wheat differs from that of Paraguay, the latter having a very short stalk, but a larger ear, containing larger grains. The Guaranies cut off the ears alone with a common knife, and leave the stalks in the field, where they are afterwards burnt as they stand, as the ashes fertilize the soil better than any other manure. In every Guarany town as much wheat is sown, as is thought sufficient for one year. The grains of wheat are pressed out of the ear by the feet of horses, one or two hundred of which are driven round an area surrounded by hedges, wherein the ears are strewed on the floor.

OATS

Oats are not even known by name in Paraguay.

PETRIFICATION OF WOOD and HORN

Immense pieces of petrified wood are sometimes seen in the river Parana. Cows' horns also, which are mottled with various colours like marble, and when rubbed against steel emit fire like flint, are often transformed in this way.

HOT SPRINGS

In none of those parts of Paraguay which I have myself visited did I ever find any mineral, or medicinal waters. But Father Joseph Sanchez Labrador discovered, in his journeys through the towns of the Chiquitos, that two places contained salubrious springs, which I shall describe in his own words. "Not far from the town of St. Iago is a hot spring, surrounded on all sides by woods. It is wide, about three feet deep, and emits a sound like that of a boiling kettle, occasioned by the water bubbling up from the bottom. On dipping your foot into it you feel a violent heat, which in a short time becomes tolerable. Little fishes swim in these waters, without however doing them any injury; but their sulphureous odour renders them very disagreeable. The banks of the fountain are surrounded by lime-stones. The farther the water recedes from the spring, the colder it becomes, forming a river, which, about three leagues beyond the town of Santissimo Corazon de Jesu, loses itself amid extensive palm groves. Many persons who had been long, and grievously ill, derived much benefit from these springs. In sight of the town of St. Juan, at the borders of the rocks, rises another small fountain, bubbling with the heat of its waters; it forms a lake in the neighbouring vale, which gives birth to another river. That water is hot at its source, but gradually cools as it goes along, and is drunk by the Chiquitos: but it is of an unpleasant taste, and not very wholesome. Indeed the inferior fruitfulness of the women of that town is ascribed by many to this water. The same complaint is made by the inhabitants of the town of St. Iago. From which I conclude that these waters are beneficial to sick persons bathing in them, but not proper to be drunk."

Of metals, or rather of the total absence of all metals, I have discoursed elsewhere. Wild animals, trees, and plants I have described with a hasty touch, like one speeding upon a journey. Let me hasten therefore to the Abipones, the chief subject of my pen, lest I appear to dwell too long upon the introductory part of my work.

END OF VOL. I

1

The American ostrich differs a little from the African.

2

Potatoes.