An Account of the Abipones, an Equestrian People of Paraguay, (2 of 3)

The Jesuit Eusebius Nierenberg speaks of a stupid snake, which, from the description, I take to be the same as the Ampalaba. "It is the thickness of a man," says he, "and twice as long. It inhabits rocks and caves, (perhaps when rivers and pools are wanting,) and feeds upon animals, which it attracts with its breath. Some Indians, in travelling, sat down upon it, taking it for the trunk of a tree; and it was not till the snake began to move that they perceived what an unstable and terrific seat they had chosen. It is however reputed harmless. These snakes are of such vast size, that eighteen soldiers sat down upon one, thinking it to be a log of wood. They lie in wait for stags, which they attract by the force of their breath, a power they do not possess over men. After squeezing the stag to death, they lick it all over from head to foot, in order that they may swallow it more easily; but suffer the head, which the horns prevent them from swallowing, to remain in their mouth till it putrefies. Ants sometimes enter the open mouth of this snake and kill it."

I must not omit to mention an immense snake, which the Guaranies call Moñay̆. In its vast size, wide mouth, sparkling eyes, row of threatening teeth, and spotted scaly skin, it resembles a dragon. Father Manuel Guttierrez, when he travelled through the Tarumensian wilds, saw a monster of that kind in passing the banks of the river Yuquiry̆. An Indian, his companion, threw a thong used for catching horses round the animal's neck and strangled it. The Indians of St. Joachim were not so courageous, for when sent forwards by me to prepare the way for the royal governour, who was coming that day, they returned home in great trepidation, because they had seen the Moñay̆ snake lurking in a very thick grove at the banks of a rivulet. Being asked the cause of their alarm, they described the horrible spectacle they had seen. A few days after I had an opportunity of witnessing the truth of the matter myself. A report being spread that the governour was coming next day, we went out to meet him, and as soon as ever I approached the rivulet where the snake had lately been seen, my horse suddenly began to foam, kick, and run away. The Indians were all of opinion that he perceived the monster lurking in its cave by the scent. The reason why the Moñay̆ does so little mischief is because it generally inhabits hidden groves, solitary shores, or caves far from human sight.

Though serpents of every kind wander up and down, yet some seek lurking-places under the water, some amongst grass and trees, and others only within the walls of houses and hollow places. The Mboy̆quatia inhabits the chinks of ruinous walls. Numbers of these snakes were killed in the church at St. Joachim, but as fresh ones grew up, they were never entirely got rid of. I would advise you never to sit down incautiously in fields, woods, and banks of lakes, without first examining the place. The Indians, who neglect this precaution, are often bitten by lurking serpents. Fatigued by a journey which I and my companions had taken on foot through the woods of Mbaeverà, they had lain down at evening in a place where I observed decayed posts of palms, and the remains of huts scattered up and down the ground. I advised them to examine the spot with care, and to remove the hewn palms, the receptacles of noxious reptiles, for the safety of their lives. They followed my injunctions. Under the first stake they discovered an immense serpent sitting upon seventeen eggs, and on that account the more dangerous. Presently another, and then more, appeared in sight. The eggs consist of a thin white skin, instead of a shell, and resemble an acorn in shape, though larger.

I have often wondered that certain of the ancients recommended fire to keep off serpents, having found them, on the contrary, to be attracted by it. We continually see them creep to the fire, and steal into warm apartments for the sake of the heat. Virgil has justly given snakes the epithet of frigid. The more copious and virulent their poison is, the intenser is the cold they labour under. Hence, in persons bitten by serpents, the blood congeals, and the extremities of the body stiffen and grow cold, as the circulation cannot reach them. That serpents love heat we know from daily experience. In the deserts we often were obliged to pass the night in the open air: on these occasions, no sooner was the fire kindled than we saw the snakes concealed in the vicinity approach to warm themselves. Whenever the south wind renders the nights rather cold, they creep under the horse-cloths lying on the ground. When the earth is chill, serpents climb on to the roofs of houses to bask in the sun, and thence are induced by the sharp night-air to slip into the apartments below, to the imminent danger of the occupants. When lights are brought into a room of an evening, the doors should be carefully shut; for the serpents in the neighbourhood, spying the light, immediately enter the house. These animals suddenly make their appearance in apartments built of brick or stone, and covered with tiles, when the door and windows are close shut, and not a chink is left unstopped. One of my companions had such a dread of serpents, that he never dared take any sleep till he had examined every corner of his apartment. There are some snakes which leap at all they meet, and bite ferociously. Paraguay also produces some harmless ones, which are either devoid of poison, or the desire to use it, unless they be offended.

Who does not know that some serpents lay eggs, whilst others produce a numerous living offspring? The Americans believe that young serpents grow from the dead bodies of the old ones. Hence, whenever they kill any serpents they remove them to a great distance from their houses, and do not throw them on the ground, but hang them on trees or hedges. In Brazil, two Jesuit missionaries found a horrid-looking dead snake to which a young live one was clinging, and, on their shaking the carcass with sticks, eleven little serpents crawled from it. This account of serpents is closed by three insects, akin to each other in the quality of their venom. The Scolopendra, which has a smooth cylindrical body a span long, twice as thick as a man's thumb, and covered with a hard, cinereous skin, approaching to a cartilage, abounds with legs from head to foot, which I neither had power nor inclination to count. It contains a poison almost equal to that of a serpent, and its bite causes much both of pain and danger. After spending eighteen years in Paraguay, I at length saw and felt an animal till then known to me only by name. It bit me as I was asleep, and on waking, I perceived that the space between the little and ring-finger, first looked red, and afterwards began to swell and grow painful. The tumour and inflammation hourly increasing, I could no longer doubt but that some venomous little animal had bitten me. Early in the night I heard an unusual noise amongst some tools that were lying under a bench in my room. Bringing a light, I discovered and killed the Scolopendra which had bitten me, and next day suspended it in our court-yard, and showed it to the Indians, who all declared that they had often seen and dreaded that animal in houses, fields, and banks of rivers. Do not confound the Scolopendra with the Oniscus, which is a dusky round worm, two inches in length, and scarce thicker than a goose's quill. The body is covered with rough yellow hairs. On the head you see here and there a double row of white spots. It has eight short thick feet. Whichever part of the body it touches it violently inflames, which certainly proves it to be venomous. The Paraguayrian scorpions are said to differ nothing from those of Europe in appearance, but their poison is milder and more easily cured. I think that scorpions must be very rare in Paraguay, since, after spending eighteen years there, and traversing greatest part of the province, I never saw one, nor heard of any person's being bitten by one. I remember that a Spaniard appointed to guard the cattle in the town of Concepcion, when lying sick at our house, was frightened by a scorpion, which put out its head two or three times from the wall, and that he passed a sleepless night in consequence, always keeping a knife in his hand against the threatening animal. Spiders of various forms and sizes are every where to be met with. Venomous ones with flat bodies may be seen creeping along the walls. You should take the greatest care to avoid that very large kind, which the Spaniards call arañas peludas, hairy spiders. The body of this insect, which is about three inches in length, is composed of two parts. The fore-part is larger than the other, almost two inches long, an inch and a half wide, and somewhat compressed. The hind-part is more spherical, and in size and form resembles a nutmeg. A hole in the back supplies the place of a navel. It has two sparkling eyes: its long, and very sharp teeth, on account of their beauty, are set in gold by many persons, and used as toothpicks. The whole skin of this spider is covered with short blackish hairs, but as smooth and soft as silk. It has ten long legs divided by more or fewer joints, and entirely hairy, each of which ends in a forceps, like that of a crab. When angry, the insect bites. The bite, though scarce visible to the eye, is discovered by a certain moisture, a livid tumour, and the severe pain it causes. We have found the venom of spiders prove not only dangerous but mortal: remedies efficacious in cases of serpent-wounds have scarce saved the lives of persons bitten by this large spider. These insects lurk chiefly in hedges, hollow trees, and ruined walls.

CHAPTER XXX.

OF REMEDIES FOR THE POISONOUS BITES OF INSECTS

Old books suggest various methods of keeping away serpents: but who that is acquainted with America would not despise the prescriptions of the old writers, adapted to fill pages only, not to be of any real use? In preference to these ancient recipes I recommend the American ones, both because they are more expeditious and readier, and because their utility has been proved by long experience. The Christian Guaranies, whenever they accompanied me to seek the savages in the woods, carried fresh garlick in their girdles, and, notwithstanding the abundance of serpents we met, not one of my companions was ever bitten by one. Following the example of the Indians, I always kept a string of garlick suspended near my bed, after being attacked by a serpent in my sleep. That serpents dislike the smell of garlick is well known both to the ancients and to country people, who rub the milk-pans with the juice of that herb, lest serpents, who are extremely fond of milk, should get into them. My faith, however, in the efficacy of garlick was not a little shaken by one of my companions, who found a snake in the garden close to a plant of it. But the leaves of a plant are endued with different properties from its roots and fruit. May not the garlick alone, and not the leaves, be the object of the serpent's abhorrence? The Abipones and Mocobios suspend a crocodile's tooth from their neck or arm, thinking it a powerful amulet against snakes of every kind. In this they are imitated by many Missionaries and Spaniards, who often purchase the teeth of these animals at a high price. I have known Spaniards who thought themselves secure from the bites of serpents when they had a bit of deer's skin about their body. There are persons who rub their feet and hands with the juice of a radish, and believe themselves fortified against poisons. I should not take upon me to despise these safeguards, because they are approved by the experience of the Americans; but it is the part of a prudent person never to place such entire confidence in them as to lay aside caution, and lose sight of danger, which, in regard to serpents, lurks where none appears.

For this reason I constantly exhorted the Americans to circumspection; when they had to rest in the plain at night or mid-day, to choose a situation free from bushes, reeds, and caverns, and at a distance from the banks of pools and rivers; to take a survey of the spot; to examine the tall grass, decayed trunks, and recesses of shrubs and rocks, before they sat or lay down. The Indians, who neglect these precautions, are constantly liable to the bites of serpents. Throwing themselves carelessly on the ground, they sleep soundly without a fear or a thought about serpents, and are often awakened with a scream by the bite of one. When travelling bare-footed they employ their eyes in watching birds in the air and monkeys in the trees, when they ought, at every step, to examine the dangerous ground they are treading. The Abipones, from being an equestrian people, and more circumspect, seldomer suffer from serpents than the Guaranies, who always walk on foot, and use less caution. In the town of St. Joachim, where the climate is very hot, and the land is surrounded with marshes, rivers, and woods, venomous animals are unusually numerous. Scarce a week passes that some Indians are not bitten by serpents. During the eight years that I spent in this town a vast number of persons were bitten by various serpents, but, with the exception of two youths who were killed by a rattle-snake, not a single individual died: all were healed by the use of one and the same remedy. Now listen attentively whilst I make you acquainted with that celestial, and almost miraculous, medicine, which is as unknown out of Paraguay, as it is useful to the Paraguayrians. It is a very white flower, extremely like a lily in its leaves, stalk, blossom, and scent, except that it is smaller. The Spaniards call it nard. It grows in all soils, flourishes at every part of the year, and is neither destroyed by long drought, nor by hoar frost. I never could meet with this flower either in European gardens, or in books treating of flowers, and have found the most scientific herbalists utterly unacquainted with it. After diligently examining every species of nard, I perceived that the Paraguayrian nard could not be referred to any of them. The root of this flower, either dried or fresh, is cut into small pieces and steeped in brandy. Part of this infusion, together with the root, is applied to the wound, and the rest taken inwardly by the patient. It is generally sufficient to do this once. But if it be necessary to repeat it a second and a third time, the force of the poison is destroyed, the swelling subsides, and the wound heals. The sooner you apply this remedy, the quicker and more certainly you will repress the progress of the poison. Taught by the experience of eighteen years, I affirm it to be superior to all other remedies. With it we have triumphed over the poison of every snake but the rattle-snake. I cannot count the number of Indians I have healed with this precious root. An Indian Guarany, as he was lying on the ground out of doors, was bitten by a serpent. When the poor wretch crawled to my town I prepared him for death with sacred rites, which the violent pain of the swelled wound, and the cries extorted by it from the wounded man seemed to presage. I had only a few drops of brandy remaining: these, with the root of the nard, I applied to the wound. Afterwards, as the extreme pain indicated that the poison was not yet expelled from his body, I saw him recover in three days by the use of the root with wine, which I substituted for brandy.

No one will deny that tobacco leaves possess much virtue against the bites of serpents. A Guarany was wounded in the right foot in two places by a snake, as he was reposing at noon on a journey. I was asked for medicine, and as no nard was at hand, and we were many leagues from the town, I advised the father of the wounded man to put a tobacco leaf into his mouth, and to suck both the wounds. He replied that he had already done so; I then told him to burn tobacco leaves, letting the smoke enter the wounds, and to apply a cataplasm of chewed tobacco to the same; I also desired the wounded man himself to chew tobacco, swallow its juice, and smoke it through a reed, giving him likewise a vial of brandy to drink. The poison at length was so much repressed by these trifling remedies that the sick man recovered his strength sufficiently to pursue his journey to the town. The warmth of the brandy counteracts the cold of the poison, and restores the heat of the stomach and of the blood. Father Gumilla declares that serpents will die if a tobacco leaf be thrust into their mouths. We learn from the same author that, in the new kingdom of Granada, the Americans drink gun-powder mixed with brandy to cure the bites of serpents, and that it produces the desired effect. The Abipones, Mocobios, and Tobas, as soon as they feel themselves bitten by a serpent, cover the wound with virgin wax, which is thought to absorb the poison. At another time they have it sucked out by their physicians. They sometimes scrape a crocodile's tooth, drink the dust in water, and at the same time bind a whole crocodile's tooth very tight on to the open wound. Our druggist at Cordoba, wishing to try the virtue of this remedy, gave an equal quantity of violent poison to two dogs, tying a crocodile's tooth round the neck of one, and not round that of the other, and they say that, whilst the latter died in a very few hours, the former recovered by means of the tooth. The Abipones surround the neck of a dog that has been bitten by a serpent with ostrich feathers, and they told me that their ancestors looked upon that as a remedy.

The Portugueze extol the piedra de cobra, which is of a grey, and sometimes of a black colour, and of various sizes, as the magnet of poisons: for in the same manner that loadstone attracts iron, this stone, when applied to a wound, absorbs all the venom. That it may serve again for the same purpose it is immersed in milk, into which the poison is discharged. The ancient physicians thought garlick an excellent remedy for venomous bites. The efficacy of this plant against poisons was proved by an experiment of my own. A Guarany, as he was working in the garden, was bitten in the foot by a hairy spider, such as I have described, and imprudently neglected to mention the circumstance. The poison beginning to operate, he felt his thigh swell, with pain in the stomach, and suspecting his danger, came to me for advice. I ordered a little beef broth to be boiled with plenty of garlick, which taken by the sick man immediately repressed the poison, the swelling, and the pain. Nor am I averse to the prescription of Dioscorides, who thinks that radish juice should be drunk on these occasions. The ancients have advised washing the hands with the same, to keep off the attacks of serpents. For it appears, both from the authority of physicians and from experience, that not only the juice but the very smell of a radish is of use against serpents. Some bind a live hen, or pigeon, cut open, to the wound, thinking that the poison is absorbed by them. In place of a hen some substitute a kid, or the belly of a goat newly slain. Some wash the wounded part with goat's milk, and they say that a countryman cured a serpent wound in the foot by dipping it often into goat's milk. They also say that cheese made of this milk, when applied to the wound, will have the same effect. To these old remedies America adds new ones, a few of which I will mention. They apply the unripe fruit of the anana, when bruised, to poisoned wounds by way of a cataplasm. The Indian physicians give the herb taropè, (which the Spaniards call contra yerba, or higuerilla, the little fig, because its roots have both the odour and the milk of the fig,) to their patient to eat or drink, to counteract the effects of poisons. The leaves of the herb mboỹ-caà are chewed, and the juice swallowed, whilst part of the chewed leaves are placed on the wound. The macângua caà is celebrated for possessing a virtue of the same kind. This herb is named from the duck macângua, which, using its wings as a shield, pursues and kills serpents, but if it be wounded in the contest eats this herb as a medicine. The yçipo moroti, and bejuco de Guayaquil, have the same property. The roots of the urucuȳ, jurepeba, jaborandi, &c. are highly conducive to excite perspiration, by which the poison is expelled. I do not deny the validity of these remedies, but, with the leave of physicians, ancient as well as modern, I still think nard root preferable to them all, for it has been the salvation of numbers, not only of men, but of beasts. As the cattle feed in the open air, day and night, every part of the year, they are not unfrequently bitten by serpents, scolopendras, and spiders. Blood dropping from the nostrils is the sign of a poisonous wound. Brandy mixed with nard root poured in time down their throats was of great use, but after the poison had diffused itself over all the members of animals we generally found medicine unavailing.

CHAPTER XXXI.

OF OTHER NOXIOUS INSECTS, AND THEIR REMEDIES

You might swear that Egypt, and the whole plague of insects with which divine vengeance afflicted that land, had removed into Paraguay; nay, you will find many here more mischievous and troublesome than Egypt ever beheld. I have always thought common house-flies, resembling ours in external appearance, more to be dreaded and shunned than serpents, scorpions, scolopendras, hairy spiders, &c. Do not imagine this to be an hyperbole: I declare it as my serious opinion. Swarms of these insects are always flying up and down. At home and abroad you will see yourself surrounded by these hungry little animals, which, though a hundred times repulsed, will return as often. They enter the ears of persons when they are asleep, and creeping to the interior of the head, lay great numbers of eggs, which breed quantities of worms; these insects hourly increase in number, and gnaw all the flesh and moisture in the head, so that delirium and final death are the inevitable consequence, unless a remedy be applied. I knew a Spaniard whose whole face together with the nostrils was consumed, the forepart of his head being made as hollow as a gourd by worms. One fly, which had crept into his nose whilst he slept, was the origin of the worms and of his misfortune. This is no rare occurrence. That worms are expelled by the application of tiger's fat you have already learnt from the twenty-second chapter of this history: but hear further. In the town of the Rosary, one of the Abipones swarmed with worms to a shocking degree; but these insects, unable to endure the tiger's fat which I applied to them, gnawed open two outlets, and all burst away, leaving the sick man in perfect health, and ascribing his recovery to this potent medicine; by the aid of which I cured a female captive of the Spaniards, whose head had been grazed by a bullet. The bloody and lacerated skin as usual attracted these flies, which, making a passage to the interior of the head, greatly endangered the poor woman's life, but were soon dislodged by the application of tiger's fat. We have benefited other persons, at various times, with the same remedy. I took care always to have a good supply of a medicine so important, and in such constant request. At the first news of a tiger being slain I hastened to get its fat, which I kept melted in a little vessel; for if raw, it would soon putrefy in so hot a climate. Though the fat of these animals, even when fresh, like the rest of the flesh, exhales a most abominable odour, yet when mixed in water, it is drank by the Abipones with the utmost avidity. In some of the Guarany Reductions, peach leaves are used to expel worms bred by flies.

The natives of northern regions will hardly conceive, and natural historians scarce credit the breeding of such dangerous worms from flies; but the Americans witness it daily, and deplore its fatal effects not only on themselves, but on cattle. When we killed a cow or a sheep at sun-rise, the flies have been seen swarming round the flesh; soon after we have found it covered with a kind of whitish seed, and by sun-set the meat became stinking, full of worms, and unfit to be eaten. Those who wish to preserve meat uninjured, should either cut it into very small pieces and dry it in the air, or hang it up in the shade in a net, or wicker basket, so that it may be exposed to the air, without being accessible to flies. Should a horse's back be injured by the hardness of the saddle, or by long riding, the flies will swarm thither as if bidden to a feast, and breed innumerable worms, which mangle the horse, and in a few days destroy him. Blood bursting from an ulcer is a sign that worms are within. In order to remedy this they tie the animal's feet and throw him on the ground, then dig out the worms and matter with a slender stick, and fill up the hole of the ulcer with chewed tobacco-leaves, and cow-dung. This must be repeated for many days. If the animal can lick himself the cure will be surer and quicker. But as this method of healing is accompanied with much trouble and some danger, the Indians, and half Spaniards, who are more lazy than the Indians, had rather see the plain strewed with carcasses, than exert themselves either with their hands or feet. The slothfulness of the shepherds who take care of the estates yearly occasions the loss of many thousand horses, oxen, calves, sheep and mules in Paraguay. New born calves should be examined and rid of the worms, with which they are generally infested; for the flies immediately attack the navel string, and miserably kill them. On which account, if, out of ten thousand calves born yearly on your estate, four thousand remain alive, you have great reason to congratulate yourself, and return thanks to your shepherds.