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

But if the enemy, finding the fortune of war against them, betake themselves to flight, they scarce have to fear a very obstinate pursuit from their adversaries, as the conquerors are very cautious not to forfeit their glory; they are unwilling, by a doubtful contest, to experience a change of fortune, and to undergo a new danger. A spear, or garment, taken from them in battle by their enemies, the Abipones consider a terrible disgrace to their nation, regarding the loss of it with as much grief as Europeans do that of their drums or standards. The Abipones never attribute victories, and the fortunate events of battles, to their own skill, but to the arts of their jugglers. Although they hold the other Paraguayrian nations in contempt, yet they allow the Guaycurùs to be formidable; they say that they are cut down like funguses by the spears of these savages, not because they excel them in goodness of arms, strength of body, or courage of mind, but because they enter the fight attended by far more skilful jugglers. The Cacique Alaykin affirmed to me, that persons blown upon by their breath fell to the ground, as if struck with thunder.

But now let us contemplate the Abipones triumphing after a successful fight. If the event has answered to their wishes they fill the country with joyful rumours of victory, and generally exaggerated accounts of the slaughter of the enemy. They who have behaved with distinguished valour have the ears and eyes of all directed towards them. They who have received wounds in the battle deliver themselves to be sucked to a crowd of juggler physicians, a multitude of spectators admiring and extolling their constancy and fortitude. Great numbers flock to behold the spoils and trophies taken from the enemy. The women, giving way to an excess of gladness, seem mad with joy; they would make no end of singing, leaping, and applauding, were they not obliged to turn their attention towards making preparations for the public drinking-party of their husbands; who, at the same time that they wash the horrible colours from their faces, endeavour to clear from their minds, with wine, their past anxiety respecting the conflict. In the assembly of drinkers, where the victory is celebrated amidst confused clamours, and songs accompanied with the sound of gourds and drums; when all are heated with liberal draughts of mead, each begins to relate his own brave actions, and to laugh at the errors, cowardice, and flight of others; which not being endured by any of the Abipones, the warriors contend furiously amongst themselves, first with fists, and then, growing more enraged, with spears and arrows. Did not the women interpose to effect a reconciliation, and employ themselves in snatching away their weapons, and leading their husbands home, it is beyond a doubt that more would be killed after the battle than in the battle.

If a battle be fought at a distance from the town, a horseman is sent forward to announce the success of it to the hordesmen. As soon as this messenger is espied from a distance, a crowd come out to meet him, striking their lips with their right hands, and accompany him to his house. Having preserved the profoundest silence he leaps down from his horse on to a bed; whence, as from a rostrum, he announces the event of the battle, with a grave voice, to the surrounding multitude. If a few of the enemy are killed and wounded, he begins his story with Nalamichiriñi; they are all slaughtered, which he utters with a severe countenance and declamatory tone, and receives the applauses of the by-standers. He then enumerates those that he himself has slain in battle, and to enhance the merit of the victory, affirms of many, Eknam Capitan; he was a captain. At every name that is mentioned of an enemy slain in battle the air resounds with Kem ékemat? Ta Yeegàm! an exclamation of surprize. The number of captives, waggons, and horses, that have been taken, are then detailed with infinite exaggeration, for of each he asserts that they are innumerable; Chik Leyé kalipì; at which the auditors burst forth into an exclamation of Ndře, by which they express a strange and unheard-of thing. Having minutely recounted every circumstance tending to set forth this arduous fight and splendid victory, he proceeds to discover those of his fellow-soldiers that have been wounded in the battle. At every name the by-standers groan, and utter the word Tayretà! Poor little thing! As the Abipones think it a crime to utter the name of a dead person, the narrator makes use of a paraphrase, thus, Yoalè eknam oanerma Hamelèn laneuek là chit kaekà: The man, the husband of the woman Hamelèn, is now no more. The mention of the death of one of their countrymen entirely destroys all the pleasure which the news of the victory had excited; so that the announcer immediately finds himself deserted by his late attentive listeners, as soon as ever he begins to touch upon this melancholy subject. All the women unloose their hair, snatch up gourds and drums, and lament in the manner that I have described in the twenty-fourth chapter.

The Abipones, when returned from an expedition, enter their horde, not in one company, but separately, without ostentation, if victorious, and without signification of sorrow, if conquered, or even if desperately wounded, unless they have lost their leader. Then indeed they return with their hair partially shaven, to attest their grief, and convey the bones of their deceased Cacique home, not without funeral apparatus. The anxiously expected return of the warriors engages the eyes, ears, tongues, and hands of all; some surveying the droves of cattle, the captives, and spoils; others enquiring for the safety of their relations; others examining the wounds of the soldiers; and all the women lamenting. Each retains the captives, horses, mules, and other things that he has taken, unless, as usual amongst them, he chooses to share them with his friends. From one journey they often bring home many thousand horses, which they divide amongst themselves, with what regulations I know not, but without any disputes. On the succeeding days every one is eager to make trial of the horses which have fallen to his share in the partition of the spoils; they value swiftness alone, disregarding every beauty which adorns a horse. You may daily see a crowd of young men riding races with one another, and at the same time contending with words, each extolling his own above his neighbour's horse. The remembrance of the victory obtained over the enemy, disturbs as much as it delights their minds; for they live in continual fear that the enemy will speedily come to avenge the death of their people and loss of their property. Hence, in order to tranquillize their minds, and devise some method to keep off the foe, their chief care is to prepare a public drinking-party, that sure quickener, as they think, of the wit and exciter of valour.

CHAPTER XLIV.

OF THE ANNIVERSARY MEMORIAL OF VICTORIES, AND THE RITES OF A PUBLIC DRINKING-PARTY

The Abipones, not satisfied with celebrating their victory, as soon as they return, and whilst their hands are yet bloody, renew the memory of it by public festivities every year. The whole of these festivities consists in singing, dancing, and extravagancies. When they have all collected plenty of honey in the woods, a day is appointed for this anniversary ceremony, and a large house equal to the number of guests fixed upon. The last three days before that appointed for the drinking-party, one of the public criers, covered with an elegant cloak, goes up and down all the tents; at the entrance of each he is saluted by the women with a festive percussion of the lips; his spear, to which a little brass bell is affixed, the mother of the family receives, by way of honour, from the hands of the comer, and restores to him again on his departure. The crier, on entering the house, sits down upon a cushion prepared for him, of saddles, or some wild animal's skin. He then, in a set speech, invites the father of the family to the public celebration of victories. On his departure, he is dismissed by the women with the usual percussion of the lips. In the same manner he enters the dwellings of the other hordesmen, always accompanied by a crowd of boys. The office of crier, which the noble Abipones despise, is generally performed by some juggler of advanced age and low birth. Meantime they furnish the house, appointed for the meeting, with a hasty apparatus. The floor is covered with the skins of tigers and of kine, upon which the guests sit. A temporary erection is made of reeds, upon which they place the hairy scalps of their slain enemies, as trophies. When they prefer celebrating the victory without the tent in the open air, they hang these trophies upon spears fixed upright in the circle in which they sit. At sun-set, the persons invited all flock to the appointed place, where they sit down on the ground, having leathern vessels of mead set in the midst of them, though the drinking does not commence till about morning, the whole night being spent in chaunting their victories.

They never sing all at once, but only two at a time, always greatly varying their voices from high to low, one either taking up, or following, or interrupting the other, and sometimes accompanying him. Now one, now the other is silent for a short interval. The tones vary according to the subject of the song, with many inflexions of the sound, and, if I may so express myself, a good deal of shaking. He who, by a quicker motion of the throat, can now suspend the song for a while, now protract, and now interrupt it with groans, or laughter, or can imitate the bellowing of a bull, or the tremulous voice of a kid, – he will gain universal applause. No European would deny that these savage singers inspired him with a kind of melancholy and horror, so much are the ears, and even the mind affected by that deadly chaunting, the darkness adding greatly to the mournful effect. One of the singers rattles a gourd filled with maize seeds, to the time of the music. Sometimes the gourd alone preludes the singing, as in a band of musicians; at others, it follows the voice of the singer, and very seldom rests for ever so little a while. When two are singing at a time, it is wonderful to hear so much concord in such discordant voices. You never observe them hesitate or pause: for they do not sing extemporaneously, but what has been long studied beforehand. The songs are restricted by no metrical laws, but sometimes have a rhythmical sound. The number of verses is regulated, not according to the pleasure of the singer, but according to the variety of the subject. Nothing but warlike expeditions, slaughters, and spoils of the enemy, taking of towns, plundering of waggons and estates, burning and depopulating colonies of the Spaniards, and other tragedies of that kind furnish the savages with subjects for singing and rejoicing. These events, together with the place, and time, where, and when they happened, they describe; not rudely, but with considerable elegance. Struck, as it were, with poetic rage, by appropriate words, and modulations of the voice, they contrive to express indignation, fear, threatening, or joy. Though, in order not to damp the hilarity, they scarce make any mention of the deaths, and wounds of the Abipones, and employ themselves exclusively in exaggerating the slaughter of the enemy. During the time that these songs are chaunted, a period of many hours, not one of the auditors dares utter a word, and though night itself persuades sleep, you will not see one of them even yawn.

As all singers have the fault which Horace complains of in them, namely, that when they once begin, they will never leave off; the two chaunters are admonished to conclude their song, by women who stand around, separated from the men, and who signify to the vocal pair, after they have sung about a quarter of an hour, that it is time to desist, by repeated percussion of their lips, and by pronouncing the little words Kla leyà, it is enough. With this admonition, they immediately comply, and conclude the magnificent commemoration of their mighty deeds with Gramackka aka`m: Such then we are. Another pair then succeeds to the former, and in this manner the singing is protracted till the morning. Then, indeed, the scene is changed, the drinking commences, and their dry and weary throats are refreshed with that American nectar made either of honey, or the alfaroba. The women, and the unmarried men are excluded from these drinking-parties, though the latter are allowed to drink mead in private, as the women to drink pure honey, and eat the raw alfaroba.

To seek honey in the woods for making this drink, is the business of the men, but the whole labour of preparing it falls upon the women, who have to knock down the alfarobas from the trees, to carry them home on horseback, to pound them in mortars, to pour water on them, and to dress the hides which serve to hold the liquor. The method of their construction is this: the feet are cut off, the hide is made square; its four sides are then raised to the height of two spans, so that it receives at the bottom any liquor that you may pour in, and holds it without spilling a drop. Honey, or the alfaroba steeped in water, obtains the desirable degree of acidity quicker, or slower, according to the state of the atmosphere, and ferments, in a certain way, without the addition of any thing else. The Abipones approach those vessels every now and then, and ascertain, by the smell, whether that honeyed beverage has attained its proper state. Layam ycham; It will soon ferment, they cry as they go away. Till at length some one comes, who, judging by his nose, declares that it has gained the necessary acidity. This being given out, they all flock to the appointed place. Those leathern vessels, full of foaming mead, are each brought by the hands of six or eight girls, who lay down their burden, and return home without speaking a word to the drinkers. Before the first vessel is quite exhausted, another is brought, to that is added a third, then a fourth, and so on. I did not in the least wonder to see the women so alert and industrious in performing these useful offices, because the more diligent they are, the higher character they obtain amongst their countrymen, and the greater favour do they gain from their husbands. It must be confessed, however, that the Abipones, when they sup and dine in private, drink nothing but water. I have known Abipones who abstained from fermented liquors altogether; but these persons were contemned by the rest as cowardly, degenerate, and stupid; and indeed, I observed that they who excelled the rest in birth, military glory, and authority, were generally the most given to drinking. You can scarce see a circle of drinkers, at which the chiefs of the Abipones do not attend and preside.

For cups they use either the skulls of their slain enemies, or gourds, or horns. They are unacquainted with the European fashion of drinking healths. When any one suggests the idea of a warlike expedition, they cry Là, now; and snatching up their cups, express that they have ratified his proposal by a hearty draught. It is also remarkable, that, though extremely voracious at other times, they take scarce any food when they pass the day and night in drinking; from which it is evident that honey and the alfaroba possess great nutritive qualities. For my part, I never could prevail upon myself to taste that nectar of the Abipones, having often observed them chew the alfaroba, or honeycomb with their teeth, put it out of their mouths, and keep it to mix with the future beverage; for they think that, being mixed with saliva, it will serve for a ferment, to make the rest of the mass obtain a grateful acid more quickly. On the same account, the Indians and Paraguayrian Spaniards have their maize, which is intended for drink, chewed by old women; they will not intrust this office to the younger ones, who, they say, abound in bad humours. Could any person, aware of this circumstance, though of no very delicate stomach, swallow the beverage without nausea? Yet this filthy drink has more lovers amongst the Americans, than Helen had amongst the Greeks.

They always have many causes for celebrating a public drinking-party; the most frequent are, the gaining of a victory, an impending fight, funeral rites, festivities on the birth of a Cacique's son, the shaving of widowers or widows, the changing of a name, the proclamation of a lately appointed captain, the arrival of a guest of consideration, a wedding, and, what is most common, a council of war. If materials for preparing the liquor be at hand, occasion, and inclination for drinking, will never be wanting. As honey is always to be had, they are never, at any part of the year, in want of mead; but as it is seldom to be got in sufficient quantities, for the number of partakers, parties of this kind are generally of short duration. From December to April, when the woods abound with the ripe alfaroba, is the chief season for drinking. During these months they drink without pause or intermission. They join the night to the day, with scarce any interval for brief meals, or sleep: before they have slept themselves sober they stagger back to the party of drinkers. During all that time you scarce ever find them in possession of their senses; to live, with them, is to drink, and you would say that the more they drank the more thirsty they grew. To show that they do not tremble at the sight of blood, and that they take pleasure in wounds, they emulously prick their breast and arms, and not unfrequently their tongue, with crocodiles' bones, and the sharpest thorns. Disputes too are frequent among them concerning pre-eminence in valour, which produce confused clamours, fighting, wounds, and slaughter. "In that skirmish you basely turned your back on the enemy," one perhaps will say to the other; who, not choosing to endure the reproach, replies "What? What do you say?" till from words they proceed to blows, to arrows, and to spears, unless other persons interfere. It often happens that a contention between two implicates and incites them all, so that snatching up arms, and taking the part, some of one, some of the other, they furiously rush to attack and slay one another. This is no uncommon occurrence in drinking-parties, and is sometimes carried on for many hours with much vociferation of the combatants, and no less effusion of blood.

Intoxication affects the Abipones in various ways. Some laugh violently, merrier than hilarity itself; others seem oppressed with melancholy; others, inflated with the remembrance of their mighty deeds, grow more threatening and boastful than the Thraso of Terence, or the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus. I knew a man, who, whenever he was drunk, threatened to kill his little son, and as he lay stretched upon the ground, spoke in such loud and angry tones to his wife, that he was heard throughout the whole neighbourhood. There was one man, who, when he was drunk, always requested to be baptized, continually exclaiming, "Make haste, Father, and wash my head!" though, when sober, he never thought anything about baptism. An Abipon, of no reputation amongst his countrymen, entered our house furnished with a bow and arrows, and demanded of me, in a threatening tone, whether I did not think him a captain, that is, a man distinguished for great actions; alarmed at the fierce countenance of the interrogator, and at the bundle of arrows which he bore, I made him a fine panegyric by way of reply, though he was a man universally despised for his cowardice. An old man in the town of St. Ferdinand, inglorious alike in birth and actions, on being called by his drinking associates, Lanařaik, plebeian, vainly endeavoured with arms, and absurd clamours, to avenge the insult; for his wife, a sturdy old woman, always watched over her infuriated husband, that he might not fall by the fists or weapons of his companions. On this occasion she caught hold of him by the legs, or girdle, dragged him through the street, and when got home, vainly exhorted him to sleep and silence; for he, ever recurring to the flouts of his comrades, could take no rest, constantly ejaculating with a hoarse voice, Tà yeega`m! Aym Lanařaik? Tà yeega`m! Là rihè lahè! "What! I a plebeian? I ignoble? I demand vengeance." Enraged by these reflections, he endeavours again and again to raise himself on his feet, and snatch up a spear, when his angry wife as often knocks him down upon the floor. This sport continued for many hours, to the incredible annoyance of all that dwelt in the neighbourhood. Few could repress indignation, none laughter. Almost all the women have the same task when they labour to disarm their husbands, and take them out of the hands of their drunken comrades. The whole Abiponian nation would come to destruction, if the women and youths attended these drinking-parties, as well as the married men.

You will sooner eradicate from the minds of the Americans any vice belonging to them, than this wicked and pernicious intemperance in drinking. You will sooner persuade them to live content with one wife, to abstain from slaughter and rapine, to scorn their ancient superstitions, or to employ themselves in agriculture and building houses, notwithstanding their aversion to labour. To abolish the custom of drinking-parties is indeed a most arduous work, a labour of many years, and a business to perfect which no eloquence or industry of those whose care and wish it was to convert the savage nations to Christianity, and conform them to the divine laws, was ever equal. At length, however, we have had the satisfaction of beholding this wicked custom of drinking yield to our unwearied toils, and almost all the savages submit to the law of God.

CHAPTER XLIII.

OF THE ABIPONIAN RITES ON OCCASION OF ANY ONE'S BEING DECLARED CAPTAIN

Even amongst savage nations, virtue has its reward. Though almost ignorant that they are men, they delight in honourable titles. The Abipones do not account that the best nobility which is inherited as a patrimony, but that which is obtained by their own merits. Amongst them, as no one is distinguished by his father's name, in like manner no one is ennobled by the famous deeds of his father, grandfather, or great grandfather. The nobility of valour and probity, not that of birth, is what they prize and honour. By a kind of natural propensity they respect the sons and grandsons of their Caciques and Captains; yet if they be stupid, cowardly, of unpleasant manners, or a foolish understanding, they make them of no account, and never prefer them to the government of the horde, or of military expeditions. They choose for rulers and leaders others of the common people, whom they know to be active, sagacious, brave, and modest. Whoever has given proofs of warlike valour is initiated into warlike honours with ceremonies which I shall presently describe.

The names of the Abipones who are not distinguished by military rank, end in various letters; but when, on account of their services in war, they are admitted into the rank of the nobles, they drop the name which they bore in youth, and receive another which always terminates in the syllable In. They who are solemnly inaugurated, according to the custom of their ancestors, are called Höcheri, and have a dialect of their own; for though they use the common words, yet, by insertion and addition of various syllables, they transform and obscure them in such a manner that they can hardly be understood. I shall now briefly describe the rites by which they are promoted to this dignity. When, by the arbitration of the rest, such an honour has been decreed to any one, they make a previous trial of his fortitude, by an experiment common to all. A black bead being placed upon his tongue, he is ordered to sit down at home for three days, and during that time to abstain from speaking, eating, and drinking. This is indeed a harsh law, but it appears mild in comparison with the torments endured by certain Indians at the river Orinoco, when candidates for military honours. They are laid on a hurdle, beneath which are placed burning coals, and, that the heat and smoke may be the more intolerable, the poor wretches are completely overwhelmed with palm leaves. They anoint the whole of the body of others with honey, tie them to a tree, and expose them to the stings of bees, wasps, drones, and hornets. But let me now return to the Abipon who is fasting and keeping silence at home. On the evening preceding this military function all the women flock to the threshold of his tent. Pulling off their clothes from the shoulder to the middle, and dishevelling their hair, they stand in a long row, and with confused shouts, accompanied with the sound of gourds, and with the continual agitation of their arms and legs, lament for the ancestors of him, who is, next day, to be adorned with a military dignity. These lamentations continue till it is dark. As soon as morning dawns, our candidate, elegantly dressed in the fashion of his nation, and holding a spear in his hand, leaps upon a horse laden with feathers, small bells, and trappings, and gallops northward, followed by a great troop of Abipones. Presently, returning with equal speed, he approaches the tent, where sits an old female juggler, the priestess of the ceremonies, who is afterwards to inaugurate the candidate with solemn rites. Some woman of noble birth officiously holds his spear and the bridles of his horse, while he dismounts, the rest of the matrons continuing to strike their lips, and applaud; when the candidate listens to a short address from the old woman seated on a hide, with as much veneration as if it was an oracle from a Delphic tripod. Then mounting fresh horses, he rides out in the same manner as before, first to the South, then to the East, and then to the West, and after each journey alights at the same tent, where that Pythian, like a female Apollo, pours forth her eloquence. The four excursions being performed, and the horses dismissed, they all betake themselves to that sacred tent, to witness the usual ceremony of the inauguration. This ceremony consists of three things: first the hair of the candidate is shaven by an old woman, so that from the forehead to the back part of the head she leaves a baldness or streak, three inches wide, which they call Nalemřa. The business of the hair being finished, the old woman pronounces a panegyric, setting forth the noble actions of the candidate, his warlike disposition, knowledge of arms and horses, intrepidity in difficulties, the enemies that he has slaughtered, the spoils that he has taken, the military fame of his ancestors, and so on; in order that he may appear, on many accounts, worthy to be declared a captain and a noble warrior, and to enjoy the rights and privileges of the Höcheri. His new name is immediately promulgated, and festively pronounced by a band of women striking their lips with their hands. The male spectators do not like dry ceremonies to be protracted to a great length, but joyfully fly to skins full of honeyed liquor, and conclude the business with a famous drinking-match.