Part 21

The palometa is more formidable to swimmers than any crocodile; for its jaws, each of which is furnished with fourteen very sharp, triangular teeth, like so many spears, are its armoury, with which it attacks any part of the human body, and cuts it off at one blow. I myself have seen a strong Abipon with the sole of his foot severely wounded by this fish, and an Abiponian boy with four of his toes cut off by it and hanging only from a bit of skin. To prove the credibility of the fact, I must tell you that the Abiponian women use the jaw of the palometa to shear sheep with. The Abipones also, before they were in possession of iron, used it to cut off the heads of the Spaniards. This fish is found every where in great abundance, but is smaller in the smaller rivers, where it scarce weighs half a pound, while in the larger ones it grows to the size of two or more pounds; but its length never corresponds to its breadth. It has a curved back, thick head, wide mouth, small round eyes, and a broad forked tail. Besides the formidable jaw which I have described, it threatens all assailants with large, long gills, and seven sharp fins, the largest of which is situated in the middle of the back, and runs towards the tail. The body is covered with faint grey spots, interspersed with red, blue, and yellow. The flesh is firm, white, and very savoury; I wish that it were not so full of bones. When the hook is extracted, these fish must be handled with caution, otherwise they will wound you with their teeth or fins.

THE MBÙZU.

In muddy pools, and even in rivers, you see fish very like European eels, and not eaten by the Indians, on account of their snake-like appearance. Our eating one of these fishes caused a report amongst the Indians that Europeans fed upon serpents. Whether these fishes are really eels, or of the serpent kind, I will not pretend to determine.

THE RIVER-CRAB.

Although Paraguay abounds in various kinds of choice fish, it is almost destitute of crabs. I had long heard that some very small crabs, not like those of the sea, but like those in the rivers of Germany, were found in certain streams in the territories of the Uruguay; and I myself saw some which were brought to our table in the Uruguayan town of Concepçion; but they were pygmies in comparison with ours, and might be called mere shadows, and embryos of crabs. After travelling, sailing, and fishing so much in Paraguay, as I never saw any other cray fish beside these, it is my opinion that there are none, or very few indeed. But there are a great variety of sea-crabs.

RIVER-TORTOISES.

The rivers, lakes, and streams, abound in tortoises, but not of that kind the shells of which are valuable in Europe, and fit for working. No sooner did we cast a hook into the river than a tortoise would bite, but was always rejected by us; for in the greater part of Paraguay these animals are eaten neither by Spaniards nor Indians. The only useful part of tortoises in Paraguay is their great shells, which are used for pots and plates by the common people.

LAND-TORTOISES.

Whilst the Abipones, Guaranies, and other Indians with whom I was acquainted, not only abstain from eating tortoises, but even detest the very idea of such a thing; the Chiquitos, on the contrary, make them their chief food during the greater portion of the year. They laboriously hunt after these animals, which are marked with various colours, in the woods and rocks, that provision may not fail them during those months in which their territories are inundated by an annual flood; for as there is more wood and mountain than plain country there, the deficiency of pasture renders it impossible that as many oxen can be raised and killed, for the support of the Indians, as in the colonies of the Guaranies and Abipones. The tortoise, therefore, supplies the place of beef among the Chiquitos.

SNAILS.

Innumerable snails are seen in their shells in the woods, plains, and the borders of lakes, but are eaten by no human being in Paraguay. Empty snail-shells, burnt to ashes in the fire, are used by the Guaranies for whitening walls, when stones for making lime are not to be found. From the white shells of certain snails, the Vilelas make little round beads, perforated in the middle, which they sell to the other Indians. The Abipones hang round their necks great heavy strings of these beads, and both men and women think the more they are loaded the finer they are. On the shores of the river Uruguay, there is an odd kind of snail, larger than a man's fist, which the Indians roast in its shell, and devour with avidity. I do not recollect any thing worth mentioning, in regard to shells and shell-fish, if there are any wretched ones to be found here.

WAYS OF FISHING.

After treating of fish, a few observations should be made concerning the various methods of fishing. In the city of Buenos-Ayres the Spanish fishers enter the river Plata on horseback, near the shore, as far as it is shallow. Two of them lay hold of each end of a rope, on which a net is either spread, or closed again, filled with fish; in a few hours they carry to shore numbers of noble fishes, which are immediately put to sale. The Payaguas and Vilelas subsist chiefly upon fish. For fishing they use a very small net, two ends of which they fasten before them, as you would an apron, at the same time holding the two others with their hands. Thus accoutred they jump from the shore into the water, and if they spy any fish at the bottom, swim after it, catch it in the net, which they place under its body, and carry it to shore. The Indian who has remained beneath the water such a length of time that you believe him inevitably drowned, you will, with astonishment, behold emerging at a great distance, laden with booty. These men are more properly divers, than fishers. If the transparency of the water, as in the river Salado, renders the fish visible, the Paraguayrians pierce them with an arrow, a spear, or an iron prong. The wood Indians catch fishes more usually by craft and artifice than by arms. Sometimes by throwing in sticks, and boughs of trees artfully entwined together, they dam up a river in such a way that, though the fish can enter this enclosure, they are unable to get out again. In other places they throw the plant yçipotingi, which creeps up trees, or the leaves or fresh roots of the caraquata, well pounded, into the water, which intoxicates the fishes to such a degree that they may be caught with the hand as they float on the surface. They often lash the water with the leaves of a certain tree which grows in great abundance near the river Atingỹ, the juice of which is said to be fatal to fishes. The Indians sometimes catch fishes with hooks made of wood or reeds. The common, and indeed the only instrument for fishing that I used, was an iron hook baited with a piece of fresh beef.

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.