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

The hotter parts both of North and South America breed a little worm, the daily cause of many groans, and not a few deaths. In appearance, and in its manner of skipping, it rese...

At this moment, I am doubtful whether to call the language of the Abipones a poor or a rich one: after I have told you what words they want, and what they abound in, you yoursel...

If I remember rightly, no nation which has been discovered in Paraguay is without its jugglers, whom the Abipones call by the name of the devil, Keebèt, or devilish workers, bec...

The Abipones, in their whole deportment, preserve a decorum scarce credible to Europeans. Their countenance and gait display a modest cheerfulness, and manly gravity tempered wi...

The wild Abipones live like wild beasts. They neither sow nor reap, nor take any heed of agriculture. Taught by natural instinct, the instructions of their ancestors, and their...

Restrain your laughter, friendly reader, when you hear that the Abipones honour their physicians with the title of _Keebèt_, which same word has the several significations of th...

The multitude and variety of tongues spoken in Paraguay alone, exceeds alike belief and calculation. Nor should you imagine that they vary only in dialect. Most of them are radi...

The Abipones are indebted for their strength and longevity partly to their parents, partly to themselves. The vigour of youth, preserved by temperance, accompanies them during t...

Different enemies must be combated with different arms. The Abipones, when they go out against the Spaniards, lay aside their breastplates of antas' skins, and their bows, and p...

I have long since described the Abipones to be stout, vigorous, and robust; and unless I am much deceived, have already proved in chapter the seventh, that the diseases, which i...

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 mischie...

Whenever I make mention of the Paraguayrian soldiers, do not imagine that I am speaking of the regular disciplined troops, which are quartered no where but on the shores of the...

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 yea...

No man can obtain celebrity amongst the Abipones except by warlike prowess. Hence to have their arms properly made, in good order, and ready when needed, is their chief care. To...

The physician Roderigo Fonseca observes, "The plague was never seen either in the East or West Indies, but we know that in America a million Indians were destroyed by the small-...

Highly to be admired are the anxious precautions with which they precede an attack. They minutely premeditate whatever is likely to befall them. That they may not be deceived in...

The Abipones do not acknowledge any prince who reigns with supreme power over the whole nation. They are divided into hordes, each of which is headed by a man, whom the Spaniard...

Naturally fearful, they render themselves formidable by art. They make up for the want of native bravery by the noise of their trumpets, the craftiness of their ambuscades, by t...

_Hæc est summa delicti, nolle recognoscere quem ignorare non possit_, are the words of Tertullian, in his Apology for the Christians. Theologians agree in denying that any man i...

Truly ridiculous are those persons who, without ever having beheld America even from a distance, have written with more boldness than truth that all the Americans, without disti...

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...

Paraguay contains full twenty kinds of serpents, all differing in name, colour, size, form, and the nature of their poison. Those most commonly known are the Mboy̆tiñi, or Mboy̆...

Those persons are egregiously mistaken, who imagine that all the Americans, without distinction, wear no other clothes than those in which they were born. This error seems to ha...

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...

Death is dreadful to most mortals, but particularly so to the Abipones. They cannot even bear the sight of a dying person. Hence, whenever any one's life is despaired of, his fe...

Of those things which the Abipones do to testify their grief, according to the customs established by their ancestors, some tend to obliterate the memory of the defunct, others...

The Abipones are well formed, and have handsome faces, much like those of Europeans, except in point of colour, which, though not entirely white, has nothing of the blackness of...

When you read that the Abipones take the devil for their grandfather, you may laugh with me at their folly, and behold their madness with pity and wonder, but, if you be wise, l...

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 nobili...

The Abipones, like all the other American savages, used formerly to pierce their lower lip with a hot iron, or a sharp reed. Into the hole some insert a reed and others a small...

The Abipones inhabit the province Chaco, the centre of all Paraguay; they have no fixed abodes, nor any boundaries, except what fear of their neighbours has established. They ro...

Their method of warfare varies according to the adversaries they have to deal with. They adopt one mode of fighting against the Spaniards, another against savages like themselve...

It is a remarkable circumstance that the military expeditions which they conclude upon when intoxicated, they faithfully execute, at the appointed time, when sober. Not only are...

We know that a plurality of wives, or the repudiation of them, was familiar to the Hebrews and other nations, and that it is tolerated even now amongst the Mahometans and Chines...

Many Europeans spoil their beauty by eagerly imitating foreign customs, and always seeking new methods of adorning their persons. The Abipones disfigure and render themselves te...

As soon as the Abipones see any one fall in battle under their hands, their first care is to cut off the head of the dying man, which they perform with such celerity that they w...

infinitive. I cannot go, _Haoahen m'ahik_. _Haoahen_ and _ahik_, are both in the first person of the present of the indicative, M only being placed between. Thou knowest not how...

A few things remain to be said of the ceremonies with which the bones of the dead are honoured by the Abipones when they are removed to their native land, and thence to the fami...

During an eighteen years' acquaintance with Paraguay and its inhabitants, I discovered a disease amongst the Abipones Nakaiketergehes, entirely unknown elsewhere. This disease a...

I am at a loss in what colours to paint the military dispositions of the Abipones; no word corresponds to the idea which long acquaintance with these savages has impressed on my...

To look for policy in savages will appear to you like seeking a knot in a bulrush, or expecting water from a flint. The Abipones, a nation obstinately attached to their ancient...

When European painters have represented a man of a dark complexion, naked and hairy from head to foot, with flat distorted nostrils, threatening eyes, and a vast belly, a monste...

The love implanted in the minds of all nations towards their prince never shows itself more clearly than when the birth of an heir is announced. Festive fires, theatrical games,...

Whenever an Abipon thinks fit to choose a wife, he must bargain with the parents of the girl about the price to be payed for her. Four or more horses, strings of beads made of g...