Kitabı oku: «An Account of the Abipones, an Equestrian People of Paraguay, (2 of 3)», sayfa 15

CHAPTER XXXII.
CONTINUATION OF THE SAME SUBJECT

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 resembles the smallest of all possible fleas, and is hardly visible to the keenest eye, except in a very strong light, but so pungent that it must be felt by every one that is not made of stone or iron. This insect has so sharp a proboscis that it will pierce shoes, boots, gaiters, and every kind of clothing. It adheres a little while to the skin, and then penetrates the flesh, causing an intense itching: concealed there, as under a burrow, it surrounds itself with a round whitish little bladder, which it fills with eggs like the smallest nits. If this bladder remain many days under the skin, it increases to the size of a pea. This is a common sight. The longer the bladder adheres to the body, the more is the sense of pain deadened. Children are much the fittest to rout this enemy from his station, for the strong sight they possess enables them immediately to discover the little red spot which denotes the place where the worm has entered the flesh. The circumference of that spot they prick with a needle, gradually open the skin and flesh, and at length pluck out the whole bladder with the little worm buried amongst its nits. When this is put to a candle, it goes off with a noise like gunpowder. But if the bladder be broken in the operation, the humour effused from thence will occasion further pain, and the nits, by being scattered, will breed fresh worms in the same place. That this gnat teems with poisonous matter is evident from the circumstance that the hollow from which it has been eradicated, not unfrequently inflames, swells, and, unless quickly remedied, becomes gangrenous. The nails of the feet, which they frequently attack, always decay and fall off, and, to preserve life, it is often necessary to amputate the toes. Those who wish to guard against this inconvenience, should study cleanliness in their houses, for the said worms derive their origin from dust, excrement, and urine in a hot climate, and are bred in places which are seldom swept, which have been long uninhabited, and where the cold air has no access to dry the moisture. The stalls of oxen, horses, and mules, though in the open air, and without a roof, swarm with them. In the southern parts of Paraguay, where the air is not so hot, this noxious insect is unknown; indeed it is seen no where but in the territories of Buenos-Ayres, and Cordoba of the Tucumans. After passing six years in Paraguay, I was only acquainted with it by name, and it was not till my removal to the colony of St. Ferdinand, that I began to see, to suffer and to execrate this pest. Persons who live in a place infested by these insects, should have their feet daily examined; for however troublesome this inspection may be, much greater inconvenience will be incurred by the neglect of it. At one sitting a boy will often take out twenty or more worms, and when your fingers and nails are almost all filled with holes, and the soles of your feet so lacerated as to prevent you from walking a step without difficulty, you will yourself deplore your neglect and procrastination. I have known many persons confined to their beds for weeks, and others entirely deprived of the use of their feet on this account. Though these worms chiefly attack the feet, yet they sometimes, with still greater danger, creep to the other parts of the body, and make their nest in the arm or knee. Dogs, from their always lying on the ground, are most troubled with these insects; but they dexterously remove them from their flesh with their tongues, and heal the wound by licking it. Sows, tame monkeys, cats, goats, and sheep, are dreadfully tormented by them; but horses, asses, mules, and oxen, are protected against the common enemy by the hardness of their hoofs. The Americans should take care to fill up the hollow left by the bladder with tobacco-powder, ashes, or soap, otherwise the wound made by the needle, and infected with the poison of the insect, will become ulcerous, conceive matter, and, on occasion of inflammation, or violent motion of the feet, will end in a gangrene, or St. Anthony's fire. Hen's fat and a cabbage leaf applied to the feet, to allay the inflammation, have often been found of service. They write that the Brazilians, to keep off these worms, anoint their feet with an oil expressed from the unripe acorns of the acaju. Sailors daub themselves with pitch for the same purpose. All of us, in the fear of these and other insects, wore sheepskin leggings, but we found them weak and inefficient defences.

The common fleas of Europe, diffused like æther throughout every part of the air, are not only bred in Paraguay, but domineer most insolently here, as in their native soil. It is a remarkable circumstance that the plain itself, which is covered with grass, swarms with fleas. Persons sailing on the Paraguay, when they leave the vessel to pass the night or noon on the shore, though they lie on a green turf, where no man or dog ever trod, will return to the ship blackened with fleas. If this occurs in the green plain, what must we expect in the dry floors of an apartment, covered neither with brick, stone, nor board? In apartments of this kind have I dwelt seven years amongst the Abipones, during which time I had to contend with countless swarms of fleas. Do you enquire the remedy for fleas in America? There is but one, namely, patience. Columella, Kircher, and others, are indeed of opinion that these insects are not only driven away but destroyed by a decoction of odoriferous herbs scattered on the floor; and the Guaranies do certainly boil for this purpose a strong-scented herb, sprinkling the chamber with the water when boiling hot, and sweeping it once or twice. But if the fleas are destroyed by this means, I attribute it, not to the strong smell of the herbs, but to the water in which they are boiled, and to the mops by which they are swept away. Let the houses be cleared of dust and dogs, and rendered pervious to frequent winds; these are the best precautions against the smaller insects. Lice are never to be met with amongst the Abipones, except in the hair. The Spanish colonies abound in bugs, but I never beheld one in the towns of the Indians. Flying bugs, called binchuccas, are common in Cordoba, and other parts of Tucuman. By day they lurk in the chinks of roofs and chests, but fly out at night and make bloody war upon sleepers. They affect the part upon which they fasten with an intolerable heat, seeming rather to burn than bite the body. The red spots caused by the pain appear as if they had been raised by a caustic. Fatigued with fifteen days hard riding, through a continuous desert, and amid unceasing showers, I reached the town of Salabina, where repose was not only desirable, but almost indispensable for me; yet the whole night passed away without my being able to obtain a wink of sound sleep. I felt all my limbs pricked and heated, but was unable to discover the cause of this unusual pain. When day-light appeared, all who saw me covered with red spots pitied my misfortune, and assured me that the flying bugs were the cause of it. In another journey I passed the night in company with a noble priest, who, after we had partaken of a light supper, set out with me and his domestics to sleep in a neighbouring field. In that part of the country this is both customary and necessary, for in hot nights the houses swarm with bugs to such a degree that it is impossible to get any sleep in them.

Amongst pernicious insects no inconsiderable place should be assigned to the garrapata, which is about the size of a lentil, and in form resembles a land tortoise, except that it is more spherical, wearing on its back a mail like that animal. It is of a dark tawny colour, partly variegated, has a flat body, eight little feet, and a prominent head or proboscis, which it inserts into the skin, fastening, at the same time, the hooks of its feet into it, and whilst it sucks blood from every part of the body, creates an itching and inflammation, followed by swelling and matter, which often lasts four days or more, while the ulcer will hardly heal within a fortnight. When the insect has fixed its head deep into the flesh, it is very difficult to pull it out entire; and if it remain sticking in the flesh you will be in a bad condition; for the venom will not be got rid of till matter has flowed for a long time from that itching ulcer. The plains and woods are filled with this insect, so hostile both to man and beast. Where you see rotten leaves, or reeds, there you will find swarms of this little animal. When we travelled in the woods to discover the hordes of the savages, we disregarded tigers, serpents, and caruguàs, in comparison with these noxious insects: it was our constant complaint that we had not eyes enough to avoid them, nor hands sufficient to drive them away. The Spaniards employed in seeking the herb of Paraguay, when they daily return to their hut, lay down the bundles of boughs with which they are laden, and hasten to the next lake or river to bathe, where, having stripped themselves naked, they examine one another's bodies, and pluck out the garrapatas sticking in their flesh; unless this precaution were adopted, they would be killed in a few days with the superabundance of matter, and of ulcers. Goats, does, monkeys, tamanduas, dogs, and every wild animal that inhabits the plains or woods, all swarm with these insects. The lesser garrapatas are much more mischievous than the larger ones.

There are many species and incredible numbers both of creeping and flying ants in Paraguay. The worst and most stinging kind are the least in size, and of a red colour. They carry off sugar, honey, and every thing sweet, so that you have need of much ingenuity to defend provision of this kind from them. From eating sweet things they increase their bile, and acquire a subtle venom. As soon as they get upon the skin, they create a pustule, which lasts many days, and causes severe pain. To this very small species of ants, I subjoin the largest I had an opportunity of seeing, which are formidable on account of their undermining buildings. They make burrows with infinite labour, under churches and houses, digging deep sinuous meanders in the earth, and exerting their utmost strength to throw out the loosened sods. Having got wings they fly off in all directions, on the approach of heavy showers, with the same ill fortune as Icarus, but with this difference, that he perished in the sea, they on the ground, to which they fall when their wings are wetted by the rain. Moreover those holes in the earth, by which the ants used first to pass, admit the rain water, which inundates the caves of the ants, and undermines the building, causing the wooden beams that uphold the wall and roof, first to give way, and unless immediately supported, to fall along with the house. This is a common spectacle in Paraguay. The whole hill on which St. Joachim was built was covered with ant-hills, and full of subterranean cavities. Our house, and the one adjoining, suffered much from these insects. The chief altar was rendered useless for many days: for, it being rainy weather, the lurking ants flew in swarms from their caves, and not being able to support a long flight, fell upon the priest, the altar, and sacred utensils, defiling every thing. Ten outlets by which they broke from their caves being closed up, next day they opened twenty more. One evening there arose a violent storm, with horrible thunder and lightning. A heavy shower seemed to have converted our court-yard into a sloping lake, the wall itself withstanding the course of the waters. My companion betook himself to my apartment. Mean time an Indian, the churchwarden, arrives, announcing that the floor of the church was beginning to gape, and the wall to open and be inclined. I snatched up a lamp and ran to the place, but had hardly quitted the threshold of my door, when I perceived a gap in the earth; and before I was aware of any danger, sunk up to the shoulders in a pit, in the very place of the chief altar, but scrambled out of it by the help of the churchwarden, as quickly as I had got in, for under that altar the ants seemed to have made their metropolis: the cavern was many feet long and wide, so that it had the appearance of a wine-cellar. As often as earth was thrown in by the Indians to fill it, so often was it dug out by the ants. In this universal trepidation, all the Indians were called to prop the gaping wall of the church with rafters and planks. The greatness of the danger rendered it impossible to remain quiet, whatever arts were adopted. That same night I removed from my apartment, which was joined to the church with the same beams and rafters in such a manner, that if one fell, the other could not avoid being involved in the ruin. I have read, that in Guayana, rocks and mountains have been undermined, walls thrown down, and people turned out of their habitations by ants, which I can easily believe, having myself witnessed similar, or even more incredible events.

In Paraguay I was made thoroughly acquainted with the powers of ants. They are weak, and, compared with many other insects, diminutive, but numbers, labour, and unanimity render them formidable, and endow them with strength superior to their size. In the plains, especially those near the Paraguay, I have seen ant-hills, like stone pyramids, three or more ells high, with a broad base, and composed of a solid material as hard as stone: these are the store-houses and castles of the ants, from the summits of which they discern sudden inundations, and safely behold the floating carcasses of less industrious animals. Elsewhere I have seen an immense plain, so covered with low ant-hills that the horse could not move a step without stumbling. In the plains you may often observe a broad path, through which you would swear the legions of Xerxes might have passed. The Spaniards hollow out these pyramidal heaps, and use them for ovens, or reduce them to a powder, which, mixed with water, serves admirably to floor houses. Pavements of this kind resemble stone in appearance and hardness, and are said to prevent the breeding of fleas, and other insects. But hear what mischief ants commit within doors. They flock in a long and almost endless company to the sacks of wheat, and in a journey uninterrupted by day or night, (if there be a moon,) carry off, by degrees, some bushels. They will entirely strip fruit trees of their leaves, unless you twist a cow's tail round the trunk to hinder their ascent, and eat away the crops so completely that you would think they had been cut with a sickle. Moreover, ants of various kinds are extremely destructive both to vineyards and gardens, devouring vegetables and pulse to the very root. Set a young plant in the ground and the next day you will seek it in vain. They refrain from pepper, on account of its pungency. If you leave meat, either dressed or raw, in your apartment, you will soon find it blackened with swarms of ants. They devour all sorts of trash, the very carcasses of beetles, toads, and snakes. On returning to my apartment, I found a little bird which I kept in a cage devoured by ants. Nor do they abstain from the bodies of sleeping persons. In the dead of the night an army of ants will issue from the wall or pavement, get upon the bed, and unless you instantly make your escape, sting you all over. This happened so frequently in the Guarany colonies, that we were obliged to burn a candle at night: for lighted sheets of paper thrown upon the swarm, are the only means of driving them away. The Portugueze have an old saying, that the ants are queens of Brazil. Certainly we have found them the sovereigns of Paraguay. There may be said to be more trouble in conquering these insects, than all the savages put together; for every contrivance hitherto devised serves only to put them to flight, not banish them effectually. Should you hire workmen at a great expense to throw fire upon the caves of the ants, and destroy their eggs, fresh ones will be found next day in other parts of the garden. If swine's dung, chalk, urine, or wild marjoram be put into their cave, they will depart, but only to dig themselves fresh habitations in the neighbourhood. Sulphur is superior to other remedies, and the way in which it is to be used we learnt from the Portugueze. You seek out the principal lurking-place of the ants, lay a chafing dish of lighted coals in the largest opening by which they enter the earth, blow them into a flame, and add sulphur to make a smoke. You carefully stop up the other openings, through which you perceive the smoke issue, with mud, that the sulphureous smoke may not be permitted to escape. You then light all the sulphur you have at hand, by means of bellows, and the smoke filling the whole cave will suffocate all the ants that lurk there. This has been successfully practised by many persons in Paraguay. But if sulphur be wanting in these solitudes, or patience to use it, then grapes and the productions of the trees and plains must fail also. The ants will devastate every thing, and elude all the arts of the cultivator, unless destroyed by the smoke of sulphur.

It were to wrong the Paraguayrian ants, if, after having so minutely described all the mischief they commit, I were to be silent on their benefits. Some of the larger sort have a little ball in the hind part of their bodies full of very white fat, which, when collected, and melted like butter, is eaten with pleasure both by Indians and Spaniards. Other very small ants, in those shrubs which bear the quabyra-miri, deposit a wax naturally white, and consisting of small particles, which is used to make candles for the use of the altar, and when lighted exhales an odour sweeter than frankincense, but quickly melts, and though double the price of any other wax is sooner consumed. There are also ants that convey to their caves particles of fragrant rosin, which serve for frankincense. In certain parts of Asia small particles of gold are collected by the ants, from mountains which produce that metal. The inhabitants, in order to get possession of the gold, attack their caves, the repositories of this treasure, especially in the heat of the sun; but the ants stoutly defending their riches, they often return empty-handed, and sometimes are obliged to make a precipitate retreat. I have long wished that those Europeans who have to feed larks and nightingales would come to this country, and load their ships with ant-eggs: they would certainly return with great profit, and at the same time do a signal service to America.

There are also incredible numbers of very large toads, especially in deserted, or but lately inhabited places. In the town of Concepcion, removed to the banks of the Salado, about evening all the streets were so covered with toads, that they were rendered as slippery as ice. They filled the chapel, our house, every place. They not unfrequently fell from the roof on to the floor, bed, or table. They could creep along the wall, and ascend and descend like flies. When the kitchen fire is kindled on the ground toads sometimes creep into the pans and kettles. Once, as I was pouring boiling water from a brass vessel into a gourd, to mix with the herb of Paraguay, I perceived that the water was bad, and of a black colour; and, on inspecting the vessel, found a toad boiled with the water, which had given it that dark hue, and was so swelled that it entirely choked up the mouth of the vessel. In the colony of the Rosary, which I founded on the banks of a lake, there was the same abundance of toads. Whilst I performed divine service the chapel swarmed with them, and though many were slain every hour of the day, for two years, their numbers seemed rather to increase than diminish. A species of toad, called by the Spaniards escuerzos, and much larger than European ones, are not only troublesome, but, when provoked, dangerous: for by way of revenge they squirt their urine at those by whom they are offended, and if the least drop of this liquid enter the eye it will immediately produce blindness. It is moreover indubitable that not only their urine, but their saliva, blood, and gall possess a poisonous property. We learn from creditable authors that the Brazilian savages roast toads, and then reduce them to a powder, which they infuse into the meat or drink of their enemies to cause their death; for it occasions a dryness and inflammation of the throat, together with vomiting, hiccups, sudden fainting, delirium, severe pains in the joints and stomach, and sometimes dysentery. Persons afflicted in this manner, if the force of the poison admit of medicine, should immediately have recourse to purging and vomiting, with repeated walking, or the bath, to produce perspiration. For the same purpose the sick man is sometimes put into a tolerably hot oven, or placed inside a beast that has been newly slain. Various herbs and roots are also made use of to dissipate the poison, the chief of which is one called nhambi. If the juice of this herb be thrown on the back or head of the toad, after those parts have been rubbed a little on the ground, it will instantly kill the pestilent animal. This also is effected by means of tobacco. American toads are of a cinereous or light red colour, sometimes variegated, covered with warts, and bristly like a hedgehog. I have read that certain savages feed on a species of toad, but never witnessed it myself. European physicians say that toads, properly prepared by druggists, are useful as diuretics in dropsy, plague, and fevers, and they advise a bruised toad to be applied to the back, about the kidneys, by way of a cataplasm, in cases of dropsy. The oil of toads is useful for curing warts, according to Woytz. River crabs, hartshorn, the flowers of the vine, and other things, are recommended by the same authors as remedies for the poison of toads. There is also a great variety and abundance of frogs, which croak away in the mud, equally annoying to the inhabitants and to travellers. In other respects they are neither useful nor prejudicial, though in Europe they are employed both as medicine and food; but there is nothing to which you would not sooner persuade an American than to eat frogs, or make any other use of them.

Leeches are always to be found in pools supplied solely with rain water; but I never saw any so large as ours. In the town of the Rosary, after a heavy shower the streets seemed full of leeches, and the Abipones, who always go barefoot, complained that they clung to their feet wherever they went; but in the space of an hour these troublesome guests all disappeared, having betaken themselves, most probably, to the adjoining lake. Of bats I have spoken in a former part of my history.

Paraguay may be called the Paradise of mice and dormice. From the number of oxen daily slain, such abundance of offal is every where to be had, that dormice, which in our country can hardly find anything to eat, here feast day and night, which, of course, must wonderfully increase their numbers. At Buenos-Ayres, to my astonishment, I beheld dormice, larger than our squirrels, issue by crowds out of the old walls into the court, about sun-set. At Cordoba in Tucuman, an ox, stripped of its hide and entrails, but entire in every other respect, was suspended from a beam in the clerk's office. The lay-brothers, on entering the office, beheld the ox entirely covered with dormice, and drew near to see how much they had devoured in the night. On handling the flesh, they found it completely hollowed, and three hundred dormice lurking within. Upon hearing this, I conceived such a disgust of meat gnawed by these animals, that for two days I carefully avoided the eating-room, and contented myself with bread alone. The fruit of my abstinence was, that the meat was thenceforward kept cleaner, and in a more appropriate place. An innumerable host of dormice not unfrequently came thronging from the southern parts of Buenos-Ayres, filled the fields, garners, and houses of Tucuman, and laid waste every thing. They swam across rivers without fear. They left the immense tract of plain country through which they took their way beaten and pressed as if by waggons. The Paraguayrian countrymen, frightened by their multitudes, chose rather to quit their huts, which were exposed on all sides, than take up arms against the foe. Nor should you imagine the Paraguayrian dormice are fond of nothing but beef; they delight in human flesh, for they frequently bite you when you are sound asleep, and that with no sluggish tooth. Moreover, there is no kind of trash which they will not steal and hide in their store-houses, to serve either for food or bed. They tear the silken markers out of the prayer-books to make their nests. They run off with aprons, bandages, stockings, linen and woollen articles of every kind, carrying them to their holes for bed-clothes and cushions. These troublesome pilferers not only commit daily thefts upon the inhabitants, but frequently set fire to the houses themselves. For they carry away burning tallow candles in their mouths, and in hastening to their caves, often set fire to the cottages of the Spanish peasants. They occasioned us much trouble in the colony of the Rosary. A light was forced to be kept up at night there on several accounts. When tallow was not to be had, I used oil expressed from cows' feet for this purpose. Almost every night the dormice snatched up the iron plate with the burning wick, in order to suck the oil when it cooled. To restrain their audacity, it was found necessary to bind the plate of the match to the lamp with a little brass chain, a weight of iron being added.

A most frequent, and almost annual calamity to Paraguay are the locusts, which are horrible to the sight and of immense size, being longer than a man's middle finger. When an infinite swarm of them approaches, a terrible darkness breaks from the farthest horizon, and you would swear that a black cloud pregnant with rain, wind, and lightning was drawing nigh. My Abipones, on such occasions, often snatched up arms, and placed themselves in battle array; for the locusts, beheld from a distance, looked like a cloud of dust stirred up by a troop of hostile savages. Wherever the locusts settle, they deprive the fields of their productions, the trees of their leaves, the plain of grass, and men and cattle of food; while the numerous offspring which they leave behind continue the devastation to another year, and create further misery. The army of locusts is prevented from flying to the ground, and feeding in the fields sowed with various kinds of grain, by the sound of drums, the shouting of voices, the firing of guns, and continual rustling of boughs in the air; if these methods fail of driving them away, all the men in the Guarany towns are employed in collecting and killing them. In one day we have often with pleasure beheld many bushels full of these insects, and have condemned them either to the fire or the water. The Abipones had rather eat locusts than drown or burn them; on which account, as they are flying, they knock them down to the ground with long sticks, roast them at the fire on the same, or on spits, and devour them with as much avidity as we do partridges or beccaficos, rejecting however the males. It has been my intention to treat here of all the noxious insects that occasion death, disease, or damage: but what a field should I have, were I also to describe the harmless ones both of the land and water. Good Heavens! what an abundance is there of flies, worms, bees, hornets, drones, and grasshoppers! What an immense diversity of glow-worms, shining here and there by night like stars! Some, which are about the size of a grass-worm, by moving their wings, others from their eyes alone, emit a light strong enough for one to read by. Some glow only behind, others in every part of their bodies. Wood, reeds, leaves, and roots of plants, when putrefied, scatter at night, particularly in moist places, a green, red, yellow, or blue radiance, resembling diamonds, emeralds, chrysolites, rubies, &c. This was a nightly spectacle to us in the woods between the rivers Acaray̆ and Monday̆. I carried some rubbish which I had observed to glitter in this manner, to my town, where it shone as long as it continued moist; when wetted, it regained its former splendour, which, however, ceased at last, in spite of fresh supplies of water. I never perceived phosphoric lights of this nature in any other part of Paraguay. Innumerable butterflies, of a beautiful variety of colours, adorn the sides of the rivers and woods, as flowers the meadows; but of these and other insects, many and accurate accounts have been already written, which are now in the hands of all. We must return to the Abipones, more destructive to Paraguay than any insect, who, though looked upon by the Spaniards in the light of robbers and murderers, do nevertheless profess themselves warriors and heroes; whether justly or no, I leave to the arbitration of my readers, to whom I shall proceed to describe their military discipline and method of warfare.