|
page 75 ---Indians---Guaycurus---appearance---customs---
They, however, never were cannibals, and the greater part of the tribe
that dwells on the eastern banks of the Paraguay,
has been since the year 1791, in alliance
with the Portuguese, whose friendship they sought by an embassy, and which
is also secured to them by written conventions; but this is not the case
with the rest of the nation, for those of the Guaycurus indians
who possess the extensive unknown lands to the west of the river, have
no intercourse whatever with the Portuguese. Among the savage Guaycurus,
there are several tribes such as the Lingoas, the Cambas,
and the Xiriquanhos, the last of whom sometimes even make hostile
expeditions against the Spaniards of the province of Santa
Cruz de la Sierra.
They make use of bows and arrows, a club from
two to three feet long,  and a lance from twelve to fifteen feet long,
which they arm with an iron point. They almost always make their expeditions
on horseback, using instead of a bridle, a single cord made of the fibres
of the ananas leaves.
They wear a bandage around the body, which holds their club on the right
side, and their hunting knife on the left, and by drawing which very tight,
they preserve themselves, like many other Indian tribes, against the sensations
of hunger, to which they are frequently exposed on such expeditions. They
guide the horse with the left hand, and carry in the right the bows and
arrows or the lance. In their wars with the other Indians and the Paulistas,
who engage them by land, they are said to have the custom of driving together
large herds of wild horses and oxen, and to let them loose upon the enemy,
who being thrown into disorder by this attack, are the less able to make
any resistance to them.
Guaycuru horsemen
page 76
The use of the horse among these Indians is as old as the time of their
first acquaintance with the Europeans, and it seems these animals first
became known to them on their excursions towards the Spanish possessions
of Assumcao, in
which part they had increased with incredible rapidity. Though they are
so used to horses, they are not very good riders, and do not venture to
tame and break the wild animals, except in the water, where they have
less fear of their restiveness, and are in less danger of falling.
Hunting, fishing, and looking for fruits in
the woods, are, next to war, the chief occupations of the men. The business
of the women is to prepare the flour from the roots of the mandiocca plant,
which those who live in Aldeas have begun to cultivate, and the
manufacture of cotton stuffs, pottery, and other utensils. Their basketwork
of fibers, which they chiefly make of some kinds of palm, are said to
excel in beauty and strength those of most of the other Indians. It is
probably in consequence of the European
civilization, which has already exercised influence in many respects over
this tribe, that the women wear an apron, and a large square piece of
striped cotton stuff which serves as a cloak. The men, on the contrary,
are quite naked, except for the aforementioned narrow bandage around the
loins, which is of colored cotton and often adorned with glass beads.
 
|
