Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Such Were The Journeys
Of The Toltec And Aztec Race In The High Plains Of Mexico, From The
Sixth To The Eleventh Century Of Our Era; Such Probably Was Also The
Movement Of Nations By Which The Petty Tribes Of Canada Were Grouped
Together.
As the immense country between the equator and the eighth
degree of north latitude forms one continuous forest, the hordes were
there dispersed by following the branchings of the rivers, and the
nature of the land compelled them to become more or less
agriculturists.
Such is the labyrinth of these rivers, that families
settled themselves without knowing what race of men lived nearest the
spot. In Spanish Guiana a mountain, or a forest half a league broad,
sometimes separates hordes who could not meet in less than two days by
navigating rivers. In open countries, or in a state of advanced
civilization, communication by rivers contributes powerfully to
generalize languages, manners, and political institutions; but in the
impenetrable forests of the torrid zone, as in the first rude
condition of our species, rivers increase the dismemberment of great
nations, favour the transition of dialects into languages that appear
to us radically distinct, and keep up national hatred and mistrust.
Between the banks of the Caura and the Padamo everything bears the
stamp of disunion and weakness. Men avoid, because they do not
understand, each other; they mutually hate, because they mutually
fear.
When we examine attentively this wild part of America, we fancy
ourselves transported to those primitive times when the earth was
peopled by degrees, and we seem to be present at the birth of human
societies. In the old world we see that pastoral life has prepared the
hunting nations for agriculture. In the New World we seek in vain
these progressive developments of civilization, these intervals of
repose, these stages in the life of nations. The luxury of vegetation
embarrasses the Indians in the chase; and in their rivers, resembling
arms of the sea, the depth of the waters prevents fishing during whole
months. Those species of ruminating animals, that constitute the
wealth of the nations of the Old World, are wanting in the New. The
bison and the musk-ox have never been reduced to a domestic state; the
breeding of llamas and guanacos has not created the habits of pastoral
life. In the temperate zone, on the banks of the Missouri, as well as
on the tableland of New Mexico, the American is a hunter; but in the
torrid zone, in the forests of Guiana, he cultivates cassava,
plantains, and sometimes maize. Such is the admirable fertility of
nature, that the field of the native is a little spot of land, to
clear which requires only setting fire to the brambles; and putting a
few seeds or slips into the ground is all the husbandry it demands. If
we go back in thought to the most remote ages, in these thick forests
we must always figure to ourselves nations deriving the greater part
of their nourishment from the earth; but, as this earth produces
abundance in a small space, and almost without toil, we may also
imagine these nations often changing their dwellings along the banks
of the same river. Even now the native of the Orinoco travels with his
seeds; and transports his farm (conuco) as the Arab transports his
tent, and changes his pasturage. The number of cultivated plants found
wild amid the woods, proves the nomad habits of an agricultural
people. Can we be surprised, that by these habits they lose almost all
the advantages that result in the temperate zone from stationary
culture, from the growth of corn, which requires extensive lands and
the most assiduous labour?
The nations of the Upper Orinoco, the Atabapo, and the Inirida, like
the ancient Germans and the Persians, have no other worship than that
of the powers of nature. They call the good principle Cachimana; it is
the Manitou, the Great Spirit, that regulates the seasons, and favours
the harvests. Along with Cachimana there is an evil principle,
Iolokiamo, less powerful, but more artful, and in particular more
active. The Indians of the forest, when they occasionally visit the
missions, conceive with difficulty the idea of a temple or an image.
"These good people," said the missionary, "like only processions in
the open air. When I last celebrated the festival of San Antonio, the
patron of my village, the Indians of Inirida were present at mass.
'Your God,' said they to me, 'keeps himself shut up in a house, as if
he were old and infirm; ours is in the forest, in the fields, and on
the mountains of Sipapu, whence the rains come.'" Among the more
numerous, and on this account less barbarous tribes, religious
societies of a singular kind are formed. Some old Indians pretend to
be better instructed than others on points regarding divinity; and to
them is confided the famous botuto, of which I have spoken, and which
is sounded under the palm-trees that they may bear abundance of fruit.
On the banks of the Orinoco there exists no idol, as among all the
nations who have remained faithful to the first worship of nature, but
the botuto, the sacred trumpet, is an object of veneration. To be
initiated into the mysteries of the botuto, it is requisite to be of
pure morals, and to have lived single. The initiated are subjected to
flagellations, fastings, and other painful exercises. There are but a
small number of these sacred trumpets. The most anciently celebrated
is that upon a hill near the confluence of the Tomo and the Guainia.
It is pretended, that it is heard at once on the banks of the Tuamini,
and at the mission of San Miguel de Davipe, a distance of ten leagues.
Father Cereso assured us, that the Indians speak of the botuto of Tomo
as an object of worship common to many surrounding tribes. Fruit and
intoxicating liquors are placed beside the sacred trumpet.
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