Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 181 of 208 - First - Home
They Were Quite
Straight, Smooth Externally, And Perfectly Cylindrical.
These carices
come from the foot of the mountains of Yumariquin and Guanaja.
They
are much sought after, even beyond the Orinoco, by the name of reeds
of Esmeralda. A hunter preserves the same blow-tube during his whole
life, and boasts of its lightness and precision, as we boast of the
same qualities in our fire-arms. What is the monocotyledonous plant*
that furnishes these admirable reeds? (* The smooth surface of these
tubes sufficiently proves that they are not furnished by a plant of
the family of umbelliferae.) Did we see in fact the internodes (parts
between the knots) of a gramen of the tribe of nastoides? or may this
carex be perhaps a cyperaceous plant* destitute of knots? (* The
caricillo del manati, which grows abundantly on the banks of the
Orinoco, attains from eight to ten feet in height.) I cannot solve
this question, or determine to what genus another plant belongs, which
furnishes the shirts of marima. We saw on the slope of the Cerra Duida
shirt-trees fifty feet high. The Indians cut off cylindrical pieces
two feet in diameter, from which they peel the red and fibrous bark,
without making any longitudinal incision. This bark affords them a
sort of garment, which resembles sacks of a very coarse texture, and
without a seam. The upper opening serves for the head; and two lateral
holes are cut for the arms to pass through. The natives wear these
shirts of marima in the rainy season: they have the form of the
ponchos and ruanas of cotton, which are so common in New Grenada, at
Quito, and in Peru. In these climates the riches and beneficence of
nature being regarded as the primary causes of the indolence of the
inhabitants, the missionaries say in showing the shirts of marima, in
the forests of the Orinoco garments are found ready-made on the trees.
We may also mention the pointed caps, which the spathes of certain
palm-trees furnish, and which resemble coarse network.
At the festival of which we were the spectators, the women, who were
excluded from the dance, and every sort of public rejoicing, were
daily occupied in serving the men with roasted monkey, fermented
liquors, and palm-cabbage. This last production has the taste of our
cauliflowers, and in no other country had we seen specimens of such an
immense size. The leaves that are not unfolded are united with the
young stem, and we measured cylinders of six feet long and five inches
in diameter. Another substance, which is much more nutritive, is
obtained from the animal kingdom: this is fish-flour (manioc de
pescado). The Indians throughout the Upper Orinoco fry fish, dry them
in the sun, and reduce them to powder without separating the bones. I
have seen masses of fifty or sixty pounds of this flour, which
resembles that of cassava. When it is wanted for eating, it is mixed
with water, and reduced to a paste. In every climate the abundance of
fish has led to the invention of the same means of preserving them.
Pliny and Diodorus Siculus have described the fish-bread of the
ichthyophagous nations, that dwelt on the Persian Gulf and the shores
of the Red Sea.* (* These nations, in a still ruder state than the
natives of the Orinoco, contented themselves with drying the raw fish
in the sun. They made up the fish-paste in the form of bricks, and
sometimes mixed with it the aromatic seed of paliurus (rhamnus), as in
Germany, and some other countries, cummin and fennel-seed are mixed
with wheaten bread.)
At Esmeralda, as everywhere else throughout the missions, the Indians
who will not be baptized, and who are merely aggregated in the
community, live in a state of polygamy. The number of wives differs
much in different tribes. It is most considerable among the Caribs,
and all the nations that have preserved the custom of carrying off
young girls from the neighbouring tribes. How can we imagine domestic
happiness in so unequal an association? The women live in a sort of
slavery, as they do in most nations which are in a state of barbarism.
The husbands being in the full enjoyment of absolute power, no
complaint is heard in their presence. An apparent tranquillity
prevails in the household; the women are eager to anticipate the
wishes of an imperious and sullen master; and they attend without
distinction to their own children and those of their rivals. The
missionaries assert, what may easily be believed, that this domestic
peace, the effect of fear, is singularly disturbed when the husband is
long absent. The wife who contracted the first ties then applies to
the others the names of concubines and servants. The quarrels continue
till the return of the master, who knows how to calm their passions by
the sound of his voice, by a mere gesticulation, or, if he thinks it
necessary, by means a little more violent. A certain inequality in the
rights of the women is sanctioned by the language of the Tamanacs. The
husband calls the second and third wife the companions of the first;
and the first treats these companions as rivals and enemies
(ipucjatoje), a term which truly expresses their position. The whole
weight of labour being supported by these unhappy women, we must not
be surprised if, in some nations, their number is extremely small.
Where this happens, a kind of polyandry is formed, which we find more
fully displayed in Thibet, and on the lofty mountains at the extremity
of the Indian peninsula. Among the Avanos and Maypures, brothers have
often but one wife. When an Indian, who lives in polygamy, becomes a
christian, he is compelled by the missionaries, to choose among his
wives her whom he prefers, and to reject the others. At the moment of
separation the new convert sometimes discovers the most valuable
qualities in the wives he is obliged to abandon.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 181 of 208
Words from 183690 to 184693
of 211397