Their Bodies Are So Elegant And Well Proportioned, That Hardly
Is Any The Smallest Deformity To Be Seen Among Them.
Though they go
entirely naked among the women, their appearance is tolerably decent[5],
yet are they no more moved by this exposure than we are by shewing our
faces.
It is rare among them to see any women with lax breasts or
shrivelled bellies through frequent child-birth, as they are all equally
plump and firm afterwards as formerly. Their women were extremely fond of
our men.
We could not perceive that this nation had any religion, nor ought they on
that account to be accounted worse than the Jews, or Moors, since these
nations are much more reprehensible than the pagans or idolaters. We could
not discover that they performed any sacrifices or sacred rites of any
kind, neither had they any temples or other places for worship. Their way
of living, which is exceedingly voluptuous, I consider as epicurean[6].
Their houses, which are common to all, are built in the shape of a bell,
firmly constructed of large pieces of timber, and covered over with palm
leaves, so strong as to be able to resist winds and storms; some of them
so large as to be able to contain six hundred persons. Among these we
found eight that were exceedingly populous, as in them there dwelt ten
thousand souls[7]. Every seven or eight years they change their place of
residence; and when asked the reason of this, they said that through the
heat of the sun, the air would become infected by a longer residence in
the same place, which would occasion various diseases. Their riches
consisted in the various coloured feathers of different birds, in certain
stones resembling those called pater-nosters, in plates, or beads made
of fish bones, or of green or white stones, which they hang by way of
ornaments on their cheeks, lips, and ears. They likewise consider as
valuable several other trifling things which we despise. They employ no
medium for sale or barter, being satisfied with those things which are
offered spontaneously by nature. Gold, pearls, and precious stones, and
others of like nature, which are considered in Europe as riches, they hold
in no estimation, or rather despise them as of no use. They are extremely
liberal of every thing they possess, so that they never refuse any thing
that is asked from them; but are equally greedy in their demands, after
they have entered into friendship with any one. As the greatest mark of
friendship, they give their wives and daughters to their friends; and
every parent thinks himself much honoured when any one asks from him his
virgin daughter, which cements the firmest friendships among them. They
use various rites and customs in burying their dead. Some deposit them in
the earth, accompanied with victuals and water at their head, which they
believe are used by the deceased. After this no farther mourning or
ceremonial is customary. In other places, their mode of sepulture is very
barbarous and cruel. When any person is considered to be near his end, his
relations carry him out into a large wood, where they suspend him in a
hammock from two trees; and having danced round him for a whole day, they
place at night as much water and provisions as may suffice him for four
days, and every one returns to his own home. After this, if the sick
person is able to eat and drink, and is so far restored to health as to be
enabled to return to his habitation, he is received back by his relations
with much ceremony. But very few are able to do so, as no one ever visits
the sick person after his suspension. Should any of these leave the
hammock and die in the wood, they get no other burial. They have several
other barbarous customs, which I omit mentioning, to avoid being prolix.
They use various medicines for curing their diseases, which are so totally
different from those used among us, that it is wonderful any one should
recover by their means. When any one is ill of a fever, they plunge the
patient at its heighth in the coldest water, after which he is forced to
run round a large fire for two hours till he is all over in a violent
perspiration, and is then taken to bed. By this strange remedy we have
seen many restored to health. They will sometimes refrain from food for
three or four days. They draw blood, not from the arms, but from the loins
and the calves of the legs. They excite vomiting by means of certain herbs
which they chew, and keep in their mouths. They use likewise various other
remedies and antidotes, which it were tedious to enumerate. They are
subject to different sanguineous and phlegmatic humours, occasioned by the
nature of their food, which consists of fish, with various roots, fruits,
and herbs. They use no meal of any kind of corns or other seeds; but their
chief food is made from the root of a certain tree, which they bruise down
into a tolerably good kind of meal. This root is called by some jucha,
by others chambi, and by others igname. They scarcely eat of any kind
of flesh except that of men, in the use of which they exceed every thing
that is brutal and savage among mankind; devouring their enemies, whether
slain or taken prisoners, both men and women indiscriminately, in the most
ferocious manner that can be conceived. I have often seen them employed in
this brutal feast, and they expressed surprize that we did not eat our
enemies as they did. All this your majesty may be assured is absolutely
true; and that their customs are so many and barbarous, it were tedious to
describe them all. Having seen many things during my four voyages
exceedingly different from our manners and customs, I have composed a book
in which all these are particularly described, but which I have not yet
published.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 153 of 214
Words from 156549 to 157568
of 219607
