Ladies (?) Will Pass You With Their Stiffly-Starched
White Dresses, And Raven-Black Hair Neatly Done Up With Colored
Ribbons, But With Feet Innocent Of Shoes.
Soldiers and policemen
tramp the streets, but neither are provided with footwear, and their
clothes are often in tatters.
The Jesuits taught the Indians to
make shoes, but they alone wore them, exporting the surplus.
Shoes are not for common people, and when one of them dares to cover
his feet he is considered presumptuous. Hats they never wear, but
they have the beautiful custom of weaving flowers in their hair. When
flowers are not worn the head is covered by a white sheet called the
tupoi, and in some cases this garment is richly embroidered. These
females are devoted Romanists, as will be seen from the following
description of a feast held to St. John:
"Dona Juana's first care was to decorate with uncommon splendor a
large image of St. John, which, in a costly crystal box, she
preserved as the chief ornament of her principal drawing-room. He was
painted anew and re-gilded. He had a black velvet robe purchased for
him, and trimmed with deep gold lace. Hovering over him was a cherub.
Every friend of Dona Juana had lent some part of her jewellery for
the decoration of the holy man. Rings sparkled on his fingers;
collars hung around his neck; a tiara graced his venerable brow. The
lacings of his sandals were studded with pearls; a precious girdle
bound his slender waist, and six large wax candles were lighted up at
the shrine. There, embosomed in fragrant evergreens - the orange, the
lime, the acacia - stood the favorite saint, destined to receive the
first homage of every guest that should arrive. These all solemnly
took off their hats to the image."
Such religious mummery as this is painful to witness, and to see the
saint borne round in procession, with men carrying candles, and
white-clad girls with large birds' wings fastened to their shoulders,
dispels the idea of its being Christianity at all.
The people are gentle and mild-spoken. White-robed women lead strings
of donkeys along the streets, bearing huge panniers full of
vegetables, among which frequently play the women's babies. The
panniers are about a yard deep, and may often be seen full to the
brim with live fowls pinioned by the legs. Other women go around with
large wicker trays on their heads, selling chipa, the native bread,
made from Indian corn, or mandioca root, the staple food of the
country. Wheat is not grown in Paraguay, and any flour used is
imported. These daughters of Eve often wear nothing more than a robe-
de-chambre, and invariably smoke cigars six or eight inches long.
Their figure is erect and stately, and the laughing eyes full of
mischief and merriment; but they fade into old age at forty. Until
then they seem proud as children of their brass jewellery and red
coral beads. The Paraguayans are the happiest race of people I have
met; care seems undreamed of by them.
In the post-office of the capital I have sometimes been unable to
procure stamps, and "Dypore" (We have none) has been the civil
answer of the clerk. When they had stamps they were not provided
with mucilage, but a brush and pot of paste were handed the buyer. If
you ask for a one cent stamp the clerk will cut a two cent stamp and
give you a half. They have, however, stamps the tenth part of a cent
in value, and a bank note in circulation whose face value is less
than a cent. There are only four numerals in the Guarani language: 1,
petei; 2,moncoi; 3,bohapy; 4,irundu. It is not possible to
express five or six. No wonder, therefore, that when I bought five
40-cent stamps, I found the clerk was unable to count the sum, and I
had to come to the rescue and tell him it was $2.00. At least eighty
per cent. of the people are unable to read. When they do, it is of
course in Spanish, A young man to whom I gave the Gospel of John
carefully looked at it, and then, turning to me, said: "Is this a
history of that wonderful lawyer we have been hearing about?" To
those interested in the dissemination of Scriptures, let me state
that no single Gospel has as yet been translated into Guarani.
A tentative edition of the "Sermon on the Mount" has recently been
issued by the British and Foreign Bible Society, a copy of which I
had the honor to be the first to present to the head executive.
Gentle simplicity is the chief characteristic of the people. If the
traveller relates the most ordinary events that pass in the outside
world, they will join in the exclamation of surprise-"Ba-eh-pico!
Ba-eh-pico!"
Information that tends to their lowering is not always accepted thus,
however, for a colonel in the army, when told that Asuncion could be
put into a large city graveyard, hastily got up from the dinner table
and went away in wounded pride and incredulity. The one who is
supposed to "know a little" likes to keep his position, and the
Spanish proverb is exemplified: "En tierra de los ciegos, el tuerto
es rey" (In the blind country the one-eyed are kings). The native is
most guileless and ignorant, as can well be understood when his
language is an unwritten one.
Paraguay is essentially a land of fruit, 200 oranges may be bought
for the equivalent of six cents. Small mountains of oranges may
always be seen piled up on the banks ready to be shipped down the
river. Women are employed to load the vessels with this fruit, which
they carry in baskets on their heads. Everything is carried on their
heads, even to a glass bottle. My laundress, Cunacarai [Footnote: The
Guarani idiom can boast of but few words, and Mr., Mrs. and Miss are
simply rendered "carai" (man), "cuna-carai" (woman) and "cunatai"
(young woman); "mita cuna" is girl, "mita cuimbai" is boy, and "mita
mishi" - baby.] Jesus, although an old woman, could bear almost
incredible weights on her hard skull.
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