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.
As the climate is hot, a favorite occupation for men and women is to
sit half-submerged in the river, smoking vigorously "The Paraguayans
are an amphibious race, neither wholly seamen nor wholly landsmen,
but partaking of both." All sleep in cotton hammocks, - beds are
almost unknown. The hammocks are slung on the verandah of the house
in the hotter season and all sleep outside, taking off their garments
with real sang froid. In the cooler season the visitor is invited
to hang his hammock along with the rest inside the house, and in the
early morning naked little children bring mate to each one. If the
family is wealthy this will be served in a heavy silver cup and
bombilla, or sucking tube, of the same metal. After this drink and
a bite of chipa, a strangely shaped, thin-necked bottle, made of
sun-baked clay, is brought, and from it water is poured on the hands.
The towels are spotlessly white and of the finest texture.
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