From Time To Time We Had To Push Our
Way Into The Dense Forest On Either Side, In Order To Give Space For
A String Of Bullock Carts To Go Past.
These vehicles are eighteen or
twenty feet long, but have only two wheels.
They are drawn by ten or
twelve oxen, which are urged on by goads fastened to a bamboo, twenty
feet long, suspended from the roof of the cart, which is thatched
with reeds. The goads are artistically trimmed with feathers of
parrots and macaws, or with bright ribbons. These are of all colors,
but those around the sharp nail at the end are further painted with
red blood every time the goad is used.
The carts, rolling and straining like ships in foul weather, can be
heard a mile off, owing to the humming screech of the wheels, which
are never greased, but on the contrary have powdered charcoal put in
them to increase the noise. Without this music (?) the bullocks do
not work so well. How the poor animals could manage to draw the load
was often a mystery to me, Sections of the road were partly destroyed
by landslides and heavy rains, but down the slippery banks of rivers,
through the beds of torrents or up the steep inclines they somehow
managed to haul the unwieldy vehicle. Strings of loaded donkeys or
mules, with jingling bells, also crawled past, and I noticed with a
smile that even the animals in this idolatrous land cannot get on
without the Virgin, for they have tiny statuettes of her standing
between their ears to keep them from danger. Near the town the rivers
and streams are bridged over with tree trunks placed longitudinally,
and the crevices are filled in with boughs and sods. Some of them are
so unsafe and have such gaping holes that I frequently dismounted and
led my horse over.
The tropical scenery was superb. Thousands of orange trees growing by
the roadside, filled with luscious fruit on the lower branches, and
on the top with the incomparable orange blossoms, afforded delight to
the eye, and notwithstanding the heat, kept us cool, for as we rode
we could pluck and eat. Tree ferns twenty and thirty feet high waved
their feathery fronds in the gentle breeze, and wild pineapples
growing at our feet loaded the air with fragrance.
There was the graceful pepper tree, luxuriant hanging lichens, or
bamboos forty feet high, which riveted the attention and made one
think what a beautiful world God has made. Many of the shrubs and
plants afford dyes of the richest hues, Azara found four hundred new
species of the feathered tribe in the gorgeous woods and coppices of
Paraguay, and all, with the melancholy caw, caw of the toucans
overhead, spoke of a tropical land. Parrots chattered in the trees,
and sometimes a serpent glided across the red sand road.
Unfortunately, flies were so numerous and so tormenting that, even
with the help of a green branch, we could not keep off the swarms,
and around the horses' eyes were dozens of them.
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