Abipones

“ The Abipones, like most of the American savages, practised polygamy. But here, and also among the Araucanians, it is chiefly confined to the richest men among the tribe, the others not being able to support more than one wife. ”

“ The Abipones go naked in Summer, and in the Winter Clothe themselves with Furrs; they Paint their whole Bodies with Spots like the Tygers, Carve their Bodies all over, making Cut-work of their Skins, into which they stick Ostriches Feathers, as also through their Nostrils, Lips, and Ears, and account Baldness the greatest Beauty. They honor those for their Gods, who patiently endure unsufferable Tortures. The Women hang their Faces and Breasts full of Pearls: They never bring up above two Children, for they kill all above that number. ”

“ Notes (by the translator) on the various American Tribes and Languages mentioned by Humboldt in the preceding Memoir.
Abipones.—A tribe formerly residing on the broad grassy plains known as El Gran Chaco, west of the Parana river and on the right bank of the Rio Vermejo. They are a nomadic, hunting people, and are related by language closely to the Mocobis and Tobas, more remotely to the Mbayas. The Jesuit, Father Jose Brigniel, wrote an Arte y Vocabulario de la Lengua Abipona, which has not been published. ”

“ T. J. Hutchinson, The Parana, chapter 6-7. {98} "The Abipones inhabit [in the 18th century] the province Chaco, the centre of all Paraguay; they have no fixed abodes, nor any boundaries, except what fear of their neighbours has established. They roam extensively in every direction, whenever the opportunity of attacking their enemies, or the necessity of avoiding them renders a journey advisable. The northern shore of the Rio Grande or Bermejo, which the Indians call Iñatè, was their native land in the last century [the 17th] . ”

“ The enormous savage races have turned out, as has been shown, to be travellers' tales,—even the Patagonians being brought down to an average of five feet ten inches, and being, moreover, only a part of a race, the Abipones, of which the other families are smaller. Indeed, we can all learn by our own experience how irresistible is the tendency of the imagination to attribute vast proportions to all hardy and warlike tribes. ”

“ This custom re-appears in Polynesia, and in South America; Dobrizhoffer's account of [219] the Abiponian custom being as follows:—The "Abiponian language is involved in new difficulties by a ridiculous custom which the savages have of continually abolishing words common to the whole nation, and substituting new ones in their stead. Funeral rites are the origin of this custom. The Abipones do not like that anything should remain to remind them of the dead. Hence appellative words bearing any affinity with the names of the deceased are presently abolished. ”

“ The Abipones of Paraguay, according to Father Dobrizhoffer, "credit their medicine-men with power to inflict disease and death, to cure all disorders, to make known distant and future events; to cause rain, hail, and tempest; to call up the shades of the dead and consult them concerning hidden matters; to put on the form of a tiger; to handle every kind of serpent without danger, etc.; which powers they imagine are not obtained by art, but imparted to certain persons by their grandfather, the devil." ”

“ Him they declare to be their grandfather, and that of the Spaniards, but with this difference, that to the latter he gives gold and silver and fine clothes, but to them he transmits valour." Here the lips of the reader begin to flicker with amusement,—it is easy to see the devil under the mask of strange gods! Father Dobrizhoffer continues: "The Abipones think the Pleiades to be the representation of their grandfather ”

“ It is only by the introduction of true Christianity, that any permanent improvement in the character of these Indians can be hoped; and the Araucanians are the nation which, if rightly instructed in the truths of the Bible, seem most likely to become the missionaries and teachers of the red race.
The Abipones, [6] resident in Paraguay, are also a nation of horsemen, but in many habits, are more like the Araucanians than the Pampas Indians. They wear clothing, and are very industrious in manufacturing cloth, and utensils of various kinds.
They are a very healthy race, and long-lived. ”

“ When as among the Abipones of Paraguay, the Natchez of Louisiana, and the Incas of{136} Peru, the noble or dominant race has its own peculiar tongue, we must impute it to foreign invasion, and a subsequent rigorous definition of the line of cast and prevention of amalgamation. Another consequence of war occurs when the women and children of the defeated race are alone spared, especially should the males be much absent and separated from the females ”

“ The influence of the invaders has operated on all the tribes, even on those who still retain their wild liberty and savage customs; but in the interior of that vast country, and amid its rocky fastnesses the red man is yet uncontrolled, and seems uncontrollable.
The most marked and extraordinary difference of character and customs among these wild tribes is exhibited by the Indians of the Pampas, or great plain east of the Cordillera, and the tribe of Abipones, residing in Paraguay. ”

“ The dialects of the Abipones, Mbocobis and Tobas were “as much alike as Spanish and Portuguese” (Dobrizhoffer) .
The Guachis speak a rather remote dialect of the stock, but undoubtedly connected with the main stem. According to the analogy of many of their [310] words and the tenor of tradition, they at one time lived in the Bolivian highlands, in the vicinity of the Moxos and Chiquitos. It is probable that they are now nearly extinct, as for several generations infanticide has been much in vogue among them, prompted, it is said, by superstitious motives. ”

“ This constant pressure, which can in a measure be followed in historic times, has had its effect in pushing southward peoples whose origin must be sought in the central region. Such a people are the Abipone—a group of tribes which owe their especial fame among South American Indians perhaps more to the fact that they were so faithfully pictured by Father Dobrizhoffer, during the period in which they were gathered in missions, than to their own qualities, striking as these are. ”

“ I was never so much taken aback as at the sight of these Europeans wearing the Abyssinian gala dress, silk shirts of gaudy colours, trousers of the same material, the shama thrown over the left shoulder, many with naked feet, several without covering to their head. They had been so long in Abyssinia that I doubt not they considered themselves very smart; and, if we did not admire them, the natives certainly did. They pitched their camp a little distance in rear of ours. ”

“ Digression respecting the History, Customs, and State of Abyssinia.
Presbyter or Prester John, otherwise called Prete Jani, who is the king or emperor of the Abyssinians, is lord of all the land called anciently Ethiopia sub Egypto [280] , or Lower Ethiopia; which is one of the most extensive dominions we know of in the world. This empire begins at Cape Guardafu, called anciently Aromata, whence running along the Red Sea, with desert and not very crooked coasts, it reaches to the boundaries of the rich city of Swakem. ”

“ Having with me at this time an abridgment of Bruce’s travels in Abyssinia, I questioned the Abyssinian on all those passages in it which, as descriptive of the manners and usages of the country, admitted of affirmation or negation: and it is just to say that every allusion, or name, or description, was perfectly intelligible to him. He spoke of Mr. Salt as a person whom he had seen very frequently in Abyssinia. ”

“ The Abuna, the king, and queen, were the three first baptised, all three being absolutely naked, having only a cotton cloth round their middle. I am sure there never could be a greater deviation from the manners of any kingdom, than this is from those of Abyssinia. The king is always covered; you seldom see any part of him but his eyes. The queen and every woman in Abyssinia, in public and private, (I mean where nothing is intended but conversation) are covered to the chin. It is a disgrace to them to have even 330 their feet seen by strangers ”

“ Abyssinia is one of the most wonderful nations on the face of the earth. It was long a land of mystery, in which the unicorn and the lion held their deadly combats, in which dragons flapped their scaly wings through the air, in which the mountains were of gold and the river-beds paved with diamonds, and, greatest marvel of all, in which Prester John, the priest and king, held his court, a Christian Solomon of the Middle Ages. ”

“ From the various accounts which I received of the above provinces, there is just reason to suppose that Ethiopic literature might be found in a more flourishing condition there than in any other part of Abyssinia; and that the inhabitants retain more of the ancient customs and peculiar manners of their forefathers than either of the other two states, which, together with them, once constituted the empire of Abyssinia. ”

“ The natural centre of Abyssinia, which has also at various epochs been the seat of empire, is the fertile basin whose central depression contains the waters of Lake Tana. The mean height of this favoured region exceeds 6,600 feet ; it forms the voïna-dega zone, which corresponds to the temperate zone of Europe, although enjoying a more equable climate and a richer vegetation. Thanks to these happy conditions, the land yields the most abundant and varied crops in Abyssinia, and here have been built the most populous towns, which in this feudal region are elsewhere extremely rare. ”

“ These invasions and mingling of races in all ages have resulted in such diversity of type that the neighboring Arab tribes never speak of the country but as Habech (from which the name Abyssinia is derived) , which means "a crowd" or "heap of sweepings". Abyssinia answers to the Upper, or Eastern, Ethiopia of the ancients, and comprises four provinces: Tigré, Amhara, Goggiam, and Shoa, four small kingdoms entrusted to as many Ras, or Negus, whence the title, negus-se-néghest, i.e., "King of Kings", assumed by the emperor of Abyssinia. The whole empire contains some 4,000,000 inhabitants. ”

“ Elements of the most diverse origin have been blended in the present populations of Abyssinia. Immigrants from the Arabian peninsula, the* banks of the Nile, and the surrounding uplands arid lowlands, have here become intermingled in divers proportions with the aborigines. Amongst those still regarded as of native origin are the Agau, that is "The Free," still forming the fundamental element of the Abyssinian nation, and found chiefly in the provinces of Lasta on the Upper Takkazeh, and in Agaumeder, west of Lake Tana. ”

“ The soldiers live by plunder, the monks by alms. The haughtiest Abyssinian is not above begging, excusing himself with the remark, “God has given us speech for the purpose of begging.” The Abyssinians are vain and selfish, irritable but easily appeased; and are an intelligent bright people, fond of gaiety. ”

“ Páez and Lobo were the first to reach the sources of the Blue Nile, and as early as the middle of the seventeenth century, they with Almeida, Menendes and Teles drew up a map of Abyssinia which is considered the best produced before the time of Abbadie (1810-97) . The Jesuit missionaries, Machado, Affonso and Paiva, in 1630 endeavored to establish communications between Abyssinia and the Congo; Ricci and Schall, both of whom were learned astronomers, made a cartographic survey of China. ”

“ North of this region is Abyssinia on the Indian Ocean and Red Sea,—a mountainous country with deep valleys, rich and fertile, but very unhealthy. Three or four thousand feet above the level of the sea, is a healthier country, inhabited by a race of rugged mountaineers, whom it has been impossible to dispossess of their lands. North of Abyssinia, on the Red Sea, Italy has a small colony at Massaua, and England a camp at Suakin. The only parts of the coast not claimed by Europeans are inhospitable, without population or cultivation of any kind. ”

“ The Abyssinians themselves are a fine looking race of black men—tall, muscular, with fine teeth, and regular features, which incline distinctly toward Semitic mold—I refer to the full-blooded natives of Abyssinia. They are the patricians—the aristocracy. The army is officered almost exclusively by them. Among the soldiery a lower type of negro predominates, with thicker lips and broader, flatter noses. These men are recruited, so the colonel told me, from among the conquered tribes of Africa. They are good soldiers—brave and loyal. ”

“ As I have lived a long time in this country, and borne a share in all that has passed, I will present the reader with a short account of what I have observed, and of the revolution which forced us to abandon Æthiopia, and destroyed all our hopes of reuniting this kingdom with the Roman Church.
The empire of Abyssinia hath been one of the largest which history gives us an account of: it extended formerly from the Red Sea to the kingdom of Congo, and from Egypt to the Indian Sea. ”

“ But there [Pg 76] is still a great reformation needed in this tribe. The men are intemperate; even those who profess to be Christians, and have been baptized, will join in their drunken frolics. True, neither the women nor the youth drink any intoxicating draught and the missionary, [7] from whose works we select, says, that if they did, the whole Abipone nation would soon come to destruction.
Their chief liquor is a kind of mead, made from honey and the alforba, a berry which abounds in the woods during four months of the year, from December to April. ”

“ Justinian had been reproached for his alliance with the Aethiopians, as if he attempted to introduce a people of savage negroes into the system of civilized society. But the friends of the Roman empire, the Axumites, or Abyssinians, may be always distinguished from the original natives of Africa. 92 The hand of nature has flattened the noses of the negroes, covered their heads with shaggy wool, and tinged their skin with inherent and indelible blackness. But the olive complexion of the Abyssinians, their hair, shape, and features, distinctly mark them as a colony of Arabs ”