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i EIGHT MONTHS OX THE GRAN CHACO
OF THE
ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.
2 vols., Crown 8i'o, Illustrations and il/aj3s, 24s
THE CRUISE OF THE FALCON.
A VOYAGE TO SOUTH AMERICA AND UP THE
RIVER PLATE IN A 30-TON YACHT.
Bv E. F. KNIGHT, Barristee-at-Law.
Loudon: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON,
Crown Buildings, 188, Fleet Street, E.C.
EIGHT MONTHS
ON TIIK
GRAN CEACO OF THE ARGENTINE
JIEPUBLIO
GIOVANNI PELLESCHI.
HonUoit :
SAM P.SOX l.nW, AIAlJSTi^X, SKATJLE, .^- inVIXGToN,
CliOWN BUlLDINiJS. l-W, FLEET t^TREET.
1886.
[.4/1 rightsi reserved.]
-2|/
LONDON :
IKIIflED ET GILBEBT AND RIVINGTON,
ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.
TO
MY MOTIIKK,
Eui'EMi.v Pellesciii DEI Tacufit.
TO THE READER.
The present work is neither literary nor scientific. It is a i»laiii
account of what I saw, or believed I saw, in the Chaco, and nf
some of the feelings I experienced. I would not seek to eni-
lic'Uish my tale, even had I the power, for fear of diminishing
iho faith of the reading public, which already seems to W
small, in the narratives of travellers.
It is not for the purpose of excusing the many defects of the
book that I add that every page has been written in snatch*-^,
if I may so express myself, in the rare intervals of leisure
aflbrded me by the exercise of my profession, and almost always
in country places, where, all the world over, there are few
conveniences for writing. Hence a polished style was my least
consideration. I therefore rely on the reader's indulgence, anil
I shall feel rewarded, if he tliinks me an attentive observer
and a faithful narrator.
On the one hand he must bear in miiul the vastness and
novelty of the scene. I use the word novelty, because travellers
and writers of travels, of whom there have been many of
late years, in this part of South America, have hitherto con-
lined themselves almost exclusively to the southern territories
of the Argentine Kepublic. That is to say, they have ooncerneil
tlieniselves with that part of the Pampas which, until re-
cently, was in the hands of the Indians, and with those portions
of Patagonia still remaining in their possession. On the other
bund, very few have dealt — and those not in any detail — with
the Gran Chaco, which is the northern portion of the same
Ji'epublic, and is of immense extent; the greater part Wing stiil
VIU TO THE READER.
ill the possession of wild and independent Indian tribes. This
I traversed in the discharge of my duties as an official of the
Civil Engineers' Service in the Argentine Kepublic.
Although in the course of the book I shall place, the fact
in a clear light, it is well, nevertheless, to state in this place
that the Argentine Eepublic must not be judged from the state
of the Chaco. It must be remembered that this country,
thirteen times the size of Italy, and with one-thirteenth of
its popidation, exhibits the most opposite extremes, from the
wealthy cities of the littoral, such as Buenos Ayres, in which a
more splendid life can be enjoyed than in most Italian capitals,
to the estancias and ranchos on the Indian frontiers, and the
toJderias of the Indians, But I will treat of this in another
work, if readers and the Fates are propitious to me.
GIOVAX^^I PELLESCHI.
Buenos Ayres, March, 1S80.
CONTENTS.
^Jait i.
FROM CORRIENTES TO THE FRONTIER.
ClIArTEU I.
PAGH
PaI!ANA — CoKRIE.NTKS I
cnArTKR ir.
lliMAiT.v — TnK Vkrmejo (OR Vermiliox RivKit)— Tiie Toras . (!
CHAPTER HI.
FiKsT Imi'ressioxs — TfiE Landscape— TiiK Tkimitive Indians . 11
CHAPTER IV.
Philological Discussion ox the Name of the Toiias . . . IG
CHAPTER V.
The Catastrophe ok the "Rio de las Piedkas"— The Moltm
OF THE Teuco— Wind and Kain lU
CHAPTKU VI.
Encounter with the Toba Indians 23
CHAPTER VII.
Physical Ciiaractekistks of tue Mattaccos and other Indians 30
X CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VIII.
At Cangaglik— a Hunting-Party— A Tolderia . . . . "^35
The Chenas
A Desperate Attempt
CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER X.
43
48
CHAPTER XI.
Succour — EiGHTy-nvE Leagues on Horseback . , . .52
CHAPTER XII.
A Frontier Fort-Argentine Soldiers— IndiaxNs and Civili-
zation
59
CHAPTER XIII.
Marriage Customs , , g4
CHAPTER XIV.
Fermented Drinks— Natural Products for Domestic Use. . 70
CHAPTER XV.
War
77
CHAPTER XVI.
Religion §^
CHAPTER XVII.
Religion. (Continued.) 91
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Indians and their Dead ....... 93
CHAPTER XIX.
Medicine
105
CONTENTS. xi
CHAPTER XX.
FAGK
Social Condition— Philological Remarks luu
CHAPTER XXI.
Social Condition. (Continued.) 115
CHAPTER XX F I.
Social Condition. {Conlinucd.) 121
CHAPTER XXIII.
Social Condition. {Contuiaed.) 130
iJatt if:.
FROM THE FRONTIER TO ORAN.
CHAPTER I.
The Frontieu— Arkival 137
CHAPTER II.
UlVADAVIA 110
CHAPTER III.
The Elections 115
CHAPTER IV.
PoBLAcioNES— Missions— Civic Government 153
CHAPTER V.
Dkiartuke from Rivadavia— Features of the Countuv . . lod
CHAPTER VI.
Un olk Way to Okan— The Rains and Agkiclltlre— A Leper, ir.3
XU CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
PAGE
Diseases or AnIiMals — Forage— Distribution of Herbaceous
Flora in Pasture-Lands 169
CHAPTER VIII.
A Night at tee Mouth of the Chapapa 178
CHAPTER IX.
The Passage of the Vermejo (or Vermilion) River— The
Delta — Euosions and Flora 183
CHAPTER X.
At Fort Sarmiento— Hospitality — Two Bibliographical Opi-
nions 19i
CHAPTER XI.
The Chuqcho — Reptiles, Birds, Quadrupeds .... 205
CHAPTER XII.
Change of Landscape —Progress of the Republic — Irrigation 218
CHAPTER XIII.
Okan .225
CHAPTER XIV.
Mendoza 228
CHAPTER XV.
The BASI^f of La Plata— The Pampas and Forest Regions—
Their Relation to Climate and Agkiculturk in the
Arghinti.nes 231
CHAPTER XVI.
The For[.st Flora of the Plain— Its Distribution — Conclusions
concerning the Soil, the Climate, a.nd Agriculture . . 23?
CONTEXTS. xiii
CHAPTER XVll.
PlGI
Forest Floba of the Mountain-— Its Distribution — Contrast
BETWEEN THIS AND THE PRKCEDING FLOEA — CONCLUSIONS EE-
hPECTiNG Altitudes, Climaie, and Soil 243
CHAPTER XVIII.
Forest Floua of thk Mountain — Nomenclature of the Aliso
Zone— FuTiHK Uestiny of certain Flowers .... 249
CHAPTER XIX.
The Pucara Country ....
CHAPTER XX.
TUCVMAN
ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE MATTACCO INDIANS OF THE
GRAN CHACO.
CHAPTER I.
Juan M. Guttierrfz's Advice — Dedication to nis Memory— JIy
first Lessons in Mattacco and the Speech of the Toha
Cacique make me despair of Success — How I tried to
PLUCK AT the Fruit — Faustino is my .Mattacco Master —
Experiment with Natalio Roldan — The Opinion op the
Missionary Fathkrs is confirmed — How I discovered one
OF the Fundamental Characteristics of the Language-
Functions OF THE Prepositive Partules nu, a, In — Greater
Facility following dn this — Advice to Students of \
Philology 2tio
CHAPTER II.
Names given hy the ^Iattaccos to Importrd Animals — How
1 FOU.ND OUT TllEItt ErVMOLOGY — IMPORTANCE OF THIS —
CONTENTS.
PAGE
AlTGMEVTATIVES AND DIMINUTIVES CHANGES IDENTICAL
WITH THOSE IN ITALIAN — ThEIE COLLOCATION NEGATIVES
— Theik Examples — Abureviations— Analogy with Italian. 271
CHAPTEE III.
The Use of Postiositions instead of Prepositions was perhaps
GENERAL IN THE ArYAN LANGUAGES AND THE INDIGENOUS
Languages of South Amkiuca — Logical Priority of some
— Why the Chiqchua is a Typical Language — Conjunc-
tions — Analogy between Mattacco Words and our own . 278
CHAPTER IV.
Adverbs — Rational Form of Adverbs of Time — Sun and Earth,
Day and Night— The Heavens — Adverbs of Place — Appeal
TO THE Reader — Adjectives — Comparatives and Superla-
tives — Forms for contrary Significations — Foreigner and
Stranger — Etymology of Ciguele 282
CHAPTER V.
The Indians of the Chaco can count only up to Four—The
Opinion of M. QuATUEFAfiEs — The Valiant Dekds of a
Cacique related by himself — Slaughter near Fort
Aguirre— Incompatibility between Civilization and Bar-
barism— Mattacco Method of Counting — Analogies . . 2SS
CHAPTER VI.
Declensions — Substantives — Personal Pronouns — Apostro-
PHic Particles placrd before Names in Mattacco, Gua-
RANi, AND Akka—Gendeks— Common and Abstract Nouns
— Observations 292
CHAPTER VII.
Curious Examples of the Formation of New Words— Etymology
of luccuds, Touacco -Hair, Wool, Leaves— The Trek and
ITS Fruit — Names of Kindred— Analogies— Remarks— De-
MONSTRATIVE PrONOUNS INTELLECTUAL HaKMONIES — No,
Nothing, Nobody- Composite Names for Offices -Verbs -
Their difficulties— Examples 297
CONTKXTS. XV'
CHAPTER VI I r.
PACK
Conjugations— Various Forms ok Past Tenses— Replkctive Vekhs
—Retention of the Hoots— Postpositions and Vekhs —
Verbai, Possessive Form— The Veku to 6(?^Ta»le of an
Indicative Moou — Pasoive Veriw 302
CHAPTER IX.
The r of the :Mattaccos and other Indians— Lahials and the
I, ua, ue, ni,&c. — A.RTicuLArioN of the Mattaccus and the
Chinese — Curious Analogies — Predominating Sounds in the
Two Languages— Mattacco Alvhaukt— Onomutopic Words
— Resemblance between Mattacco and Aryan Words— I
take mv Leave 300
EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
OF THE
ARGENTINE EEPUBLIC.
FROM CORRIENTES TO THE FRONTIER.
CHAPTER I.
PARANA — CORRTENTES.
Among the numerous causes that induce men to abandon tlieir
native country and tlieir homes for a foreign land, perhaps the
strongest is a longing for novelty and the wish to say. " I have
seen." The fancies of youth and the restlessness of eager
minds are fed by reading accounts of the adventures of travel-
lers, which are all the more fascinating when fhey occur at
great distances.
It may be imagined, therefore, that to me, who claim, like
Terence's Chremes, that nothing in humanity is alien to me,
the chance of being transferred from opulent Buenos Ayres to
the midst of a wild community and a virgin country, and of
(•l)serving on the spot the contrast between civilization and
barbarism, l)etween art and nature, was most delightful.
We are, then, on our way up the Vermejo river, that runs
through the heart of the Gran Chaco, a territory four-fifths
of which at least are still in the hands of the independent
Indians, and continuing our way by the river Parana after
travelling 1500 kilometers north of Buenos Ayres, we reach a
spot where this river makes a sharp turn to tlie east. Near the
angle of this the city of Cnrrieiitt-s is situati'd, and is tln-re
joined by the Paraguay, flowing straight from the E(|uator,
B
2 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
The Parana.
AHhoiich for many persons tlie Parana possesses no great
attfacU n'tomeS is' iost interesting. I will say nothing of
the charm of what seeans to be an artificial canal from the
T-L to the Parana its hanks shaded with thickly planted
Sw tha^genU fan the sides of the ship or of the houses
1 Hola« hnilt on T3iles, for fear of inundation; or of the
llT:^o^e,Zj\ labyrinth of narrow canals, and of
flourishinc. plantations of peach-trees, orange-trees, and setU
fhrcover the ground, perfuming the air and delighting the eyes
with their graceful white and red flowers. _
I will say nothing of the feeling experienced by the un-
accuslomed traveller at the sight of the boundless pampas
wWchS almost an unbroken plain stretch westward bounded
by a hic^h barranca (perpendicular bank) on the right of the
.fver, nor of the submerged islands on the east now cover^
with rushes, anon with young shrubs; nor of the interest
excited by a curve in the shore, or an undulation m the land-
stape or the whiteness of some house breaking the monotony
ofX; horizon. I will say nothing of the intercourse between
?llow-pa ngers as yet inacquainted with each other, carried
on al first with formal reserve, and afterwards with ease and
confiden Nor will I describe the setting of the sun over
ZZi country, or his rising, or yet the brightness of the
moon reflected & the rippling waters as the sharp prow swiftly
Svides them. These Se poetical feelings appreciated m my
own coun ry>ut considered foolish in others, where the only
orupation worthy of human faculties seems to be that ot
acnuirinidly cover-
ing the ground from which the neighbouring waters have
receded. Suddenly at a turn of the river we come upon a tiger
who, for size, beauty and courage, is little inferior to his
African brethren. He watches the unusual apparition and
slowly retraces his steps, or dashes boldly into the river, defying
the shots of his enemies, rendered harmless by his speed. In
another place is a monstrous yacare, sunning himself on the
shore, and careless of the bullets from our carbines that glance
harmlessly off his scaly armour, unless successfully aimed by a
good shot at the orbit of the eye, after which, if he seeks to
drag himself under the water, he is drowned.
On a pleasant strand, we caught sight of a doe, which,
surprised at the novel sight, fled swiftly across the country,
while a stag who stayed to admire the reflection of his antlers
in the clear water, fell a victim to his contempt of danger and
furnished a sumptuous feast to the explorers. A pleasant
morsel was added in the shape of the shining- skinned otter.
His four front teeth are adapted by their length to secure
his prey, when struggling in the sand, where with numerous
companions he excavates his subterranean lair. He is merry
and lithe in the water, and shows his enjoyment by bounding
and splashing about.
From some distance off we can distinguish under a palm-tree
a iapir, a heavy and slow pachydermatous beast, not much
unlike a horse, to which he is compared in the Indian dialect,
as the hippopotamus was formerly compared by the Greeks.
On spying us out he raised his snout, forming a short proboscis,
into the air, and shrilly summoning his insepnrable mate, toge-
ther they plunge into the river, for the accustomed bath, that
OF THE ARGtNTIXE REPUHLIC. 1 3
is necessary to tliem several tinu s a day, in order to cool their
natural heat. The wild boar and ■vvikl pig, though they may
appear somewhat similar to the tapir, are very unlike him in
habits. They rush in large troops through the thickest part of
the woods, a terrifying apparition to the traveller or to tlie
native who finds himself in their way.
We are now in the beautiful season of flowers, our souls
refreshed and our senses gladdened with the sight and fragrance
of thousands of orange flowers, that are blossoming even liefore
the bursting of the leaves. Here also is the yellow-spik(!d
arome ; the jessamine clothing the j^alo-sanfo and the (jyai/arau
with its white mantle ; the mnenti of the ahjarrolio, and the
various flowers of a thousand difterent kinds of cactus, some of
which surpass both in colour and shape the white and the red
camellia. Others are pale yellow, others again have their caly.x;
curved, containing the corolla which envelopes a popoltm)
(jetierco, in which the seeds are fertilized that afterwards till
the succulent figs.
Nor is the rJiar/uar or wild pine-apple absent ; it frequently
extends over wide spaces of ground, and is protected by plants
of old growth. From the centre of the parent trunk of all this
wealth of foliage that flings itself about curving and climbing,
with leaves of every shape, long, narrow, large, or dentelated,
each point furnished with a spike, there rises a sliort and thick
stem, crowneil by a white cone, which is generally encircled
with horizontally disposed spears of a waxen red. These
drop oti' when fecundation is accomplished. The fruit is eaten
by the natives, and th^ lt\af furnishes their only but admirable
• textile material. It supplies them with string, with which they
manufacture nets, bags, hammocks, or hanging baskets, and
lastly shirts.
Your greatest desire, however, is to see the Indians, and at
first you are divided between the hope of discovering dark spots
in the distance which tlie man on watch will tell you are they,
and the fear of finding yourself unexpectedly the aim of a
dozen aiTows shot from the nearest wood — and if it were only
arrows ! This feeling is succeeded by a delusive confidence,
when suddenly a shout of "The Indians!" makes your heart
beat with various emotions.
Tlie first seen by us were partly clothed, and some of them
wore hats, which they raised formally on our approach. They
followed us for a while, askiiiL' for tobacco ami other things.
14 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
and continually appearing and disappearing at the openings o!
short cuts on the farther side of the bends in the river. Thej
offered us skins and feathers, and when Ave stopped in somi
safe place, they even ventured on the boat, as if wanting to
take possession of it. But there were only a few of them.
Amongst them was a young and very pretty girl who brought
a deerskin for sale. Her face was rather artistically tattooed in
blue. There was also an Indian, with his hair drawn up behind
like a horse-tail, and with the true savage look in his eyes and
face. He was naked, and seemed covetous, gesticulating with
energy. On throwing them tobacco, they rolled down the bank
and swam to fetch it.
Two days later we met with another party of Indians who
were fishing with a sort of palisade two or three yards long
jutting out from the bank into the river ; boughs were care-
fully arranged against it so that the fish, meeting with re-
sistance, are unable to escape. The locality of these is admir-
ably selected. These enclosures point to the presence, or at
least to the proximity, of Indians, and do not increase our
sense of personal security.
They continued to follow us, but we did not stop our course,
as already we were beginning to be suspicious of them. Some
of them articulated a few words of Spanish and Guarani, and
being questioned in those two languages as to the whereabouts
of their companions, they shouted out, " Peleanno, peleanno
.... mucho .... alia," and pointed in the direction they
had taken.
These Indians, besides being absolutely ignorant, are unable
even to pronounce certain combinations of letters, such as n
with d, and therefore, almost always make use of the gerunds
of verbs, saying peleanno for jjeleando (fighting). The question
arises amongst us, what is their real meaning'? Do they intend
us to understand that higher up there are many more of them
ready to attack us, or that they are fighting among themselves 1
But we are all agreed that there must be a large number of
them, that they are armed, and that we may expect some ugly
trick to be played on us, because for almost another 100
leagues we shall be in the midst of the Tobas, the declared
enemies of Christians, an indomitable, courageous, numerous,
and, worst of all, a well-armed people. The word " Christian "
must be understood as meaning conquerors, for the Indians
concern themselves neither with Christ nor Mahomet, but only
OV THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 1 5
with those who try to drive them from their land. Nor did
they adojit the name in order to distinguish us from tlieir
other enemies ; but it is in fact we who use it to describe our-
selves by a name of more general application and of a wider
meaning, which whetlier, for good or for evil, is no longer of
these times.
We have freijuently mentioned the Tobas, but whence is the
derivation of tlie word t I have questioned the !Mattaccos, the
Chiulipos, the Chiriguanos, the Mocovitos, and the Tobas them-
selves, who never use the name. How, then, did they acquire
it ? I often put this (juestion to myself.
1 believe I may say that I have elucidated the mystery, and
that I am the first to have discovered it. Tubal in Guarani
means oppnsite, and is composed of Toha, a noun, and i, a post-
position (there are no prepositions in Guarani). The Guaranis
live, and liave always lived, on the left banks of the Paraguay
and tlie Parana rivers, and the Tobas dwell on the right Ijank,
or just opposite them. They were therefore described by the
Guaranis to the Spaniards as being Toba or opposite. And
the name remained among the Siianish conquerors of the
Guaranis as a geographical designation derived from a proper
name. 1 consider this a satisfactory solution.^
2 In confirmation of the above, I was told by Colonel Napoleon
Uribrine, an Argentine oflBcer who is slightly acquainted with the
Guariini language as spoken by the Chiriguans, that, at the time of
JI. Crcvftux's fatal expedition, in which almost every soul perished on
the banks of the Viloomayo, a river running parallel to the Vormejo, he
was informed that all the Indians of the Gran Chaco are called TobaKhy
the Chiriguans. Now, as the Chiriguans, whether Christians or still
living in a savage state, belong to the northern and western frontiers
towards Boli\na, my contention is stronsrthened by their testimony.
The fact that so short a time elapsed apparently between the depar-
ture of M. Crevaux from Bolivia and his deplorable fate, leads me to
the conclusion that his murderers were not true Tobas, but some other
Indiada called Tobas by the Chiriguan Indian converts who accompanied
the expedition.
The real Tobas inhabit the banks of the ParanA and Paraguay, from
the frontiers of the Argentines and Santa Fe to the Tropic of Capricorn,
which measured in a straight line from N. to W. comprises an area of
from 100 to 200 kilometers.
1 6 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
CHAPTER IV.
PHILOLOGICAL DISCUSSION ON THE NAME OF THE TOBAS.
The preceding etymology of the name Toba, as given by nie,
produced a dissentient letter from the Secretary of the Governor
of the Chaco. The authority of the writer/ and of La
Tribuna, the newspaper, in which his letter appeared, induced
me to forward a reply to that journal, in which I alluded to
several peculiarities of the Guarani language, some acquaint-
ance with which may not be uninteresting to the reader.
I will give, therefore, a summary of my reply, of which a
translation also appeared in the Patria, a large-sized Italian
newspaper published in Buenos Ayres. For tlie sake of brevity
I will omit the arguments of my honourable opponent and that
part of my reply relating to certain ethnical considerations
without interest to the European reader.
La Patria says : —
" Signor PeJleschi derives the name Toha from the word Tohoi,
which means opposite, or m front of, and ?, in a postposition,
there being no prepositions either in Guarani or in Chicciua.
"The Secretary of the Chaco writes in correction that Tobai
means fronte piecolar, or a small forehead, and that opposite
would be rendered by cherohai (cerohdi). Signor Pelleschi
replies as follows :
" ' I do not deny that Tohai means a small forehead or face ;
or its equivalent would rather be the Italian diminutive
^ This was Colonel Fontana, who, two years after the author's
journey, crossed the Gran Chaco from the mouth of the river Vermejo
to the Christian frontier, following by land the banks of the river. He
was wounded by the Indians, and lost an arm, and several of his party
were killed in an attack made by the Indians on or near the same spot
where they attacked the expedition to whicb the author was attached.
See Chapter X., Part I. The same Colonel Fontana was despatched by
the Argentine Government and the Argentine Geographical Institute in
search of the remains of the unfortunate M. Crevaux.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 17
frontina, from Toha forehead, and the diminishing particle i,
which may be pronounced eitlier nasally or non-nasallv ; but I
contend tliat ToJxti means in frnnf, f rom Toba front or forehead,
with the postposition /, which when pronounced nasally, signifies
in.
" ' In order to prove this statement, I will make use of the
very same example put forward by my opponents. They say
that in front or opposite is rendered by clierohai. I contend
that cherohai is a word composed of tliree words, viz. of die,
meaning my when joined to a noun, but signifying / when used
alone ; rohn, which is identical with Toha, the t being changed
into r, a very usual change in the Guarani language ; i
represents in; and it means, strictly speaking, in front of vie, in
the same way that tuba in the Correntine or Guarani language,
becomes tube in Ciriguano (both meaning father), and change
respectively into cherubd and chei'uhe and even into chi-rii in
order to express mij father. Changes of this nature are frequent
in Guarani, and, together with the complicated conjugation of
the verbs, offer almost insuperable difficulties to the foreign
student of the language. For example, in front of him would
be gohai, and rjuba means his father. iSI'ow who would imagine
that gohai contains Toha and a relation and a postposition
besides 1 Yet such is the case, and these variations, together
with certain subtractions, obey laws in the language, but laws
so full of exceptions that they escape our observation and our
memory.
" ' A noun is rarely used without its relation, because in fact
the thing spoken of is seldom without relation either to the
speaker, or the person addressed or some third person. The
same rule obtains in Mattacco, the language of the independent
Indians dwelling in the heart of the Gran Chaco. In my
opinion tliis dialect belongs to the Guarani family, and is
consequently very difficult to learn.
" 'This is not the case with Chiccina and Arancano, which
therefore, and also by reason of the simple conjugation of the
verbs, appears to me com])aratively e;isy. (Chiccina is still
spoken in Peru, Bolivia, and in some parts of the Pampas and
Argentine Paraguay ; Guarani in tlie Argentine province of
Corrientes, in parts of Brazil, and in Paraguay.)
" ' It must be remarked that the Tolia Indians never speak of
themselves under that name. The Mattacoos call them Uatic-
loi, the plural form probably of Uanc-luc, an ostrich ; an
c
l8 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
appropriate designation for a tall, lithe race, while the Mattaccos
are relatively short and stout. The Mocovitos, whose language
includes many Toba words, call them Ntoaiit ; the Vilelas and
Chiulipos call them Huanictme and also Notocolt. Now these
Indians live on the other borders of the Tobas' territories.
Moreover, it is well known that the names of peoples are gene-
rally given them by their neighbours. For example : the Cafri
and the Seres (Chinese) actually do not possess in their language
the letter r, which nevertheless forms part of the name by which
they are distinguished, and the Mohawks have no w. Nor-
manni, meaning Northmen, and Austria, a southern country, are
simply names given by neighbours from the relative position of
the tribes. Thus Toba will have been so called by the Guaranis
who dwelt opposite, and the word had the good fortune (for
even words have their destinies) to be received and established
by the Spaniards.' "
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 1 9
CHAl'TKR V.
THE CATASTROPHE ON THE " RIO DE LAS PIEDRAS." THE MoUTH
OF TUE TEUCO. — WIND AND RAIN.
Forty leagues from the moutli, at a bend of the river, where
on one side is a perpendicular bank, and on the other a charm-
ing grass)' country, we saw two crosses, and a little farther
on, a third ; pious mementoes of two unhappy incidents !
About three years ago a small steamer, the Rio de las Piedras,
Captain Wilken, witli a crow of fourteen men, was attacked
and plundered by the Indians, who killed the captain and half
the crew, the remainder finding safety in flight while their
enemies were engaged in pillaging. Relying in the beginning
on the friendliness shown by the Indians and on the eiiect to
be produced by treating them with kindness and liberality, he
imprudently attempted to break through tlieir lines, although
they were assembled in largo numbers and consequently em-
boldened for the attack. He and seven of his companions were
despatched with clubs, while defending themselves on the deck,
tlie Indians seizing on the merchandise, arms, and ammunition,
^loreover, an ensign of the Argentine army, who some weeks
later was sent to punish the murderers, met with an unlionoured
death in the waters, being either sucked down by a whirlpool,
or snatched by a i/acare, while bathing after the heat of the
day. We left these mementoes of the dead with sad hearts ;
the circumstances under which we found ourselves contributed
to deepen the impression, and bidding a solemn adieu to the
spot which afforded us so impressive a warning, we continued
on our way.
"We had now been travelling seven days, and had made ninety
leagues without having caught sight of the Indians, although
signs of their jjroximity were not wanting. On one occasion
we saw an Indian in the distance. lie watched us from a
path in the wood and then disappeared. Our isolation seemed
C 2
20 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
alarming, and made us somewhat anxious. On reaching, how-
ever, a point where the two arms of the river that branch off 200
leagues higher up are reunited, we came upon some Indians
fishing, who appeared to be taken by surprise ; we saw them
gather together and cross the river in their canoe, leaving behind
them part of their booty, on which the caranci and other birds
of prey descended greedily. Meanwhile a flock of red flamin-
goes, piscivorous birds, rose near them, skimming the water with
their spoon-bills, and describing a semicircle with their long
necks as they advanced.
Our little steamer has come to a difficult bit in the river, and
we are obliged to tack ; this retards our progress. We fear
that the Indians will think we are frightened ; they continually
appear, vanish and reappear ; they glance at us and then dis-
appear once more. We advance, and just at a turning they
show themselves among the trees and bushes, eitlier lying at
full length or sitting on their heels, some hidden and some half
hidden. At first a few, and then on finding themselves dis-
covered many more, take to flight, or rise to their feet, in
uncertainty. We shout to them : '■^Amicco, amiccu" and persuade
seven or eight to draw near, some of whom know a few words
of Guarani.
We throw them tobacco, and explain that we want to navi-
gate the arm of the river„ and we understand them to say in
reply that a few leagues farther up there is a waterfall and then a
lake. I wish to go thither, but the river runs with a strong
current in an extremely tortuous course, and resists our weak
steam power. Meanwhile the Indians becoming suspicious,
retire backwards a few steps, occasionally stopping, then fly
out of sight, and from the bank we can see them further up,
assembled beside a tolderla ^ at a bend of the stream. And I had
armed myself for fear of them !
Being unable to stem the current, and there being on the
other hand no object in so doing, we turned back and entered the
other arm of the river. We cast anchor shortly and enjoyed a
peaceful bath in place of the expected combat.
On the following day we came to another arm of the river a
few leagues further up, and tried to explore it, but after about
thirty kilometers we could proceed no farther in the steamer.
Six of us, therefore, well armed, got into the canoe, and started
' Tolderia, an assemblaare of toldos,- or huts of the Indians.
I
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 21
u[) the little stream. The silence about us was profound, un-
broken even by the fluttering of a bird ; only a white rjulo more
than a yard high, and, as it were, impaled on a pair of legs like
stilts, with a long beak thicker than its head, was to be seen
standing motionless, watching the water for its prey. The
brackish waters ; the banks with moisture oozing between each
stratum, thus indicating the proximity of lakes and probably
some Indian dwellings ; the muddy bed of the river ; the land
covered witli thick grasses and reeds, with a few tall withered
trees, — all these things completed a picture of desolation. At a
sudden turn we came upon a tiger ^ gazing at his reflection in
the water. He turned away, and was lost to sight in the woods.
Now and then we saw the smouldering ashes of a fire, some
remnants of victuals, a few stakes and branches that had served
as a hut, footprints on the ground, or some posts, mark to show
the middle of the channel, which becomes more and more
shallow, until at last we are forced to turn back. We land
first, liowever, and get ankle deep in mud, then we climb a
tree, and see forests in the distance, and the smoke of a tolderia.
But already we had not even a foot of water .... and a
fcAv hours later we were back on board the steamer, and all of
us glad to meet again in safety.
Uut alas ! the anu of the river that we intended to navigate
contained only a third of its waters at that moment, and a little
later would contain only a fifth. And if hitherto our navigation
has been impeded, what will it not be in the 200 leagues that
remain ? AVe are provisioned for two months, while the rainy
season will not begin for seven! and we are in the heart of
the Chaco and in the midst of the Tobas !
It must be borne in mind that here in the Chaco, and
generally throughout all the northern portion of the Republic,
and I may say in all tliat part of this southern continent com-
prised between 40^ and 30^ lat., the rainfiUl lasts from December
to April, viz. during the summer; occasionally it begins in
Noveml)er, and may last until May, but this is excei>tional and
depends on the direction of the winds. The damp, cold winds
blowing from the N. or X.E. or from the Equator fill the
atmosphere with vapour, while those that bring the rains are
dry and cold from the S. and S.E., or else come direct from
» The animal called a tiger in Soath America is really the jaguar. —
Tkanslator's Notr.
2 2 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
the Antarctic Pole, passing over the cold and arid tracts of
Patagonia on their way, or they rise at the Pole itself, driving in
heights above our atmosphere for forty or fifty degrees, and then
rushing down towards the earth's surface until they reach the
Equator as superficial currents of air. This is my opinion, and
it accords with the theory of the general circulation of the
atmosphere. I reject the theory that would assign a purely
local cause to these winds, although based on the fact that south
of the Eepublic the rainy season occurs in summer.
Nor can I think those writers correct who affirm that the
south winds are laden with rain, because, even were they so in
the beginning, they pass through an atmosphere continually in-
creasing in heat towards the north, and thus acquire a hygro-
metrical strength so great as at last to render them dry. Whereas
in these parts, for three or six days before the rains begin, a
hot and cutting wind, impeding the respiration, blows on us
from the Equator. The temperature rises to 42° or 45° Keaumur,
and produces abundant perspiration even when we remain per-
fectly still. It becomes impossible to rest, whether in bed, or
seated or walking, until, generally speaking towards the middle
of the day, the north wind begins to veer first to the east,
then towards the south, and, blowing chill and strong, drives
before it clouds of dust, darkening the very sky. Then comes the
storm, the, temperature sinks to 25° or less, and by condensing
the vapours in the air brings on the rain. "Whirlpools occur
at times. On one occasion, on a December night, there was a
shower of fish, the larger ones, although they were mostly of
a size, weighing four ounces. The biggest and smallest had
probably been deposited in various localities during the passage
of the wind. These fish were from the neighbouring lakes.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.
CHAPTER VI.
AX EXCOUNTEU WITH THE TOBA INDIAN'S.
"NVe have continued to progress slowly, making only a few
kiloiuotiTS daily, with frequent pauses while we extricated
the screw of our steamer from the sandbanks that barred
our way. At the end of a fortnight wo perceived something
white and motionless on the edge of the shore and near it a
swarm of black objects. " Indians " was the cry, and " Tobas,"
as we approached nearer. The Tobas are recognized Ijy a
bandage or turban made of any sort of material and worn round
the head, and also by their fine forms.
These men are beautifully proportioned. They are nearly all
of tall stature and of a build that would make a man and a
half among us, and bear themselves with a lofty air thai, is
not displeasing. Their faces are not ugly, but of a kind that
if placed over a figure in modern dress would extinguish any
feeling of sentiment or love. They are at times insolent and
rude. The white spot we had seen on the bank was the ladino
or interpreter. Pie was dressed in linen trousers, and wore a
military cap and brass buttons to match ; the black moving
points were the Indians. After exclianging some courtesies,
four of us landed, and went among them in order to buy skins
and curiosities. xVmong their number was a fine youth, with a
pair of eyes of unmistakable strength and fire. He held a
tiger-skin, with the claws intact. We wished to buy it, but
he would not agi-ee, and in the end the boy, imitating the
spring of a tiger, thrust the claws in the face of one of our men.
"We smiled out of policy, but his companions buret into boiste-
rous and malicious laughter, with intent to make us retreat.
The thought of Hight occurred to me, because, even when not
chief in command, I have always held that in war the most
necessary thing is to secure a safe retreat. The joke was
becoming serious, and although the steamer was close at hand,
24 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
it seemed well for us to retire. There were no women present,
and but few children.
To digress for a moment ; the wearer of the military cap
was a remnant of the great Paraguayan war, and on his buttons
might be seen the distinctive marks of four nations and of
Heaven knows how many regiments of different armies. And,
again, with regard to the bandage or swathe worn by the Tobas,
a glance backwards will show it to be historical. According to
the historians of Perti — where every one knows the Spanish found
a flourishing and civilized empire, and which, if I were disposed
to institute comparisons, I should place in a corresponding rank
with the period of our agrarian laws, and with primitive historic
society and paternal government — the Incas, or reigning imperial
family, introduced the use of the swathed head-covering; the
colour, the material, and the size indicating the importance or
privileges of the wearer, whether as an individual or as one of
a class. These historians also tell us that the Inca capa, the
only Inca or Emperor, wore a headdress of massive gold an
inch thick.
Now this custom must have pre-existed among some at least of
the primitive peoples of the Empire, since we find it here in
the Chaco, and we attribute to the Incas merely the law as to
its use ; their system being to regulate every person and every-
thing by laws.
The Indians whom we have left had sold us some fowls. The
next day they returned in greater numbers with more fowls, and
my reader can imagine how gladly we bought them. The
weather had turned cold and wet, and the Indians who yesterday
were naked, were to-day, for the most part, clad in skins. They
were a picturesque sight scattered in groups on the shore, and
not without a certain order, amid all the apparent carelessness.
They seated themselves, in eastern fashion, on the bank, with
their lances sticking upright in the ground at their feet, and
bow and arrows at their side ; with thick-headed clubs and a
rope or band round their waist, with their netted shoulder-bags
full of fish, rat-rabbits or rabbit-rats,^ wild fruit, curiosities,
in short of everything they gather together. And it was
curious to see them light their fire, broil their meat, eat it
hungrily, and then entering the river, with head and body curved,
reach out their hand and use it for drinking with wonderful
1 Rabbits are never eaten m Italy. — Translator's Note.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 25
aptituilc In so doing they recalled to my mind the pictures of
(jhrist and John the Baptist standing,' in the waters of the Jordan,
the hitter clothed in skins and bearing a staff.
In order to light a tire, they proceed as follows : they take
two pieces of stick, one of cilca, or of some resinous and porous
shrub of the same kind, the other of hard wood. They sharpen
the latter to a point, and rapidly twirl it between their hands
on the other piece. The cavity thus produced fills with a
line subtle dust, the colour of ground coffee, which, becoming
heated by the rapid friction, kindles as easily as a cigar or as
.saw-dust ; they then pile over it plenty of dry and easily inflam-
mable materials, and blow upon it until the flame bursts out,
when they can have as much tire as they want.
All this time there were no women to be seen. The glimpse
we had had of the beautiful Indian girl had made us most
an.xious to see some others ; nor need our reader be in any way
shocked at the wish, which was purely Platonic in all of u.s,
while in some it proceeded from an intelligent curiosity.
During two or three days we were present at an interesting
spectacle. The Tobas continued to arrive in increasing numbers,
and finally the Cacique, or principal chief, came to visit them in
the iolderia, which was situated about a kilometer from the
river-side and close to us. He was accompanied by many other
chiefs, and by numerous IndiaiJa (Indian tribes). The women
remained apart at some distance, but in groups, and indistinguish-
able. We landed on the bank, au'd the Cacique came forward
and made us a speech througli the interpreter.
He yelled like a madman, fretiuently slapping his thighs, and
then shouting louder still. Each syllable was very staccato, so
that the language seemed to be monosyllabic ; this, however, is
not entirely the case. This mode of utterance is necessary to
prevent one word from being mistaken, for another, from which
it fre([U('ntly diflers only by a slight shade of sound. He
repeated the same things in ditierent phrases, and made a long
disconnected discourse. This custom seems to prevail among
other Indians ; at any rate, in the Pampas, according to Colonel
^lansilla, in his " Sjiedizione ai Kancheli."
He told us that his abode was near, that he and his were
friendly to the Christians, anil would continue to be so, and he
invited us to come anil visit him.
We replied that we could not at that time pay him a visit,
that we too were friendlv, that thev must not fear us, and
26 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
that, in fact, our friendship would procure for them cloth
for garments and good things to eat. The great chief was tall
and old, bu,t robust ; his hair was white, an unusual thing, and
short ; at his side stood an Indian with so expressive and pleasing
a countenance that it was delightful to look at him. He trans-
mitted his chiefs orders, and gave him advice. He leminded
me of the numerous country-folk in Italy, upright and well-
to-do, with faces browned by working in the sun.
We proceeded to distribute tobacco and mandioca-flour among
the crowd and the same, with a few additional presents, to the
chiefs. Some resolution was needed on our part to give away
anything in the way of food. But we bought fowls from them.
We were informed that the Cacique's counsellor was the son of
Colompotop, a chief celebrated for his fidelity and for the
services he rendered to the Argentines in their war of independ-
ence. All honour to him !
When the dishes on which we had served the rations to
the Indians came to be collected, one was missing. Complaint
was made to the chief, and he immediately called to his com-
panions who were going away, at the top of his voice, and
seemed by his tone to be rebuking them. They returned, but
we did not recover the dish.
Among these Indians are many Christian convicts, who have
made their escape from Santiago, Corrientes, and Paraguay ; but
they are not easily recognized, except by the hair on their faces.
Men who have but a little white blood in their veins, and
only a few points of the European type, become still less dis-
tinguishable in the costume of Adam before the Fall and after
years of an Indian life. A youth, however, who had been stolen
when a child had retained his natural light brown hair, and his
face left no room for doubt as to his parentage. We called him
to us, and he came : he pretended to be half-witted, but, on the
contrary, was spying. The interest I felt in him at first soon
died away, and every time I looked at him it was with a repug-
nance that I feel still. And yet people say that " il sangue tira,"
or blood is thicker than water. Another Christian was a chief.
He was a certain Vincenzino, formerly the manager of an estancia
at Santiago, Avhere he was well known. He was a fine, tall
man, sunburnt and with a short grizzled beard ; he looked like a
diplomat. He had left his Indian followers, who were coming
after to join the others. He uttered very few words, an('
affected to be ixnable to express himself in Castilian. This waii
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 2/
an artifice to avoid rousing tlie suspicions of the Indians, by
whom Iiiiliavized Christians are foi-Indden to speak in an enemy's
language that is not understood by themselves. Such Christians,
therefore, remain mute and motionless as statues. We gave
Vincenzino plenty of tobacco, which he divided in equal shares
among the Indians, This is the general custom, and the obser-
vance (or neglect) of it is the cause of the aO'ection or dislike
that decides the destiny of the chiefs.
I know not whether our good or evil destiny prevailed, Imt
we were unable the next day to approach the shore where the
Indians had assemliled in great numbers,'and had waited, although
the weather was wet, until eleven o'clock, the usual dinner-hour
throughout the Chaco. We had run aground on the opposite
bank. They departed in high dudgeon, and we heard them that
evening at a little distance shouting their war-cry. We did
not see them again for several days, when they tried to kill
us.
For many days we did not see a living soul. At last, one
fine morning, a swarm of Indians a]ipeared on both sides of the
river. AVe were on the Toba and Mattacco frontiers, where
various tribes had assembled for war.
Here we met with Faustino, who was destined to i)lay so
large a part in our life, and, alas ! to sacrifice his own in our
cause ! It was a glad day for us, and gave us at once a feeling
of home.
It is well known that the Mattaccos are not hostile to the
Christians, nor distrustful of foreigners. Faustino informed us
that they had lately been fighting, and had just made peace. Each
Indian nation has its own territory, and they will fight for a
foot of land just as we do ; while to each tribe l)elonging to a
nation, is assigned a certain portion of land, beyond which they
cannot trespass witliout provoking war. Wars are frequent
on various pretences, and from tlie prevailing sjiirit of ro])bery.
Xo sooner do they hear that another tribe is enriched in one
Avay or another by the possession of animals or other property
than they endeavour to surprise and plunder them. Woundi?,
war-prisoners and loss of life naturally ensue, and these in their
turn are the causes of future wars, which are undertaken with-
out further explanation. Every tribe employs a number of
spies.
Fortune for a long time has favoured the Tobas, who occupy
the best lands on the banks of the Parana and Paraiiuav, beiuLj
28 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
about sixty leagues, or if measured by the windings of the
river, a hundred. By secret trading with Corrientes and the
Paraguayan Eepublic they have provided themselves with fire-
arms. Moreover, being farthest from the continually advancing
Christian frontier, they receive a considerable contingent of the
convicts of whom I have already spoken. In this way the
Vilelas and the Chiulipos have become mixed with them, and
the case will be the same with the Mocovitos, who live in the
south-Avest along the frontiers of Santa Fe and Santiago, and
whose language is not dissimilar, many words being identical.
The same thing will occur with the Mattaccos, who are con-
tiguous to the Salta frontier on the west, and on the east to that of
the Tobas. Thus being straitened between two enemies, those
nearest the east allied themselves with the Tobas (among whom
we now found ourselves), and those on the west with the Chris-
tians, joining them in warfare. Nevertheless they all speak
the same mother-tongue and hold to it jealously, although with
some difference of dialect. For example, the Eastern Mat-
taccos always use chid and tzd, pronounced Mali and izali,
where those of the west use cid, pronounced shah. Those of
the same tribe, however, make use of either expression without
experiencing any difficulty ; they do so also with chio, tzd, and
cid, pronounced kio, tzo, and sho. For example, gamma is
tzonac, chiondc or ciondc (the last pronounced shonac) indif-
ferently.
I have mentioned that the Mattaccos jealously preserve their
language. In almost every Indian dialect the new animals
introduced by the Spanish were accepted with their Castilian
names, pronounced as well as the Indian throat and the Indian
nature Avould allow.
The Mattaccos, on the contrary, sought for native animals
resembling the new importations, and if there were any, they
conferred on the strangers the same name accompanied by
a modifying particle, also belonging to the language. This rule
also they followed with regard to any new object. And they
showed acuteness in its application : thus they call a sheep,
izonafdc, tzondc, meaning gamma ; an ox becomes chluuassetac,
cliiiiuasset, meaning a stag ; the horse is jelaldc,jelac, meaning
tapir or anta. With regard to the horse, it will be remem-
bered that thousands of years ago the Greeks, wishing to be-
stow a name on a pachyderm somewhat similar to the tapir,
called it a river-horse, i.e. hijjpojjotamus, from hippos, horse ;
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 29
and potamos, river. Is it not wonderful that the poor, despised
redskins should have reasoned in the same manner as the splen-
did genius of Greece ! I also remark with gratification that
the word far, the modifying power of which I will exjdain
later, would he better expressed by the Spanish jota than by
the German cJi. I must add in my own praise, that I took
great pains to discover the relation between the new and tlie
old words, and that each time I succeeded I experienced a
real delight ; and I may say the same with regard to the various
pronunciation of the words.
30 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
CHAPTER VII.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MATTACCOS AND OTHER
INDIANS.
The difference of size between the Tobas and the Mattaccos is
considerable. In general the Mattacco is almost half a hand
shorter than the Toba, without, however, being a small man
when compared to us Italians. His chest is wide, he is bull-
necked, with well-marked muscles ; his limbs are strong, his
head is large, his face is broad, with high cheekbones, and tlie
upper jaw is deeply arched, like a horse-shoe.
The lower jaw is long and sloping, the forehead is seldom
wide, and, generally speaking, partly hidden by the unkempt
hair. The feet are well-proportioned, the hands small and
wonderfully Avell-knit, especially the women's ; the beard very
scanty and kept shaven. Among their thirty-two teeth, the
canine or eye-teeth seemed to me to be but slightly developed,
and this would be explained by their habit of eating fish or
fruit, and either very little meat or none at all ; there are ex-
ceptions, however, to this rule. The teeth of the young men
are fine and sound, but among the elders they are often u^ly
and decayed. The enamel does not seem to be precisely the
same as ours; it resembles bone rather than ivory, and I tliink
would have less resisting power. The gums are of a pale rfd,
likewise the lips. Does their diet account for this 1 They eat
no salt because they have none, but they are fond of it, and
suck it like sugar when any is given to them. The lips of tome
appear swollen, prominent, and of a redder tint. The eyes aie
nearly always slightly oblique, slanting upwards from the nose,
and almond-shaped ; but some individuals have fine eyes, round
in shape and placed horizontally. These latter are black wiih
very blue whites, but in the oblique eyes the white is generally
of a greenish colour, especially in the older people. The nose is
broad, straight, not very prominent, and with wide nostrils, nut
it is not flattened. Indeed, they are seriously afraid of having
OF THE ARGENTINE RErUHLIC. 3 I
flat noses, so much so that they will not eat mutton, which is
supposed by them to caiiso flatness in that feature. This
is a device of their medicine-men and soothsayers, in order
to prevent the destruction of their few sheep, and also the
conse([uent loss of the woul, which they weave and make use of
ii\ many ways. It is a pious fraud, resembling many that are
taught by our holy religion ! And thus are men found to be
alike in artifice and presumption in every clime and every age.
The hair is smooth, but in some few individuals I remarked
it to be waving, if not curling, but I am ignorant whether this
was natural to them or produced by artihcial means ; and I
noticed incipient baldness in some. The adults have black or
blackish hair ; in the old it is sometimes, but rarel}', white,
possibly because very few attain to old age. The children up
to ten or twelve years have reddish hair — a curious fact recall-
ing the theory of J)e Salles, according to which primitive man
was red-haired. This is an illustration of heredity. The hair
is generally worn long and unkempt, but during periods of
mourning it is cut off' for a year. Nevertheless, they are eager
to possess combs, the women especially. I recollect on one
occasion being most anxious to ol)tain from them a spade or
mattock made of legno fen'o, in the shape of a double oar,
with narrow, sharp blades. It belonged to an Indian, a friend
of mine, whose wife was a handsome woman. I ofiered
them a comb in exchange, but after thinking it over, the Indian
would not come to terms, to the deep disappointment seemingly
of his wife, who, however, persuaded him out of love for her
to return the next day and offer spontaneously to make the
exchange. My reader would perhaps approve of a little more
generosity on my part, but had I freely given away the comb,
[ should have had nothing left to offc-r for the spade, in which
I was more interested than in this naked Indian couple.
The above description of the ^lattaccos will serve also for
the Tobas, only that the latter are taller. I ious animals ; where the
mountains are imposing, but ifew in niunber ; and where there
are populous cities in latitudes which would bo regions of
eternal snow in Europe. The truth is, each language is spoken
throughout vast territories that are in many instances marked
by no natural geographical divisions, and languages get easily
grouped in one when belonging to a large family spreatl
over immense regions. My belief is that in Chili, Peru,
r>olivia, the Argentine Republic, and at any rate in part of
D
34 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
Brazil, viz. the South of the American Continent, there are
two great families of languages, distinct as they are according to
the two best known idioms, the language of the Chicciuas along
the Pacific, and of the Guaranis in the bason of the Plata.
Allow me to make two further remarks : the Chirionossos
are said to be troglodites or dwellers in caves, lair, extremely-
fierce, with blue eyes ; their women, too, have crooked feet
turned inwards, so as to be hidden when they are seated.
Both men and women are always naked. I have never seen
them myself, but such is the universal account of these people.
But are not these fair-haired, blue-eyed Indians like the fabulous
Phoenix 1 A Chiriguano, who assured me he had seen them
and fought with them, told me that their knees were turned
backwards like those of ostriches ! I repeat his exact words.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 35
CHAPTER VIII.
AT CANGAGLIE A HUNTING PARTY — A TOLDERIA.
To return.
We had remained on the spot where we had met witli
Faustino and various Indian trilws. The phice is called
Canijaglie, and is marked on all maps ; it is historical besides,
for a mission was establislieil there, and another one fifteen
leagues farther up, in the last century, and they were shortly
afterwards destroyed by the Indians.
So many days had elapsed without our leaving the steamer
for fear of being made into mincemeat by the natives, that it
seemed well to take advantage of an opportunity that appeared
safe, to tread once more on terra firma, and see something of
the country. The information that there was a lake at no
great distance determined us on getting up an expedition in
search of sport.
Seven of us, therefore, went ashore, myself, Signor Natalie
Roldan, Faustino, one of our men, and three natives. We
entered on narrow footpaths, which are the high roads of
the Indians. We were sometimes in the midst of grass so high
that it concealed us completely ; at other times on a perfectly
flat surface, from the recent burning of the dry hay, and then
the eye could scan a vast horizon. The least trifle arrested our
attention, and seemed to have some great meaning for us.
^leainvhile we saw nothing of the lake.
When halfway we came to a wild-gourd field. These are
common in the Cliaco. Near to it was a madrechon, or part
of the channel that had been hollowed out years before by
one of those floods that displace the river for leagues and
leagues. In this same place we also lighted upon a Toba
Indimia.
Oh, shall we see Indian women at last ! and what will they be
like?
36 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
Meanwhile our three Indians were quaking. "Tooba," said
they, and seemed disposed to turn back. But we, on the contrary,
remained firm, awaiting them, and resumed our fishing in the
madrechon.
Ladies first. But what a disappointment ! old, flabby, wrinkled,
with shrunken breasts like dried figs ; with squinting, greenish,
half-opened, blear eyes, and with a few rags to represent fig-leaves.
They were loaded moreover, with netted bags crammed full of
filthy, stinking fish, that seemed like a mass of manure. They
were on their way to the tolderia. They carried the bags or
other load in the usual way behind the shoulders, held by a rope
that goes round the forehead, and they looked like beasts of
burden.
The women passed by, as if in haste, in a straight line. The
men suddenly joined them, armed with their bows, arrows and
lances, which they never lay down, and with the clava, a thick
heavy club of hard wood, terminating in a larger or smaller head,
which has caused the Mattaccos to call it e-tec-tdc. I was struck
at first with this name, which seemed tome an admirable imita-
tive sound of the noise produced by the clashing of two clubs
against another, but I discovered afterwards that it was a rational
rendering of the shape of the weapon, signifying in fact, a large
head. The bow and arrows are carried in one hand ; the natives
have no quiver, nor anything resembling one for their arrows.
They halted for a moment, and exchanged a few words, then
a large number approached nearer, observing lis, and we deter-
mined to push on for the lake, which we found at a distance of
three kilometers from the steamer.
This lake was more like a bog, and full of rushes, reeds, and
aquatic plants, with a muddy bottom. There are numerous lakes
of the kind, all within certain limits, and called by me on another
occasion osdUatioiis of the river. They are portions of the
channel, hollowed out in the season of floods, and in the course
of years they have gradually filled up with water, until they
are permanent shallows, in which the rain-fall and the floods lie
stagnant.
In the beginning those that were of the same depth as the
river were called madrechons. Both lakes and madrechons dry
up in part, and provide good localities for fishing. On this
account the Indians are in the habit of halting on the banks
during their nomadic marches.
After some sport with water-fowl, we resolved, as it was getting
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 37
lato, and on the advice of our tliree Mattaccos, to retrace our
steps. These men, althou<^li friends of the Tobas, were ex-
cessively afraid of them. They are friends, ratlier from necessity
than choice, and their connection with the Christians is dis-
pleasing to the Tobas.
I was anxious to learn a few Toba w^ords, and this seemed to
me agooil opportunity for the purpose. One morning, therefore,
I got an Indian on board who knew both Toba and Mattacco,
and with the help of Faustiiio, who knew Mattacco and Spanish,
I began to set about my task. At the first word a Mattacco
chief, who was observing us, came up, and, rebuking my two
instructors, placed himself opposite us, so as to hear all that
passed. After, a few more words, I gave up the lesson, for I
began to tloubt the sincerity of my interpreters, and I never
found an opportunity for resuming it. The mciqtie was carrying
out the To ban law.
The next day we began, with the help of Faustino, to prepare
an expedition to Rivadavia, a district near the frontier, about
500 kilometers from where we were. Our object was to o])tain
additional provisions and a reinforcement of our numbers. Three
of our crew, well-armed and resolute men, taking with them a
horse and a small amount of food, were to proceed under Faustino's
guidance, to the confines of the territory menaced by the Tobans,
and there were to be introduced by him to his friend the chief,
I'a-i-lo, who would furnish them with a guide as far as the
frontiers. The expedition would be ready to start in three
days.
One of our three Mattaccos was the famous cacique whom we
called Mulatto. In the last war he was said to have fought
singly three of the enemy, and to have vanquished them. A
short time before he had suddenly come upon a tiger in the
forest. He just escaped its spring, and, clutching hold of its
two fore-paws, stood on the defensive. His wife meanwhile
unexpectedly came up, and striking the creature a blow with a
club, laid it lifeless on the ground.
There are many fierce tigers in those parts. Only a short
time before a tiger had suddenly sprung on a poor Indinn deaf-
mute, who was gathering wooil near the lake where we had
fished and shot, and, after mangling him horribly, would have
devoured him, had not his companions, on hearing the noise,
rushed up and put the brute to flight.
Tigers are one of the most serious dangers of the Chaco, both
38 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
to Indians and Christians, but principally to the former, from
the absence or scarcity of firearms. They are a perfect scourge
to the cattle on the Estancias. There are many tiger-hunters in
Christian Chaco, who breed hounds expressly for the purpose.
When once started, the tiger is pursued by horsemen and dogs
until he either turns at bay in a thicket or at the foot of a tree,
or else climbs the trunk. A carbine, or more frequently a lance
or dagger, puts an end to the combat.
A tiger sometimes waits for the discharge of a volley from the
guns, and if he does not drop dead, springs at once upon the
enemy. During my residence in those parts, two famous tiger-
hunters were found dead, with their heads mangled by the teeth
of some ferocious beast. Such an one will spring on the crupper
of a horse, and nothing but a sharp dagger, perfect self-possession,
and herculean strength, can in such a case save the hunter. Every
owner of an estancia is a tiger-hunter.
A certain Sign or Diaz, living on the frontier near the Tenco,
had a short time previously killed his fourteenth tiger. Another
estancia-owner, a certain Celestino Rodriguez, a fine-looking old
man, had his nose deeply scarred by a wound from the claw of
a tiger whom he had encountered alone and on foot. It was
fine to hear him tell the story, and to see him show how he
drove his dagger into the belly of the brute, whom he had already
wounded, and who was then standing upright before him, kept
at a distance by his strong arm.
The skin of a tiger, killed at no great distance from me,
measured when fresh nine hands, from the root of the tail to
the nape of the neck. A cebado, or man-eater, will spring on
you at once, without waiting to be attacked.
In truth, the tiger * of the Chaco, is little inferior to his
brethren of Africa, whether for ferocity, size, or beauty.
"We were coming to a Mattaceo tolderia, and so great was our
wish to see something of the home life of Indians that we
determined to make the journey thither on foot. After walking
about a league, we came to a wood reaching down to the water
side. Under the guidance of an Indian, we followed a steep
footpath that at last led us to the tolderia.
While on our way we could hear the sound of the wood-cutter's
axe, the clamour of their cine, or women, and the voices of the
children singing over their games. We were much impressed
^ I give the jajuar his popular name of tiger.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUULIC. 39
by these tokens of a life of which we were as yet completely
ignorant. We were five in number.
On our appearance in their midst there was a general disturb-
ance ; some running to seize their arms, some to conceal them-
selves in their huts, and others to escape to the forest. They
shouted " ChUiucle, Chihucle !" meaning "Christians, Christians !"
But, on recognizing our guide, who was one of their own people,
they became quiet, and drew nearer to us, the men standing
round in a circle, and the women in a group apart.
We had brought tobacco with us, pieces of cloth, and little
fancy articles, partly as presents, but especially in order to obtain
sheep and poultry.
With the greatest difficulty we succeeded in obtaining two
or three fowls, partly because they possessed but few, and
partly because we had no interpreter, Faustino having left us in
order to meet the expeditionary party, of which I have already
spoken, at the frontier.
I turned over the leaves of my note-book, in which I had
jotted down Faustino's lessons ; but even when I could make
these peoj)lo understand a few words of mine, I could by no
means succeed in understanding any of their words to me. We
thus got through a couple of hours.
This tolderia was bounded on three sides by the forest, the
fourth was open country, the river was at a distance of half a
kilometer. It is customary, probably with a view to security,
to establish the tolderias against a wood, in wliich to escajie if
surprised by tlie enemy, who would be miacquainted with' the
forest paths ; and in close proximity to water, both for fishing
and for drinking and bathing purposes.
These Indians are said to be very dirty in their persons, but
I doubt the accuracy of this assertion. I have seen great
numbers of them in srfmmer taking the greatest delight in
plunging into the watc/ at certain fixed hours, both men and
women, but each seX a]^art. This seems to point to a settled
habit rather than a momentary caprice, moreover they are
frequently in the water when fishing. True, they have a
dirty appearance, first on account of tlieir dark skin, and then
from the scars produced by tattooing, and the scorching rays
of the sun that dry up the cuticle, especially on tlie shoulders.
Moreover, tramping naked and barefoot on the mud, through
bushes and forests, and lying on the bare ground, they natu-
rally become travel-stained, just as each one of us who can
40 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
wash countless times in the day, if we chose, would do. But I
assert that their habits are not dirty.
A tolderia consists of a greater or lesser number of huts,
built of willows fixed in the ground and the upper part
enlaced in the form of an arcade. They cover this with such a
quantity of straw that it looks more like a waggon, so loaded
that the wheels are hidden, than a hut. They fling on the
straw from a distance with wonderful accuracy, all the more
wonderful that this work is done by the women. When
finished a toldo is strong enough to support the weight of a man
on the roof, and is impervious to water.
Each cacique, or chief, has his own group of toldos apart from
the others. At times the chiefs assemble in great numbers,
especially when intending to make war.
Toldos are, in general, so low-pitched that one cannot stand
upright within them, but they vary in length according to the
size of the family or the number of kinsfolk who are to assemble
in it. The longer toldos are generally slightly curved, and
have two or more doors, or rather entrances. These are almost
always provided with a wing to the windward side, fixed up
somewhat in the fashion of a folding screen. It is necessary
to stoop on entering.
There are various parts in a toldo, viz. the cooking-place, and
the place where the inhabitants live, sleep, or wash, &c., but
there is no partition-wall between them.
The kitchen is merely a level space whereon the fire is kindled,
and this is only done when the weather is cold, or in the case
of mourning, by the woman, who for one year does not go out,
or let herself be seen, or speak, except when absolutely neces-
sary. It is customary to cook the food out of doors, before the
entrance. Every family has a kitchen.
The living room is that part of the hut in which the Indians
live, and where they keep their clothes and skins, when they
have any, to stretch themselves upon. They wear them after-
wards when they go out if the weather is cold. They hang up
their various appendages, such as bags, nets, &c., and some of
their weapons, all over the walls. Sometimes they place
four pitchforks about a foot in height, at the four corners
of the bed, across these they lay two planks, and then as
many rods or switches as will make a kind of wattle, on which
they stretch their mats and skins. They make use of this bed
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 4I
ill summer principally for the sake of coolness and to escape
insects and venomous reptiles. A similar custom exists among
the Christians, only they use forconi instead of forconrini,
about a couple of yards high, as a protection against tigers. I
have slept on all these beds, and I can assure my reader it is merely
a question of getting used to them ; sleeping on the ground is
nevertheless more comfortable. When the Indians change
their quarters, they set fire to the huts.
InMattacco there are two words for house: hditdt and Jippj) (the
h being pronounced as in English or German). Now hcpp means
smoke, vapour, and mist, and is likewise moreover ^lattaccan
for steamboat. Now, is not the analogy complete between the
Mattaccan and Italian languages in this instance 1 We Italians
name the family or the home /«oco and focojare, and we call
a steamboat vapore. Here, therefore, we perceive another link
between Aryan and ^Mattacco man. A tolderia is heppei in
Mattacco, the plural of hepp, and Huna kel-la hep-pei, " Let us
storm the tolderia," is one of their war-cries. The k is strongly
emphasized, and produces quite an imitative harmony.
As for the plural forms, I should state that these Mattaccos
possess various declensions of nouns and all of them inflected,
whilst the Guaranis, the Chicciuans, and the Chilenos add to
the singular form a particle expressing the idea of plurality. It is
certain that the Chicciuans are more civilized than the ^lat-
taccos, and so are the Guaranis, if we may judge from their
kinsmen the Chiriguanos.
Now to a student of philology an inflected language would
appear to represent a more advanced condition of speech and
consequently of civilization. But in this instance we have a
clear and luminous contradiction to such a theory. We must
i»e on our guard, therefore, with respect to absolute theories in
matters of pliilology, both for the present and for a long time
to come, during which the study of Iiuliun languages in the old
and new worlds may remain as imperfect as hitherto.
They stick their lance upright in the ground opposite the
entrance to the hut, and place their arrows and bow against one
of the walls. This gives a martial aspect to the scene, which is
attractive. The huts are not built on a geometricaUy straight
line, yet between one row and another they endeavour to leave
a broad space representing a street.
It is delightful to see their fires while they are cooking. Thoy
42 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
boil various kinds of roots and vegetables, in separate earthen
vessels. They prepare a species of bean and a kind of potato
that are both excellent.
The Chenas or women wash the kitchen utensils very carefully
after using them. And when the hour of meals draws near,
which in the tolderias is generally at 11 a.m., and again at
6 p.m., they appear with a spit laden with fried, smoked, and
dried fish, in order to stimulate the appetite. Game or wild
fowl or rabbit as a frequent addition to the meal, these are all
very rich dishes, and the absence of salt makes them less
acceptable to an European accustomed to its use from infancy.
The Indians feel gratified when a Christian is civil to them,
and does not show contempt for their surroundings. When
therefore the inhabitants of the tolderia had become familiar
with me, I sauntered in and out, examining their food among
much hearty laughter from them, while I repeated several times
hiss, hiss, meaning good, good. But one must eat with the
forks provided by Nature, except in the case of broth, which is
eaten with the shell of a large oyster, found in great abundance
in numerous lakes.
But I found drinking from a hollow gourd with a very dirty
rim the hardest trial to my politeness 1 I shut my eyes, and a
few seconds later opened them again, proud and triumphant !
On this occasion they were anxious to see our firearms dis-
charged before we took our leave, and to please them we fired
two or three times in the air. The shrieks of the women and
the wrangling of the boys over the cartridges are things to be
remembered. How wonderfully human beings resemble each
other, whatever the amount of their civilization !
I was forgetting to mention that the width of each toldo
does not exceed six or seven feet.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 43
CHAPTER IX.
THE CIIENAS.
Let me say a few words concerning the Chenas. Mattacoo
women are in general rather short, but this does not prevent
their being often very attractive and well-shaped when young.
Among themselves they are seldom clothed, but they wear
garments, more or less, before strangers. For a few days we
had a married couple on board witli us. The wife merely wore
a short pair of drawers such as we use for bathing, and as she
was young, well made and very handsome, some of our Argo-
nauts, anchorites by necessity, found the trial rather dangerous.
To see this couple, nine parts naked, seated on a bench
among the cylinders and pistons of the engine, and remaining
motionless for hours, was to be forcibly reminded of the Garden
of Ellen.
When with strangers the Chenas are silent and impassible,
but among themselves as noisy and gay as children, ^ind this
is the character of Indians on the whole.
The Chenas have a curious way of holding their hands when
standing upright. Having no pocket in which to thrust them,
nor fan or other ornanjent to play with, they cross tliem on
their breasts, which tlius serve as a support to the arms crossed
above them. This liabit would seem likely to lengthen the
breasts, but it has not that effect. They are wide, certainly, but
shallow and straight when young ; but after suckling children
they become wrinkled and shrunken and extremely unsightly.
It must be remarked that both men and Avomen age very
quickly and bloom early, and to this must bo attributed the
absence of white hair among them, although from the
appearance of their face and body they might be of the age of
Methuselah.
I have noted the shape of the breast, because in other parts
of the country the women are said to throw the breast over
44 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
their slioulders in order to give suck to the infant they carrj"- on
their back. This is certainly not the case in these parts.
"Women and men alike have an abundance of smooth hair ;
the former wear it rather long, but not extremely so ; it is
shortened, partly by being tangled over the head so as to
screen the eyes and forehead from the sun, and partly by being
cut.
The jawbones of a fish called palometa are used as scissors,
both for the beard and the hair. These bones are furnished
with a double row of very sharp teeth, those in the upper jaw
locking with those in the lower.
The 2^ttIo7neta, raya, and yacare are the terror of bathers in
the river, and in the lakes and madrechons belonging to it. The
palometa uses its tusks to tear out pieces of flesh. It is a flat,
oval-shaped fish, holding itself upright in the water. The
7'aya or razza is a flat, circular fish, with three points in the
tail, the one in the centre is furnished with a sting that inflicts
most painful and dangerous wounds, and is used by the fish
when attacked. It suddenly turns over and gives a blow with
its tail. Some of these fish measure a yard in diameter ; they
prefer the calm and shallow parts of the river, and therefore
remain near the banks. The yacare, a species of crocodile, will
treacherously snap off" the leg or arm of an unfortunate bather,
and then drag him to the bottom of the river and devour him.
Bathing, therefore, which is a necessity in the suffocating
heat of these climates, is constantly interrupted by the presence
of these anthropophagi.
The Chena after marriage is faithful to her husband out of
aff'ection, through training and from fear. Frightful stories are
told of the vengeance of husbands, who have the right of life
and death over their unfaithful wives. If these are girls, the
husbands may be and usually are generous. There is no doubt
that they would feel sympathy towards the Christians were it
not for the prejudices of race ; since the poorest Christian is
always in a position to make better presents than the richest
cacique.
The women are fond of ornaments and dress, but their habits
are not adapted to wearing petticoats or stays, and in place of
these they wrap cloths round the waist, which they keep on by
a cord tied round them.
They arrange these cloths so as to display their fine figures
without impeding freedom of movement, although one does
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 45
not notice this at first Their garments consist of cloths,
and when they possess any, they put them all on at once,
whether summer or winter, partly because of their wandering
life, partly from choice, because they are careful people, and
seem to verify the proverb, " Quel che para il freddo para il
caldo."
Both sexes are fond of variety and of bright colours, espe-
cially red. Nevertheless they prize white materials very
highly. The Chiriguans wear white hoods, but, as I have
already said, they live nearer the equator. When they wear
anything over the shoulders, one arm is usually left uncovered.
They like the shirts worn by Europeans.
They make themselves ornaments of skins and pieces of
oyster-shell with more or less claim to elegance of shape.
The girls wear a kind of leather bracelet until they present
it, as I have Ijeen told, to the first recipient of their caresses.
They make shirts of thread, doubly woven, and very, very
narrow, but elastic ; these have the appearance of petticoats,
they arc sleeveless, and are decorated in various ways with bits
of oyster-shell; they are worn principally in battle, and as a
protection against thorns in the forests, but they are a scarce
possession.
er to one's own is drawn in a lottery,
it is improbable that one's own number will be drawn
afterwards. The impression produced on us nevertheless by
B
50 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
the danger we had run quenched our habitually good spirits,
and lessened our appetites for the remainder of the day.
The hostility evinced made us thoughtful. We were still in
Toba territory, although among Mattacco Indiadas ; our vessel
made but a few kilometers each day, and sometimes none at all.
We were in the very heart of the Chaco, where the Indiadas
were numerous and continually increasing on account of a war
then in preparation against the Mattaccos on the Christian
frontiers.
We were warned every day that the Tobas were about to
attack us, but had not the courage to do so. Meanwhile we
were obliged to keep a strict look-out. Signor Natale Roldan
and I generally shared the watch from midnight until 2 a.m.,
but our enemies did not attack us again.
Those long winter nights may be imagined by the reader.
Even after days of extreme heat they were cold, and sometimes
wet. Other circumstances were not cheering, and our provisions
were rapidly dimmishing !
It was not possible to go with our guns in search of game in
the midst of the enemy. Occasionally we contrived to kill a
charata, something between a fowl and a pheasant, but our
staple food was fish. Poetry, however, that consolation of the
exiled and the unhappy, came to our relief.
We discovered a musician, singer, and guitarist, on board with
us. He was an Andalusian mason, called Don Felix, and
almost every night we had some music. His repertoire was
scanty, and I can stiU recollect two of the verses, as follows : —
Si una vez en el mimdo adoraste
Y en el caliz de amor tu bebiste,
Ah ! porque oompasion no tuviste
De un amanto al jui'arte su f e !
Me despierto j te busco a rai lado . . .
No te encuenfcro j maldigo a mi suerte !
Ah ! mil voces prefiero la muerte
Al vivir separado de ti !
The notes of the instrument, vibrating for the first time in
those atmospheres, the glorious vault above us, shining with a
light almost as bright as that of day, or glittering with innume-
rable stars, made a deep impression on the mind. And a similar
effect was produced by the vast country surrounding us, and the
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 5 1
immense fires kindled by the Indians, which we sometimes
I»erceived like a full moon on the distant horizon, and
sometimes heard the crackling and bursting of the burning
bush, like a discharge of artillery, and then we could feel the
heat of the flame as it blazed out, and found ourselves in the
midst of smoke and burnt straw driven over us by the wind !
"We seemed threatened at times with some inevitable mis-
fortune.
The mysterious dark forests against the darker background of
the fields ; tlie solitude, the danger, the uncertainty, the distance
both of time and place between ourselves and those we hold
dear ; — all these things stirred our souls with thoughts — half
sweet, half sad ! . . .
52 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
CHAPTER XI.
SUCCOUR — EIGHTY- FIVE LEAGUES ON HORSE?- ACK.
Ah ! it was a touching and beautiful scene ! At a turn
in the river w^ere five Indians hastily advancing. " Cap-
tain ! " I call out, " news ! news ! Here are Indians com-
ing quickly." For in fact it is not their habit to move fast,
although they are great walkers. They advanced straight along
the shore, arriving opposite our steamer where she had
stuck fast. They wheeled half about in military fashion to
the left, and iniormed us by gestures that further off there
was relief, in the shape of cows, horses, and soldiers, on
their way to us. We gave a whistle from the engines, and the
loud and prolonged sound was answered by a discharge of
fire-arms at a very short distance, and in a few moments
more three, ten, twenty naked or half-naked Indians rushed
out from among the trees and shrubs that clothed the bank.
Moving impetuously forward, adorned with feathers, and armed
with lances, lithe and soldier-like, they drew up in line on the
shore. Our ambassador with his guardamonte came next,
mounted on a mule, and then two soldiers and three cows, and
horses and Indians ; the whole forming a picture on the
river-side that might well be represented on the stage. Tor a
week we have been without meat, and for two months we
have eaten it salted ; our peas and beans are already exhausted,
and our dietary reduced simply to fish and some few wild-fowl we
contrive to snare ; we are in a wilderness among savages who
are gentle, ferocious, and perfidious by turns ; — let the reader
imagine therefore how heartily we welcome the succour that
we expected indeed, but not so soon. In a few minutes an
officer with two subalterns and other soldiers come up. We
despatch the canoe, and they draw near in order to get on
board. But what is this % I feel my heart-strings tightening.
By the side of the officer I see the ladino, who, formerly a
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 53
soldier, has already twice deserted, and now finds himself for
the third time in the hands of those who may order him to be
shot to-morrow.
For forty days he has been, as it were, sharing our life ; after
deserting he hunted with the Indians, learned their language in
his three years' sojourn among them, and served them faith-
fully all that time. It was through his influence, when our
progress was impeded after a navigation of forty days, that we
were able to obtain permission from his friends the Indians
to send an express to the Christian frontier, a distance by land
of 100 leagues, to ask for help, which came to us in six
and thirty days. And then he has been my teacher of the
Indian language all this time ! Oh, may we be able to save
him !
*****
Poor Faustino ! our compassion harmed thee ! It diverted
from thee the punishment due to military discipline, which
would, however, have restored thee to the society to which thou
didst claim to belong, but it caused thee to fall a victim to the
ferocious jealousy of thy unbaptized companions. Envious of
the affection we all showed thee, and of the gifts we offered
thee, although thou in thy generosity and according to custom,
.shared them with thy comrades and with thy partner, a
daughter of their tribe ; fearful lest thou shouldst depart from
the e(]uality that is so dear to them, they put thee to death.
They first transfixed thee with darts, then when wounded and
already unable to resist, but suffering and conscious of their
tortures, they cut thy throat. Still unsatiated, tlie monsters
became inhuman ! After decapitation, they hung up thy
body by the feet, and they used thy unshorn head for a cup,
from which, when full to the brim, thy former partner will
drink during their orgy, while the fermented liquor drojjs
from the locks in which she has so often entwined her hands
when soliciting thy caresses !
But if he who leaves behind him an inheritance of affection
finds joy in the grave, and if the tears of the survivors like
drops of dew on the awakening flower are refreshing to the
dead, as our poets have sung, then art thou indeed happy !
For thy friends, numbering three times seven, in misery
will weep over thy dreadful fate, and will keep thee in dear
and holy lemembrance ; thou who wast rejected from the com-
pany of the baptized, because thuu couldst not endure the in-
54 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
human rigour of their law. Oh, civilization has its tortures
too ! and I groan as I render this tribute to thy memory,
thou who twice wert outraged and contaminated by the lash
that scourged thy body in the name of civilized law ! Thou,
Faustino Diaz, who wert trumpeter in the 12th Eegiment of
Dragoons, an orphan from thy birth, twice flogged ; ever a pariah
among thy own people, a victim among those thou hadst
chosen for thy people, a friend in need to us wayfarers in
the midst of thy murderers !
*****
We had spent seventy-two days in navigating the Vermejo,
when the long-wished-for relief arrived. Three days later we
began our land journey through the Indian territory, with a
very small supply of provisions, and we had also to leave some
for the men who remained on the vessel.
There were ten or eleven of us. After a forced march of
110 leagues, we came to a tolderia called Chaguaral, of which
the principal cacique was the same Peilo, besides eleven other
caciques. We had already left behind us another less important
tolderia called Cruz Cheka, at a distance of seven leagues.
We surprised the Indians standing in the water, fishing.
They were Mattaccos. This tolderia is situated on a beautiful
lake on the borders of which are the toldos, extending for about
the length of a kilometer in front and two or three rows deep.
A large number of them were standing in a row, fishing,
uttering loud cries, and stirring the water as they advanced ;
from time to time they almost immersed themselves in the
water ; then raising themselves again they shook the nets, and
struck them so as to stun the fish they had caught.
These Indians have various modes of fishing. That of the
palisade I have already mentioned, it works in the same way
as our weels. Then there is that of a separate net to each
man. It is fastened at both sides lengthways to sticks which
are held one in each hand. The net is two or three yards long
and about one yard broad; they open it, dip it in the
water, raise it again with the two handles held close toge-
ther, and then capture their prey after stunning it with
blows. The name of this net is hut-tanac. There is another
mode, also with a net, but one of a larger size, from eight to
fifteen yards long, and carried by several men. It corresponds
with our sweep-net, and is called Imec-lu.
They use arrows, moreover, and short lances. The latter are
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 55
pointed with metal, like our own lances. They let fly the
aiTOw by means of a bow, but they simply hurl the lance.
They do this repeatedly in Ijattle. The l)ow i.s Jrfzet/, the
arrow, lufec, the lance, hen. Finally, they also make use of the
fish-hook, twiec.
Their food consists principally of fish, game being extremely
scarce ; tlie fruit season lasts only for a few months in the
year, and is at times very deficient. Tliey keep but little
cattle, because they mutually rob each other, and slaughter tlie
few beasts that can accommodate themselves to a nomad exist-
ence. For the same reason they do not sow, excepting a few
gourds, water-melons, and Indian corn, all of which spring up
quickly. But even these are gro^vnl in very small quantities.
We passed the night near the tolderia, at a distance of
about a kilometer. Towards evening we invited the caciques
to come to us ; they were placed in order, and Signor Natale
addressed them. He explained to them, through an inter-
preter, that we Avere their friends ; that they should not
molest him, and then our steamer would remain ; that they
should rather help him, now that he was near their tolderia ;
that they should give him fish and other things ; that the
captain would give them tobacco, pieces of cloth, and shirts ;
that he would immediately despatch Peppe, one of liis men
then present, to bring tobacco and cows to the steamer, and
that two cows should be killed for them. He accompanied
with words and gestures the speech of the ladhw, repeating
as he held out his arms and lifted two fingers : " Dos guassettas
. . . y tambien giuqquds . . . giuqquas . . , guassettas
. . . dos ! " viz., meat and tobacco, pronounced rather in
Christian fashion, since the Mattaccos would say, Chiu-uas)t the offspring of such an union, the mother
is allowed to destroy it.
Indian women are skilful midwivcs, and are^ employed even
l)y Christians ; they are said to recognize the; moment of crisis
with great sag-acily, that they tlien snjtjiort the patient in a
more or less upright jiosition, and also it would seem shake
her, without however caus;ing her any jiain. The action is
accompanied by words to which the Indians ascribe great virtue,
and still more the Christians, who ilo not understand them.
The u>jual thing !
You must not think, however, that all their love-making is
conducted solelv in pantomime of a more or less expressive
nature. They nave words and expression.s well adapted to
courteous intercourse, and of these they make use. It is well-
68 EICzHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
known that the Guarani language is harmonious, too much so,
indeed, when spoken by themselves and the Chiriguanos, whose
native tongue it is ; but even the Mattaccos, the Red Mattac-
cos, who are lowest in the anthropological scale of the Indians
of South America, possess harmonious expressions and courteous
ideas corresponding therewith.
I remember on one oocasion there was a beautiful Indian
girl on board, who remained silent and impassible, not to say
gloomy. Faustino whispered to me, " Say am iss to her, ex-
pressively." And I said softly in her ear, " Am iss." In spite
of herself an imperceptible smile parted the lips of the hand-
some Indian, for I had said to her, " Thou art beautiful ! "
Another time I had been present in a tolderia at the treatment
of a sick man by Indian doctors. A young girl was also present,
the most beautiful Indian I have as yet seen.
A lieutenant came up and said to me in a loud voice, " Que
htiena moza, che?" ''Cojnono/" answered I. And the girl
in the half-light murmured, " Teniente toe tzi-la-ta,''' i.e. *' It
is the lieutenant who is handsome," But she said it so
gracefully, in a half-ingenuous, half-coquettish way, hiding her
face behind the shoulders of another girl, and with a sudden
flash of her eyes, that from my soul I envied the handsome
lieutenant.
The following is a dialogue between a youth and a maiden : —
He. " Who will that pretty girl be who will charm me so
greatly?"
She. " Who will that youth be, to whom I wish so well 1 "
The above is a nonsensical ritornello that seems much used.
Then drawing nearer to each other, —
He. " Every time I see you I long to carry you off ; who
knows that one day you will not fall in my arms ? "
She. " Who knows 1 Let us go walking together ! "
He. " If you wish me well, let me caress you ! "
She. " If you wish me well, you would not caress me : you
have a wife."
He. " !N"o one can say a word to me ; I am alone ; and if I
Avere not, I would not speak thus to you. Farewell ! I go
away to-morrow ; I shall be two years away."
She. " Oh ! I am sorry ! I shall miss you ! "
He. " Do not get married during that time. I will bring you
a necklace, a head-covering, needles and thread. Farewell ! "
Slie. " Farewell. Come back soon."
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 69
I refrain from giving the original Mattacco for fear of
being wearisome. But does not the above dialogue c(jntain
the very same sentiments and expressions that would occur to
two per.son.s of our own race?
A wedding according to rule is celebrated by drinking spirit
made from the husks of algarroho and vinal, and wild honey.
70 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
CHAPTEE XIY.
FERMENTED DRINKS NATURAL PRODUCTS FOR DOMESTIC USE.
The algarrobo holds the same place here as the chestnut-tree in
Europe, by reason of its usefulness to those peoples who dwell in
its vicinity. I have found it on heights varying from 100 to
400 yards above the level of the sea, and geographically situate
between 30° and 15° S. lat., between the slopes of the Cordillera
and the sea. It is averse to humidity, which drives it from its
natural altitudes and latitudes, and on the other hand, I have
found it growing in an exceptionally dry and cold climate at
700 metres above the level of the sea ; invariably, however, on a
plain.
The algarrobo g^rows in the woods in these regions, but
also itself forms complete woods, and it blends abundantly
with other trees. In my opinion it is of the most widely
extended growth, and deserves on this account, and by reason
• of its importance, to give its name to a forest region or zone. It
exists, in fact, in equal abundance in the woods of those parts
of the country that emerge from the waters after the seasons
of flood, and in the woods of the alluvial coasts of the actual
rivers.
The timber of the algarrobo is excellent for the greater por-
/tion of covered buildings and for carpenter's work, but it has
generally the defect of being short : a dark resin flows from
the trunk, which is utilized by the Indians, but not by us ;
the fruit grows in a shell which contains a sweetish flour, which
is used in the making of bread and fermented liquors.
There are two principal kinds of algarrobo ; the white, which
bears shelled fruit resembling our white bean in colour and
size, affording an excellent beverage, and could yield flour also ;
and the black, bearing shelled fruit like our broad bean, and
yielding an inferior drink, but a most excellent and abundant
'flour, with which they make bread called in Chiccina patai.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. J I
r.f)th varieties have leaves simply composed, i.e. of so man}'
pairs of leaflets aloii<^' the axis and with thorns.
The makin<; of patai, is a pt-tuliar and according to our notions a
repulsive process. The dried pods of the algarroba are placed under
a wooden or stone mallet, worked by a long handle ; wIk n thus
beat<'n the algarroba falls into flour without bursting ito seeds,
which are extremely hard. The flour is then sifted with more
or less care, and is pressed into an earthen pan that has been
previously heated in the sun or by the side of the fire. The
mouth of the pan is then covered with fine sand, and it is ex-
posed again to the heat of the sun or to that of a slow fire.
In ten minutes the patai is made, because the only object in
heating it is to dissolve the honey contained in the flour, which
remauis hard like cement when the honey has cooled.
After this fashion they make loaves from four to over seven
pounds in weight, and carry them in saddle-bags on the cruppers
of their horses. They are thus supplied wath a most nutritious
though somewhat surfeiting food. It is not unlike pounded
cliestnut. You hold a slice to the fire on the blade of a knife,
and di'aw back a delicious mouthful both in odour and taste.
Aloja is the Spanish word in these parts for fermented
liquor; in Chiccina it is called chicha ; in Mattacco, 7«/wa ; in
Mocovite, na-7ia and nanna ; in Vilela, Uucqiie.
The mode of manufacture, both in Peru and among the
Indians, is by masticating a portion of the substance and mixing
it with the whole. This causes fermentation, for the saliva, as
we know, contains diot^fasia, which being thus placed in contact
with the cotyledons of the seeds converts the amilaceous sub-
stance into y/iicfi.s-it/, or sugar ot grape. The seeds are thus ren-
dered soluble in water, and produce alcohol when fermented.
The Indians are ignorant of these matters, but they are very
observant, and have discoveretl the effect of a process which is
highly iiauseating to European lookers-on.
The very same method is followed in China for bread-making,
and in the East Indies for the manufacture of spirituous drinks.
And among ourselves, who is ignorant of the habit of wet-nurses
and nursing mothers of chewing the pap before giving a spoonful
to their inftxnt 1 Is^otwithstanding the ignorance of those who
employ this method, and the ridicule and nausea it excites ill
eye-witnesses, it tends to a most useful end, and is ratified by
science.
Jlowls of wood or cocoanut are kept in the toldos, in whiih
72 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
the Indians, who are chewing all day, spit out the husks.
At a certain hour, the women and children set about
breaking and chewing the seeds, and the babies amuse them-
selves by snatching handfuls in their little plump fists, and
hiding them in their mouths and spitting over and over again
into the bowls. Frequently, too, the adults assemble for the
purpose, and then the preparation of aloja serves as an occasion
for rejoicing. The unmasticated part is pounded in a mortar
made invariably of yuchan, a tree which I will describe. The
whole is placed in a cylinder made of the trunk of the same tree.
Sufficient water is added to make two or three barrels of aloja at
a time.
In twelve hours the aloja is made, and is of a sour-sweet taste
and a yellowish colour. Its tartness stimulates the appetite. I
prefer it to any other drink, Avine included. If taken in quantity
it is inebriating, but the effect soon passes off and does not pro-
duce sickness. At least this is the result of my observation of
others.
The season of the ripening of the algarroba corresponds with
that of the vi7ial, which is less good, but can be used to make
aloja. Next comes the chanar, the fruit of which is sweetish,
small, round, yellow, and nut-like ; it is eaten raw, and is also
boiled and a syrup made from it, pleasant in flavour and with
medicinal properties, according to these tribes, for relieving cough
and asthma. The trunk and leaves of the chanar when young
are almost like those of the tamarind, bat the branches resemble
the eucalyptus. A little later than the algarroba comes the
mistol, corresponding to our jujube-tree, ov Rliamnus-zizyphus,
although with a slight difference. The fruit, mixed with algar-
roba, is used to make patai ; and it is preserved besides, tightly
pressed down in skins. At the same season, some sooner some
later, all the other fruits ripen, whereas in the colder Chaco
they come to maturity in October and December (the spring
and summer months), and farther south, towards Tucuman,
from November to February.
The fruit season, especially an abundant one, and if we
include the time during which some of the fruits can be pre-
served, lasts from four to five months. It is the Indians'
carnival.
In order to preserve the algarroba they construct small huts,
which they raise on four supports, for the purpose of ventilation,
and to preserve it from ants and other insects. It is pretty to
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIQ. ^ "J I
sec these little cupolas risinfj above the toldos like oiirbelfries.
Each tokleria prides itself on displaying a greater number
than the othei-s. They preserve vinal, and some other roots and
fruits, that can be or ought to be cooked in a dry state, in the
same way.
When the aloja is ready, whicli should be about 11 a.m., all
the men asseinljle I'ound tiie cylinder of ijucJian, sitting on tlie
ground like Mussulmans ; and with two or three empty gourds
reach the licpior and hand it to each other, conversing mean-
while on their affairs — such as battles, harvests, news of any
kind, gossij) ; and laughing Ilomerically over a curious adventure
or a play upon words. This lasts for three or four hours, or even
longer. "When the lirjuor is finished they consume the solid
matter that has remained at the bottom ; the women and children
take no share in the [)roceedings.
They esteem the algarroba very highly ; a celebrated head
cacique called Granadero by the Christian.s, on account of his
height, and Chiatzutac by the Mattaccos, in allusion to his size
and nation, replied when asked how he was, " Bien yo, yo rico, yo
teniendo, mucha algarroba yo rico." They are stingy, too, with
regard to algarroba and aloja, and will not exchange it, except
under extraordinary circumstances, for other tilings ; nor will
they invite any one, except grudgingly and with much ado, to
drink with them.
One morning I found a crowd of about forty Indians round
agiuccian of aloja. On seeing me they all cried out : ^^ Inan /
luayi ! " (" Gianni ! Gianni !") ^'Juc-tju-dx, juc-qii-ds " ("tobacco,
tobacco"); and I replied, ^^ Hiie-ni-fd'', Hik-ioc-hi-pae" {"' 1 have
not any ; I will give you soiue shortly"). They then invited me
to drink with them, but, on my first refusal, they did not ask
me a second time, and the cacique said, *• Ao hijifo, no ; riosotroa
tomanno, tii. ddnno tahuaco " ("No, my son, no, we wdl drink ;
you shall give tobacco "). "We were exchanging courtesies —
rather Indian ones certainly — but courtesies, nevertheless. "Wish-
ing to please them, I then endeavoured to say a few words in
their language, and finally took my leave, saying, '^ Atni'ani, itii
jopil niihdni'f, nutpinhi pdc, 7iioc}tioi'-ld Jiic-tjii-d.-^" (" Good-bye, I
am going home ; I will soon return ; I will give tobacco"). They •
were all delighted, because I had used their language, and had
promised them tobacco, and they shouted, " Ainecnd, ainccnd ;
tapil ccaelitt " (" Good-bye, good-bye ; come back soon "). I re-
turned two or three hours later with my wallets crammed full
74 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
of cut tobacco, and found them still drinking. Scarcely had
they perceived me when they reminded me of my promise, which
I thought they had forgotten in the fumes of drink. I distributed
it among them ; but when all was finished, they still asked for
more. At last I held the bags upside down, crying " Namhnen,
namhuen " (" I have no more "). Convinced by my eloquent
demonstration, they concluded with " Hee, liee" meaning, " Very
good." But they did not renew the invitation to drink.
Indians make a very poor mouth, and are grudging of their
belongings to Christians ; if you will believe them, they are as
poor as Job !
A remark just occurs to me that I will note, although out of
its place, lest I should forget it. Children up to eight or ten
years of age have such large stomachs that they have to be
bandaged at the height of the navel, but the size diminishes
gradually, and in manhood their figures are remarkably slight.
^ I think it opportune to remark in this place that the algarroba
belongs to the family of our carob-tree {Ceratonia siliqua), and
the scientific name given it by botanists is Prosopis algarroho.
It is of immense importance in the domestic'bconomy of savages
and of the inhabitants of the desert country. It therefore claims
our attention. ' Its foliage extends toten feet or more in diameter,
but is not very dense, either from the smaU number of leaves,
or still more from their highly indentated shape. Nevertheless,
it affords a plenteous shade. The bark is very rugged, resembling
that of the vine.
The vinal {Prosopis ruscifoUa) is a low tree, but with ample
foliage ; it is remarkable for thorns ten or fifteen centimeters
in length, which inflict most dangerous wounds. The leaves are
about the size of acacia leaves, but more pointed and rather rough.
They are said to be an efficacious remedy for weak eyes.
The scientific name of the chaiiar is Gurliaea decorticans, that
of the mistol, Zizyphus mistol.
AU these fruits are eagerly devoured by cattle, and algarroba
and vinal are excellent for fattening horses and cows.
The plum-tree grows wild, but it is scarce, at least so far as I
have seen. The flavour of this fruit is pleasant, all the more so
^ from the absence of the cultivated plum in these parts.
During the Aloja Carnival frequent quarrels take place. There
is much fighting, and some deaths occur, not only among the
Indians, but also among the Christians of the Chaco.
\ I will now say two words concerning the yuchan {Palo hriaco),
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 75
j and the Chorisea insignis, which might be called a cotton-tree.
I The shape is peculiar. The trunk resembles an oil jar, that is
to say, it is small at the base, largo in the middle, and small
again at the bifurcation of the brandies. The diameter of the
trunk attains two yards ; it is full of knots, and is four or five
yards in height, wlien full grown, and is often united with
another as far as the base. The foliage commences with two
brandies only, which are afterwards subdivided, and form an
ample canopy, eight or ten yards or more in diameter. The
leaves are like those of our nut-trees, but rather smaller, and of
a beautiful colour.
The bark is cut into strips for binding ; it is also used for
roofing, for wrapping and tying up rolls of tobacco, and for other
like purposes. From the trunk tlio Indians make their canoes
in one single piece. To do this, they need only scoop it out
with an instrument of some kind, the wood bemg soft when
fresh cut, and becoming harder than cork, although of the same
nature, when dry. The Mattaccos call the canoe cuo-kiac, mean-
ing a duck.
The special value, however, of the yuchan lies in its fruit,
which resembles a lemon in shape, colour, and size. When ripe
(from November to January, according to the locality), the
fruit divides in four, and a feathery tuft unfolds of perfectly
white cotton that gradually falls from the tree. An open lemon
is the size of a large doubled hst. The tree bears hundreds of
these all the year round.
The Indians make some use of the cotton, the Christians none ;
nevertheless, in Catamarca, where there are a few of these trees,
I saw some white goods manufactured from it, that ranked first
in the Cordoba Exhibition.
There are immense numbers of yuchans in the Cliaco, standing
amongst the hard-wooded trees in the lands liable to immei-sion.
If an industrial use could be made of the cotton furnished by
the yudian and the chaguar — the latter affording material for
cordage, and both trees extending over immense districts and
requiring no cultivation — a very valuable trade would be in-
augurated.
Another very interesting tree, both for its domestic and also,
perhaps, for its industrial uses, is the i>acam {Euferololnum-
iimhoica). This is a magnificent tree, and one of the most
beautiful for height, size, and foliage. The leaves are like those
of our sorb-apple, but are larger. It Ijelongs to the ?nini(ti>a
"J^ EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
family. The fruit is oblong in shape, its colour a dark chestnut,
about an inch and a half in length, and it contains from twelve
to fifteen per cent of saponina. It is used for cleaning clothes
and woollens.
In order to conclude where we began, I will add that the
Indians drink largely of the liquors used by the Christians, and
will eat hemp until they are stupefied.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.
CHAPTER XV.
The Indians dolight in warfare. It is necessary to state this,
l)ecause they fight very frequently, and are in a state, if I may
permit myself the expression, of continual scuffle.
One war follows on another, that the vanqxiished may take
revenge for their losses, and the victorious gratify their increasing
taste for successful battle. To have fished, hunted, or gleaned
on the territory of others, is sufficient reason for a war, or
to have to revenge some injury, or, in short, any hope of
plunder.
War, however, is not carried on strategically, one battle
following another until the enemy is no longer able to defend
himself; it is rather a system of attacking the tolderias by
surprise, and plundering them of goods, cattle, children, and
sometimes of women also.
For this reason, in wooded districts, the tolderias are always
built with two sides against the forest, for refuge in case of
assault. It is impossible for the enemy to follow in pursuit
through a labyrinth of foot-paths knoAATi only to the inhabitants
of that particular tolderia.
In order to reassiinble afterwards in a common meeting-
place, the inmates guide themselves not only by the indications
of footmarks, but they also twist off small branches or tufts of
grass at cross-roads, to give warning to their companions who
are on the look-out for these previously concerted signals.
Another mode of comminiication is that of lighting fires.
During our march through the Chaco we were always surrounded
by fires at a greater or less distance, nccasionally of immense
extent. And often, when we thought we had been completely
isolated, we found our arrival at some Indiada had been expected,
and that the order of our march was well kno^^^a.
The Indians employ numerous spies and explorers ; the
78 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
Mattacco word for the former is niguaiecrfue, and for the latter
gueicass.
They seem to have one elementary notion of military tactics,
since they have a cacique-general, ordinary caciques, and chiefs
of half-cohorts. The first is Ganniat tizdn, the second canniat,
and I am ignorant of the Mattacco for the third. The caciques-
general are elected from the second grade, and these again from
the chiefs of half-cohorts, who are themselves chosen by the
people, generally from the sons of deceased chiefs, if grown up,
courageous and good. The same passions are aroused in these
elections as among ourselves.
Moreover, another order of persons exists called nee-yat
corresponding with the Spanish cahallero and the Italian
galajit'uomo. Thus Christians, who appear to belong to this
category, are called by them nee-yat. Analogous distinctioirs
probably exist among other Indian tribes. In Peru, and wherever
the Chicciua language is spoken, caballeros are called viracoccia
and ueracoccia.
On the election of a cacique-general, the electors, if able, come
and visit him, and on such an occasion the usual eating and
drinking takes place. A cacique-general usually rules over
several tolderias at some distance from each other. Tzi-cMae
is the Mattacco word for his visits to them. The authority
exercised by the cacique-general over the Indians of the Chaco
is purely military ; in time of peace they scarcely exert any
active power, unless with regard to foreign affairs. As to these
they receive information from the tribes living near foreigners,
both in arranging any business, or in contriving a war or a
peace. J^o one, however, is bound by their acts, and the common
people, the muh, are free to refuse to make war, although their
pride seldom allows them to abstain from it.
When a caciqiie wishes to make an attack he asks the opinion
of the elders, and of persons of influence, and if they approve,
he invites all who will to follow him.
Sometimes the respected chiefs of various tolderias agree
together long beforehand on a proposed attack. When we
reached the tolderia of the Ciaguardl, we found an assembly of
twelve or thirteen caciques, all of them Mattaccos, and expecting
their allies the Tobas, in conjimction with whom they shortly
afterwards invaded the territory of some other Mattaccos, who,
three months before, had inflicted a defeat on them.
On starting for war they utter threatening and joyful shouts,
OF THE ARCiKXTlNE REPUBLIC. 79
and stain parts of the face and body with 1)lack, and sometinit's
tan>,de still more their entangleil hair, till they look like troubled
>ijjirif.-i, to use the expression of an Indian Christian. At the
moment of l)attlc those who possess any feathers fix them on
their heads, their waist and even their ankles, givin^,' the pre-
ference to red and yellow ones. If they wear any clothing it is
iKHind tightly round the waist, and when actually fighting they
utter louil cries.
The custom of painting the body for war is found among all
wild tribes, and was practised by the peoples whom the Romans
called barbarians. According to Claudian, for instance, the
Sicambrians painted their faces bright red before battle.
The caciques are entitled to the post of honour in the
thickest of the fight, resulting always in the death of some of
them. If the invaders are victorious they plunder, and pursue
the women, children, and cattle, and on departing set fire to the
tolderia.
No quarter is given to the combatants, and they seldom
spare the lives of the grown-up women, fearing them either
as spies, or as unlikely to train properly the children they
have carried otf, and if they are old, despising them as useless.
But they take the children under ten or twelve years, to
bring them up as warriors or as wives for the benefit of the
tribe.
These customs should not appear more barbarous to us than
those of the Scythians, who in the times of the Romans dwelt
between the Don and the Uanulie, and were accustomed to
kill their prisoners in order to spare themselves the trouble of
guarding them in their nomadic life. Anil what have we to say
when the Romans, after their conversion to Christianity, threw
their prisoners into the circus to be tormented liy wild beasts
amid the insults of the populace. Listen to the compliment
contained in the panegyric repeated by a great Christian per-
sonage to Constantine the Great, the Victor Emmanuel of
Christianity. " With the blood of the Franks you have in-
creased the splendour of our games ; yqu have given us the
joyful sight of innumeralde prisoners torn to pieces by wild
beasts ; and the expiring barbarians were still more outraged
by the insults of tlieir con([uerors than by the teeth of the
brutes or the agony of death."
I recall these things to prove that iir every time and place
human nature is the same.
8o EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
Ey these expeditious means the Indians avoid the shame and
dangers of slavery, which moreover would be incompatible with
their wandering life, their continual wars, the scarcity of their
food, and finally with the independence of their own character,
Avhich leads them to inflict or suffer death rather than endure
slavery. Nevertheless we may consider the extraordinary effects
such customs produce on the existence and distribution of
tribes, since a succession of victories on the part of one, or several
allied tribes, may involve the complete destruction and dis-
appearance of others.
Whosoever kills an enemy wears as a trophy, if he has time to
secure it, the scalp with the hair, the ears, and possibly a fold
of skin from the back of the neck. He forms it to the shape
of a cup by means of a bulrush or a flexible twig which
he binds and stitches all round the edge ; then, while still bloody,
he fills it with liquor, and holding it by the hair passes it round
to his companions, who empty it as they drink in honour of the
victor and in scorn of the vanquished. Another way is to hold
the scalp by the edge and pour out the liquor in drops over the
hair and jaws.
One of these scalps came into my possession. It had formerly
belonged to a Toba cacique killed by a friendly Mattacco during
the attack that was being prepared when we reached theCiaguaral.
This custom of scalping prevails among all the Indians of
these parts, and also among those of Xorth America. More
strangely still, it existed among the Scythians.
The Germans used to drink out of the skulls of the enemies
they had slain. And who has not heard of Alboin, the Lom-
bard, who, thirteen hundred years ago, made his wife Rosamond
drink from her father's skull 1
This custom of the Indians recalls a scene to my remem-
brance that demonstrates the cunning of these savages.
On one occasion, I accompanied the colonel of the regiment
stationed on the frontier, in one of his periodical visits. Close
to a fort where a tribe of Indians dwelt, the son of the
cacique-general came to pay us a visit ; the father did not
come himself, because the colonel, he asserted, should first call
upon him. But he sent us a present of some excellent aloja.
As he had just returned from fighting the Tobas, we asked him
whether he had brought back any scalps. And the Indian, by
way of excusing his cruelty, replied, " The Tobas take scalps
from the Christians, and we from the Tobas."
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 8 1
On that occasion, seeing me in European dress in the midst
of so many military men, and treated Ijy the colonel with great
politeness, they said among themselves, —
" Who can this be '? "
And the more knowing ones replied, —
'* Oh, S(nni' President ! "
I felt on hearing this as if I were among a crowd of our own
people.
It is a custom of war among these Indians to begin their
undertakings at the new moon. They attribute to it apparently
some superstitious power; they do not, however, make night
marches, for fear of vipers and tigers.
We find a similar superstition among the Spartans, and we
know from themselves that in the war with the Medes (491 B.C.),
they were not in time to relieve the Athenians and Plateans,
who under jNIiltiades won the famous battle of jMarathon against
Darius, King of the Persians ; the cause of the delay was their
waiting for the full moon, on which account they did not arrive
until the day after the battle.
I have already mentioned that their arms consist of the bow
and arrow, the lance and the club. All these are of wood. They
do not use metals because they have none, and woidd not know
how to work in them. They esteem very highly any nails or
knives or tinned boxes they happen to possess. They make
use also of las holeadoras, a kind of sling.
They carry on war at hundreds of leagues' distance, travei-sed
entirely on foot, and with relative rapidity. For the Indians
are stupendous walkers. Naked, and hence liglit-footed, and in
constant practice they cover the ground quickly without
appearing to do so ; they are barefooted, and therefore it is less
needful to raise the foot high.
The chiefs do not fail to harangue their troops before battle,
and at the niomtmt of attack their leader shouts, "Comrades !
here we are ; fight courageously ! Do nut fij mm if the ennny
tramplt's you underfoot ! " An expression that seems to me full
of energy and truth, relating as it does to a hand-to-hand
struggle.
They revile the dead body of an enemy. Besides cutting
off the head, they tear out the heart, mutilate the various
members, and outrage it in a thousand ways.
I am ignorant whether these tortures precede the death of
the prisoner, or whether they are satisfied with cutting his
G
82 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
throat like a sheep's, before mutilating him. They acted as
loUows towards Faustino. First they pierced him with arrows
so that he fell to the earth unable to defend himself; then
they seized him while still conscious and cut his throat, then
they cut off his head, hung the body to a tree by the feet, and
went away having stripped him of everything.
The following conversation took place between two Indians
after a battle : —
First Indian. " I^ow I will tell you what happened on our
return. All at once I heard some one behind me, shouting,
' The enemy are killing our comrades down there, in the
hollow.' I cried out to my men, ' Stand fast ! they are killing
our comrades ! Do not fly, stand firm even if they trample you
underfoot.'"
Second Indian. " Oh, how I wish I had been there ! The
misfortune was that I did not see you when you marched."
Fi7'st Indian. '" You would have seen ! We set at them
Avith our lances and clubs, and killed ever so many. Oh, we
took our revenge ! So now I am quite contented ; we are even
now. We scalped some, cut the hands off others, tore out the
hearts of others, or mutilated them ; and cut off the heads of
many,"
And he continued minutely describing all their achievements.
They seem to ascribe some virtue to the limbs of an enemy.
I remember on one occasion having brought with me three
Mattacco heads, taken from a spot where four years previously
two score of them had been taken prisoners and then massacred.
The floods had carried away all but the three I succeeded in
obtaining. I brought them a distance of ten leagues to my
ranche on the frontier, where I put them in my room, under
the little table that served me for a desk.
One stormy night I heard a voice through the open door.
The poor light of my tallow candle dazzled my eyes, and thus
prevented me from seeing a black figure in the darkness of the
background. " Quien es V I cried, instinctively seizing the
revolver on my table. ^^ Amicro, amicco ; no mas" ("A friend,
a friend ■ nothing else ") ; and a Mattacco cacique drew near,
followed by a companion." '■'■Que queriendo, amigo ? " ("What do
you want, friend "), I continued. " Toba etec " (" The head of the
Toba "), replied he. I took up one of the skulls and gave it to him,
saying, " Toba catchia " ("Wicked Toba "). The Indian clutched
the head almost conviUsively in his left hand, and thrust the
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 83
lingers of his right Imiul into the sockets of the eyes, and into
the ears anil inoufh of tlie skull, and then quickly into his own
mouth as if sucking them ; at the same time dancing about and
uttering inarticulate cries.
My caciijue had heard of these heads, as belonging to his
mortal enemies, the To])as, and had come at night on purpose
to celebrate his little festival.
From that time, for it so chanced that the Mattacco Indiadas
were returning just then from the sugar-factories in the pro-
vince of .Salta, sixty leagues away in the interior, every day,
lialf a hundred Indians would come to my door, asking for the
Toba's head. I pacilied them with the everlasting reply,
" Toba catch Id, catchia" on which they would repeat the usual
performance.
84 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
CHAPTER XVI.
The Indians of the Cliaco have no God. I do not mean as God
is understood by a thinker or a philosopher, but as the idea
is accepted by Christian and Chinese populations. I do not
mention the Hebrews and Mahometans, because I have a great
admiration for nations like the Israelites, who, from far-distant
times, and Mahometans from the tune of Arius, have been able-
to accept the simple yet dogmatical idea of the unity of the
Deity, and of the manifestation of His laws through the
prophets.
It is asserted that the inhabitants of the Pampas believe
in a God, but we must consider this a recent importation
from their continual intercourse with the Christians and with
their brethren of Chili, who were converted shortly after the
conquest.
But if the inhabitants of the Chaco have no God, they have
a religion : the religion of spirits, and in embryo that of the
stars.
There is no doubt, I believe, that the Indians of the Chaco
are, as regards civilization, as primitive as any other Indians or
savages in the world.
It is asserted by some philosophical historians that the
first religious stage of mankind is fetichism, i.e. the religion of
fetiches, the name given by African negroes to the hideous
objects of their worship : Avithout denying that this may be
so, or may have been so with these tribes, it may be aflfirmed
that among these Indians at least, the first stage of religion is
not fetichism but spiritism, as we shall see farther on.
I believe that some philosophers, including Humboldt in his
Cosmos, have noted this fact, and given it a name which has
slipped my memory.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 85
The Mexicans and the Peruvians, however, who are strongly
constituted as nations and far advanced in civilization, have
reached a second stage, that of the worship of stars and idols,
from which the powerful civilizations of Asia, Greece, and Rome,
of the last of which we are the immediate heirs, was developed
among ourselves.
We stand at the junction of this second stage with a tliird,
liigher tlian it, and which atfimis an impersonal First Cause,
Eternal, Almighty, the Creator of all things, and to this we
have added the Evil one, the Incarnation, worship, priesthood,
churches, saints, amulets, the threefold kingdom of the extra-
mundane life. These few allusions are intended to prove that
we are all brothers during the first stage of apparitions, ecstasies,
exorcisms, and good and evil angels on the right and left hand
of every individual of our poor humanity.
It is diihcult to learn the creed of Indians from themselves ;
for while they entertain a profound contempt for the religion
of Christians, they are afraid of the ridicule, the tlireats,
and the c^uestionings of their presumptuous and intolerant
enemies.
Faustino, a Christian who had returned to the Indians, when
asked the reason of some religious observance, used to reply,
" Ignoro, senor ; yo no pregunto nada, porque los Indios
desconfian mucho." '
I am about to give an account of what I learned from their
own lips after endeavouring to inspire them with confidence by
my behaviour, by presents, by frequenting their society, and
([ ask absolution from his Holiness) by having agreed with
tliem in thinking their attachment to the religion of their
fathers a fine thing (orthodox style), by blaming the attempts
of the Christians to convert them, by contemning the scorn with
which these latter treated them, and, lastly, by joining with
them in a hearty laugh at all the Christian absurdities.
Let me explain. I hold the religion of my ancestors and
parents in profoimd respect ; and now that my years are begin-
ning to increase in inverse ratio to my teeth, I greatly regret
having angered my loving mother when a boy by showing my-
self careless of her pious request and unwilling to comply with
her wish that I should pray on the rosary for the repose of our
departed friends and neighbours. I blush when I remember
* " I do not know, sir; I ask no questions, because Indians are very
suspicions."
86 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
that in my youth I thought it clever to go out of my parish
church when mass was half over, shocking the kind and worthy
prior and the devout country-folk, while it would have been so
much more simple to have stayed away altogether. I feel
gratitude towards the good Fathers, that will last while I
live, for the instruction they imparted to me during many
years ; yet all my repentance, blushes, and gratitude fail to
inspire me with any zeal for the machine that calls itself
Christianity, or with any anxiety for the conversion of these
innocent and free unbelievers, who would find their chains of
slavery riveted by baptism.^
I know this to be true. It will be objected that looking at
the matter from a merely human point of view there must be
progress for these savages in entering on civilized life, even
through the portals of Christianity, and that the crossing of
races is a progress for the whole of human society.
I reply to this that we must not hasten to the conclusion that
the crossing of races so remote would be a social progress ;
rather is it to be feared, that the result would be a non-repro-
ductive hybrid like the mule ; and the fact that the natives of
this continent are continually bewailing a few drops of Indian
blood in their veins, seems to corroborate my view of the subject.
With regard to the tribes themselves, what benefit would they
derive from entering our ranks 1 Their birth and colour would be
the first hindrance to their happiness, and even if we grant that
they would share equally with Christians in the advantages of
their new social conditions, it would always be true that only
a microscopic portion of these would aftbrd them pleasure, the
rest would be a heavy burden, as is the case at the present
moment with the proud descendants of Christian civilization.
Ahot is the Mattacco word for spirits, the Vilela word is
coJcss.^
These are subterranean spirits, but they wander about the
world at night, entering into houses and also into persons, gene-
- The fate of the prisoners taken by General Eocca in his expedition
to Rio Negro, which resulted in the conquest of 15,000 leagues by the
Argentine Republic, proves to demonstration the accuracy of this
opinion . The expedition was undertaken after the above lines were
written.
^ The li in ahot must be aspirate and nasal. This is a frequent
sound in the Mattacco and other dialects. But of this I will treat
later.
OF THE ARGENTIXTi REPUBLIC 8/
rally causing sickness. The ahots ride on the wind, and are
either themselves the storm or are accompanied by it, dancing
in a circle round tolderias, toldos, and individuals that they
wish to hurt. The most terrible aJiot is small-pox, against
whom the wizards are powerless. AVhcn it appears in a hnuet-
ei (tolderia) the Indians hurry away from it, often leaving
it in flames behind them and abandoning their sick. The
disease is very destructive, owing rather, in my opinion, to
want of care, which is impossible in their houses and with their
clothes, than to Avant of domestic or personal cleanliness, which
seems to me to be sufficiently attended to. Nearly every case
is fatal, which accounts for very few Indians being pock-
marked.
Each man has a spirit, that after death is united again, beneath
the earth, to its companions, and enjoys among them the same
consideration he enjoyed while living among the inhabitants of
his tolderia. For this reason they hold a special religious rite
for their dead.
Although the ahots are fond of roaming about, nevertheless
they renuun near the spot where the bodies that contain them
are to die.
The spirit of the person who dies away from home, and who
cannot be buried in his own country, wanders solitary and sad
among strange spirits,
I in([uired of my cicerone why these unfortunate beings
were destined to so cruel a fate, since, witliout fault of theirs,
they died, and their bodies were buried away from their own
people. He answered me thus : The bodies being left far away
from their kinsfolk and from the members of the same tribe,
was a sign that they had not been loved and esteemed in life,
hence the other ahof-^, when they see a stranger appear among
them, reason thus : thesp. persons, whom neither their earthly
kinsfolk nor their tribe honour with fraternal burial, can-
not, by this token, have received love or esteem, therefore
they deserve nothing ;" and they leave him alone. I repeat the
gibberish of the ladino.
I was reminded of the Latin tradition reconled in the golden
verse of the ^neid when .'Eneas, having gone do\m to the Elysian
tields, meets the shades of the unburicd wandering round the
Stygian marsh without being able to cross over : —
" Son of Anchises ! offapriuf? of the srods !
(The sibyl said) you sec the Stygian floods,
88 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
The sacred stream which Heaven's imperial state
Attests in oaths and fears to violate.
The ghosts rejected are the unhappy cx'ew
Deprived of sepulchres and fun'ral due,
The boatman Charon : those, the buried host,
He ferries over to the farthest coast ;
Nor dares his ti'ansport vessel cross the waves
With such whose bones are not composed in graves.
A hundred years they wander on the shore ;
At length, their penance done, are wafted o'er."
And I remembered the respect in which the grave is held by
almost every nation, and the consequent intolerance of some
grotesque and barbarous religions.
The beliefs I have mentioned are the basis of their cere-
monies for healing the sick and burying the dead.
Before describing these, however, I should notice a kind of
worship rendered, especially by the women, to some of the
heavenly bodies, viz., the moon and the morning star.
At the rising of the moon, the women issue forth from their
toldos, and holding each other by the hand, dance rapidly round
in a ring, jumping and crying out in honour of the silvery planet.
They do the same on the appearance of the star in the east,
j)raying it to be favourable to the algarroba harvest, and to
that of the other fruits of the earth.
It is a custom also for men and women to arise from sweet
repose at midnight, and all to dance together in a circle,
jumping and shouting, to propitiate Heaven.
At the eclipse of the sun or moon they assemble in the same
way and implore the cessation of the inexplicable phenomenon,
but in this case it is an allot whom they fear and propitiate.
I know of no other acts of adoration but these, and they
denote an approach towards Sabaism or the worship of the
heavenly bodies. But it is curious that the sun is not included
among the objects of their Avorship or their exorcisms. Our
interpreter, Faustino, however, informed me that they assemble
to implore his reappearance when he has been hidden by
clouds (a very rare occurrence in these regions) for any
length of time, or if a storm lasts too long ; but even so
they are rather conjuring the a//oY, who has withdrawn the bene-
ficent planet from their sight and from their unclothed bodies.
We see by this that among these Indians, too, the women are
the first to worship, and that like the women of olden Pagan
times, they recognize in the pale moon an object more consonant
OF THE ARGENTINE RErUBLIC. 89
Avith tlieir condition, and therefore more able or more willing to
[)iotect them than the sun, who is too unlike themselves, and
who awaits the adoration of men, slower to fear, to hope, and
to pray.
In no place have I seen idols, notwithstanding a diligent
search, and my guides have always denied tlie existence of any.
lUit idol- worship would not seem foreign to their character, and
in atldition to the partial adoration of the heavenly bodies that
I have mentioned, it is probable that certain natural objects ofl'er-
iiig special characteristics of a terrifying, benevolent, or mys-
terious nature, are looked upon by them with feelings not far
from worship.
Braly, an engineer, who has travelled in the Chaco as far as
Rii) Salailo, assures me that the ]\Iocovitos of that region never
forsake the spot where an aerolite has fallen with loud crash
and dazzling light.
This gives credibility to Azara's statement, according to which
the iirst conquerors of Paraguay asserted that the Guaranis wlio
inliabited that country worshipped an enormous caged serpent.
This was probably a species of boa, called here amjjaJagua, and
e(jually remarkable for its size and gentleness.
I am not disposed, however, to accept as true the assertions of
Garcilasso de la Vega, a descendant of the Incas, according to
whom the peoples who were conquered by the emperors, his an-
cestors, were plunged in the grossest idolatry, worshipping ima-
ginary monsters, the most disgusting animals, andsmall inanimate
objects. Garcilasso, who was piously attached to the memory
and traditions of his forefathers, although he concealed his
feelings, sought to show the complete civilization of their
immense empire, now vanished, and lent a Avilling ear to the
national legends that might support this claim. But the grand
civilizing action of the Incas, the promoters of the worship of
sun and moon, of whom they claimed to be the sons, requires
no such contrast to show it forth ; it will always bo evident in
the stupendous achievements of their labour and skill. Woe to
the vanquished ! And the injustice of the Incas towards con-
quered nations was inflicted with usury upon themselves by
their foreign conquerors, who, in the name of the true God,
destroyed their palaces, temples, public works, and institutions,
loading them with contempt and anathema.
However this may be, the wandering life of the wild tribes
of the Chaco would seem to exclude idolatry.
90 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
And in fact how could wandering tribes carry with them
idols of large size. In any case, they were obliged to exclude
large or heavy burdens, and those that would be endangered
by falling. Again, how could they respect their gods if carried
on horseback in awkward positions; or how preserve the prestige
and terror of mystery in the midst of removal 1 And how could
each one attend to his own daily bread on the march, and also
to the misfortunes of his gods and piiests who may have been
taken prisoners and destroyed on the way by the enemy in
ambush ?
Hence idolatry must be practised towards objects of small
size and requiring little care ; but these are the last to seize on
the imagination, and we can only conceive them as the fringes
of a larger vestment, and as a passing caprice on the part of
those not satisfied with the ordinary worship, like the luxury of
the lesser intercessory saints in the houses of the great.
The facility with which the Indians abandon their tribe, their
cacique, and their sorcerers, is now a well-ascertained fact, and
when added to the utter absence of prestige in the two last,
except in time of battle or of peril, is a confirmation of the
above argument.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUHLIC. 9I
CHAPTEPt XVII.
RELIGION. {Cimtiniied.)
With these Indians Gud and devil are one, and are called by
the one name, which, as I have already said, is ahot in the
Mattacco language.
This lack of distinction frees them, at least in language,
from the vice of intolerance, which is so prevalent among our-
selves. Thus their name for our church is tohao-hoto-hi, the
literal meaning of which is " that which contains the alwta"
that is, the ahots or Christian gods.
Moreover, they give the same name to a burial-ground, and
in this they resemble the inhabitants of these countries, in which
it is called a Pantheon.
And with regard to this expression, remark the destiny of
words ! Everybody knows that in Greece the Pantheon was a
temple dedicated to all the gods, as the word itself exi)lains,
for ^?rt/i indicates totality or the whole, and icon expresses
divinity. It Avas next applied to the temples where men were
set up, who, for their great deeds, were looked upon as demi-
gods, and, finally, since mythological ideas waned, it has
been used by us to describe the burial-place of famous men.
And to this end, some celebrated buildings, renowned by beauty
or historical traditions, have been devoted, viz. the Pantheon
in Paris, and the Church of Santa Croce in Florence.
In the Chaco and throughout tin- whole of the northeni parts
of the Kepul)lic, where the inhaliitants are more democratic,
more on an etpiality, more ironical or ingenuous, they give the
name of Pantheon to a piece of grassy ground surrounded by a
hedge. This place is open to tigers and dogs, who, by turns,
hold high festival on the fresh-buried corpse of a white man,
a negro, or a leopard, but never certainly on that of a Greek
demi-god or a divine modern !
92 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
On account of this, the ^vord Pantheon will, some day, convey
a contemptuous meaning.
The allots have the power not only of entering into indivi-
duals and bewitching them, and of becoming incarnate — allow
me the neologism — in the elements of harm, such as tempests,
the small-pox, famine, &c., but they are also able to inflict
wounds and especially with arrows. It seems, however, that they
only inflict these arrow-wounds directly against the will of the
sorcerers, who, in Mattacco, are called ha-ia-qile, and in Cheere-
guan ipjjaia; and this is the case also with the hualicho of the
Araucaris, who have, in fact, a word to express this action, viz.
cuglin. In Mattacco it is ioco.
It is intelligible that the wizards should have selected the
arrow as the weapon of the spirit of evil, because it is the
only one among those used by the Indians that has any
semblance of mystery or witchcraft. Being a projectile it can
be shot from any direction and from afar, the archer remaining
unseen.
The Indians have great faith in this power of their alwts. A
ladino of mine, a certain Taio (so called on account of a cut,
taglio, across his face), an Indian, told me the following story
in order to prove to me the power of the alwts and the ignorance
of the Christians in denying their existence. Once upon a
time a tribe had just returned from a sugar-factory in the pro-
vince of Salta. It was the algarroba season. One night the
people were making merry, singing and dancing. All at once
they hear a Christian approaching and singing as he comes ;
they hear the clattering of his horse's hoofs and the jangling of
his silver spurs.
As soon as he comes up he draws rein, reproves them for
Avhat they are doing, and wishes to prohibit them from con-
tinuing. The people are displeased at his intrusion, and tell the
hdiague to send him away.
The lidiague, not succeeding with fair words, tells the Chris-
tian who thus persists in interrupting and profaning the feast,
" Now you shall see if we are such poor people ; you shall see
what the allot can do."
He stoops down, covers himself, and cries to the alwt, " Send
an arrow into that Christian, and show him whether we are
quite such a helpless people."
" It is well," replies the aliot.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 93
All at once a noise is heard from below as if a stick had been
snapped. It was an arrow.
The Christian suddenly fell from his horse. He was
dead !
The ah/it's arrow had killed him, because he had disbelieved
in the ahdt.
The whole tribe swore they had witnessed this.
AVhen he had ended his story I thought to myself : what
difference is there except in the proportions, between the
credulity of these people and that of tlie Hebrews, who believed
in the destruction of Sennacherib and 185,000 Assyrians in one
night by an angel of the Lord, when he was about to lay siege
to Jerusalem 1 or that of the Spanish conquerors of Mexico
who, according to the historian Gomara, chaplain to Cortes,
vanquished innumerable enemies by the apparition of S'')ii)r
Santiatjo apostol sohre un cahallo tor dill at the head of the
Spanish troops 1
And this was but a second edition of the good angel in
golden armour on a white horse who enabled Antiochus Eupa-
tor to overcome Juda some thousands of years before !
These savages have as much foundation for their belief in
these idle tales as we have for believing in ours. They, too,
have the phrases it is said and I saw it, repeated by thousands.
They have facts accompanied by circumstances, and they take
the latter for the cause of the former, just as we do. One
miracle is as good as another.
It is curious that the object of recognition, if not of adora-
tion, is the principle of evil, because, after all, the ahdt is a
maleficent power, able to work evil. If we consider this
recognition as the dawn of a religion, we must concede that
the point of departure is the fear of evil and the desire of
averting it.
We find the same beliefs prevalent in the other wild tribes of
America as among those Indians of the Chaco, although in
some, in North America, thi\v also acknowledge benevolent
powers or invisible beings, called mauifo.-t and orl-os.
Ctnicerning these spirits, they argue ingenuously but wisely
enough. Why trouble oneself, they say, about a being who,
by his nature, is beneficent ? He cannot harm us, because if he
is good he cannot wish us evil.
it must be admitted that every religion has something of
94 EIGHT MONTHS OX THE GRAN CHACO
original sin, if I may so call it, becaiLse they all teach and
enforce expiatory sacrifice to appease the divine anger.
If we make our examination of conscience, can we say
M'e have any love of God 1 We have fear certainly, notwith-
standing the tenth commandment ; and, in fact, our preachers
always inculcate the holy fear of God.
To any one who should afiirm the contrary we should repeat
the words of the Saviour, " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Among tlie Indians of the Chaco who retain some traditions
of the catechism taught them by the missionaries, there is a
ceremony, perhaps the only religious one, that seems a parody
of a Christian observance. From time to time they all as-
semble round the elders and chiefs, the women on one side,
the men on another. In the middle, on a mass of flowers,
they place an allot, that is, a boy, a future sorcerer ; mean-
while they talk, smoke, and drink, and say they have been at
mass.
The wizards do not fail to converse with the child-god, and
to communicate the replies they receive from him.
In these, as in other ceremonies, the wizard is continually
bowing down, covering himself, talking towards the ground,
under which are the allots. He speaks to them with his natural
voice, and answers either in a shrill or a deep tone, according to
the disposition of the ahot, and the crowd believes that the
latter is really answering, not understanding that it is the trick
of a ventriloquist.
We see that even before revealed religion, impostors have not
been wanting, to cheat fools.
The stupidity of fanaticism, not to say ignorance, has dis-
covered a mysterious communication of baptism in the custom
prevalent among savages, ah antiquo, of washing the bodies of
their infants. But this custom is simply due to the absolute
necessity of cleansing a new-born babe.
I have frequently mentioned the wizards or sorcerers as being
mediators between the ahots and the living. They are also
physicians or medicine-men, and priests besides. I wiU now
explain how far they are physicians.
The association of religion with medicine seems to be of con-
stant occurrence among primitive peoples, and among the lower
classes of society at the present day. In this fact there is food
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 95
for pliilosophic-liistorical reflection. It certainly existed among
the Indian tribes of America, as we learn from their history.
Oviedo calls our attention to it as occurring in Sj)al)outaneoU8ly bestowed on her that tolerance and that jx-ace
which she will now have acquired through ages of sanguinary
strife, and will draw from thence a proof of her own innate virtue
and a pledge of the new future — the noble, strong, and glorious
future of Science.
98 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
CHAPTEE XVIII.
THE INDIANS AND THEIR DEAD.
Near the city of Santiago dell' Estero I saw the tumuli, and
the vessels contained in them. They are situated on the banks
of a former channel of the Eiver Dulce. A great number
of these curious relics of the past have been found ; these are
of various dimensions, some of them being sixty centimeters in
height and forty in diameter. Some are unglazed, others are
glazed and ornamented with twisted cords and linear geometrical
designs. The body and colouring are both very good.
The ashes or bones of the dead are contained in these re-
ceptacles. The soil below the banks, from which only a slight
undulation separates them, is clothed with ancient algarrobas
and with other plants indigenous to the present alluvial soil, the
alluvium being produced by rivers that are hydrogvaphically dis-
posed at the present time. On those lands that are formed by
emersion or are of an alluvial nature from climatic and hydro-
logical conditions belonging to an earlier epoch, as, for instance,
the glacial period, other kinds of plants grow. I state this from
personal observation and Avith perfect confidence, and I have
also mentioned it in my official reports.
There can be no doubt that when these burial-places were
constructed, the river flowed at the foot of the bank, this being
the first condition of life, sought by civilized and uncivilized
humanity alike, all the world over, and, as all the antiquity of
that period shows, we may safely conclude that even then special
care was taken of the dead.
In Calingastra, in the Cordillera of San Juan, sepulchres are
found in the shape of wells, not wailed, because the soil remains
solid of itself, and covered with a flat stone. At the side of
the corpse various objects are found, especially a species of
deer, and it seemed to me the dog also. A piece of polished
stone, like an open fan, Avas found in one : this may have served
as a mirror. Similar ones were also in use anions the Etruscans,
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 99
aiul I lemembor that in one of their sepulchres at Sovana, in
!M;iri;ninui Toscana, P. ]kisatti, the civil engineer, found a silver
mirror that was shown to me. It was superbly engraved witli
a design representing, in my opinion, the judgment of Paris.
An Indian mortuary chamber, containing several bodies, was
found in another part of San J nan, near the Sierra de Pie de Falo,
beside a heap of stones {pintada^).
Stone sepulchres (gudcas), in the shape of small ovens, such
as are used in country parts, are found in the Salta and Jujuy
Mountains in Puna. They contain as many as three bodies
clotlied and hooded. These are in a sitting posture, and some-
times there are jars by their side containing gold and silver.
At the present day the (Jollas, Christian descendants of the
Indians dependent on the Emperor of Peru or the Incas, seek
out these sepulchres and gather up the bones to give them a ]\Iass,
as they say ; but greed has neaily always been beforehand with
tliem, so that although the bones are there, they lind none of
the precious objects which had been buried with them. The
kind of gannents in which the bodies had been clothed cannot
be distinguished, because no sooner are they exposed to the air
tlum they crumble into dust.
The Chiriguans, in the 15olivian Chaco, enclose their dead in
a jar which they bury b«'neath their own ranrho. Tliey have
thus one and the same home for the living and the dead, and
whether as cause or effect, or both together, the Chiriguans are
not nomadic. They ornament these jars with great care ; the
kind of jar and of decoration depends on the means of the
family. The clay is baked, and the glaze, made of an ill-
smelling red bitumen, is put on either before or after firing.
In the former case the colours are brighter and clearer, but in
the latter more lasting.
A fire is, in some cases, kept burning for a month over the
buried jar. "Where this is done, it is assuredly to destroy the
l)ernicious gases that escape from the body during decomposition.
The poorer Chiriguans, who do not possess jars, inter the
corpse' in a hole underneath the rancho, which they vacate
until tlie eHluvium has ceased.
Tiie bodies of those who have been put to death for repeated
murders are thrown into a field or burned.
Some Indians, among wliom are the Cherionossos, dwelling
on the borders of P.olivia and Brazil, bury their dead among
trees. To this end they seek the thickest part of the forest,
H 5
100 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
and having pitched upon a giuccian-tree — the trunk of which is
shaped like a jar, and is of cork-like texture — they empty it
Wind place the body in the cavity, covering it up securely that
vultures may not disturb or devour it. One of these sepulchres
■vvas found when a road was opened to Fort kSarmiento.
The Mattaccos bury their dead, and some tribes on the Toba
borders burn them, a custom observed by the Tobas themselves.
We may infer that the ideas by which the Mattaccos are
governed in their funeral ceremonies are common to the other
Indian tribes with whom they are in continual contact, either
as allies in Avar, or as enemies, and belief in spirits is the same.
]^ow, the Mattaccos, as I have already said, believe that the
souls of the dead do not find peace if their bodies are not buried
in ground belonging to the tribe. I do not know whether an
exception is made for warriors dying in battle. Thy hold, also,
that the soul, which they call hesecli — while they call the body
f?:an, and the dead person ahot — will not be able to join its com-
rades if the body has not first suffered decomposition either by
fire or by air. Until then, they say, the soul wanders round the
family rancho, and is seen lamenting.
These apparitions of grieving souls are the subjects of many
of their narratives, and of a great part of their conversation, and,
it is probable, excite as much terror among them as with our-
selves.
It follows, of course, that when an individual dies at a dis-
tance, his kinsfolk and the inhabitants of the tolderia go forth
to seek his remains, in order to bury them in the territory
belonging to the tribe. But to people who travel on foot the
carriage of a corpse would be a serious matter, since they must
often traverse hundreds of kilometers. They wait, therefore,
until the tissues of the body have perished, and then carry home
the bones. This is in no Avay prejudicial to the deceased,
because his soul caimot descend under the earth until decompo-
sition is complete.
Meanwhile, if the death occurs in the morning the body is
placed in a grave the same evening ; if at night, then the next
morning. But it is not covered in ; branches are merely laid
over it to prevent tigers, dogs, and birds of prey from feasting on
it. When decomposition is over it is either burned, as I have
said, or finally interred.
When an individual dies away from home the corpse is
wrapped in a net, and is placed in a tree with the necessary
OF THE AKGENTINI-: REPUBLIC. lOI
coverings, as \isual, for jirotection. The next year, or at some
imletinite period, provided always that only the skeleton remains,
the friends of the dead man fetch the hones away and carry
tliem to tlie rancho, where they receive proper hurial.
In whati'Vtr spot they may place a corpse they invariably
leave beside it a gourd of water, and for this reason. Scarcely
is an individual dead when other dead persons come to pay him
a visit, and as both he and they may be thirsty, water is left in
order to assuage their thirst. Any one aware of the importance
of water in these regions will understand the value attributed
to this gift to the dead, and will find its ex]ilanation in the
fraternal and hospitable spirit tliat outlives death itself.
liut whatever may be the reason of this custom, which exists
in one form or another among otiier uncivilized tribes, we can-
nac, one
of the greatest emperors of Peru, 1000 victims were immolated
on his tomb ! And what must have been the number among
the Mexicans, to whose deity human sacrifice was daily bread,
while the flesh of their prisoners of war was daily consumed by
themselves ? To complete the likeness between the two worlds,
while Asiatics gave narcotics to the doomed Avidows, the I^atchez
Indians of North America stupefied their victims with tobacco.
If we compare the resiilts of this superstitious belief concern-
iug the wants of the dead on nations possessing rehgion and
civilization with its results on those possessing neither, i.e.
savages, the balance of humanity is in favour of the latter.
These are all equally poor and ignorant, and content themselves
with the humble and innocent offering of a cup of water and
perhaps a handful of algarroba, without even the holocaust of an
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBEIC. lOj
animal, wliicli, according,' to Leviticus, is "an ofreiin;^' niudtj l»v
fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord ! "
The poor Indians of tlie Ciiacu an; unabh; to make tliem-
selves interesting on the deatli of their kinsfolk by wearing
liiuidsome black garments, as do Christians, or white stuffs like
the Chinese, they show their grief after their own fashion by
shearing their liead, the only part they habitually cover. The
women, instead of hastening to display their sorrow in the
temples and public places, take refuge in their toldo, avoiding
any contact with their friends, remain silent, and attend with
more than usual care to their domestic duties. They mourn
after this manner for a year, durijig which time it is indecent
for them to marry again. If they must go out they always
walk apart, and should they be met by anyone they cover their
face ; they refuse to converse, and avoid any occasion of speech.
It has happened sometimes that travellers have chanced to come
across these silent women in a suspicious place, and being
ignorant of this custom, have ill-used and killed them.
To cut off the hair has been considered even among the
nations of Europe as an act of sacrifice and mourning. Among
the barbarians who invaded the crumbling Roman Empire, the
lover used to cut off his hair on the tomb of the beloved one.
In addition to this they make a lament, sung to a monotonous,
inexpressive air, which seems to be conventional, accompaniccl
by the sound of the jninpin, which, as I believe I have already
saiil, is a kind of mortar formed by means of instruments and
by fire from the trunk of a tree. It contains water, and is
covered with a skin stretched like a drum-heail. They strike
upon this with a hollow gourd, in which they place grains of
maize or algarroba nuts.
The lament is carried on at iixed houi-s, l)ut the wiilow (n-
mother wails almost continually, even when walking out in the
streets on her various duties. The deceased is followed to tlie
grave by his kinsfolk and friends, ami if he is a popular cacique
or a well-known sorcerer, by the whole tribe.
Caci(|ues and skilful sorcerers always hold a high position
among the a/iofs who have been expecting them, and their in-
fluence in the other world will be in proportion to the consideration
they have enjoyed among their neiglibours, as demonstrated by the
funeral ceremonies. When one of them is dying, the Indians
assemble round his home and beg him to intercede M-ith the
ahofs down below, that the u/iufs of the wjiijlwind, of disease
104 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
and of famine may spare their toldos and visit those of their
enemies. The dying maji gives them his promise, and, in return,
his fellow-citizens pay honour to his funeral rites, and thus
augment his beneficent authority over the ahots.
And what else do we ask from those of us who die in the
odour of sanctity, than that they should become intercessors
with heaven for us pilgrims in this valley of tears ?
Men are drawn together by sorrow, and the harmony of
human nature in act and word, in hope and in fear, is never so
fidly manifested as beside an open grave !
OF THE ARGENTINE REPURLIC. 10$
CHAPTER XIX.
UNIVE
OF
ȣlLiroR!i-.
Ik the Chaco there are both medicine-men and medicine-women,
Init very few medicines. Treatment is entirely empirical on
account of tlie iarwin, in his " C)rigin of Man," cites the inhabitants of
Tieniv del Fuego, south of the Magellan Straits, as being in the
lowest stage of civilization, because they are unable to count
beyond four. This is intelligible, for if speech correspond with
ideas and wants, how few of either can they possess who are
imable to go beyond the number four !
Now none of the Indians of the Argentine Chaco can
citunt beyond four, whether they be Tobas, Mattaccos, Vilelas,
or Mocovitos, whether they be victoi-s or vanquished in their
internecine wars.
The (juaranis, likewise, who have long inhabited and still
inhabit Paraguay, part of Brazil, Corrientes, and Misiones, and
in all ]>robability still more remote parts of the so-called Argen-
tine Mesopotamia, can only in their own language count up
no EIGHT ^lONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
to four. The case is the same in other parts of the American
continents.
In Patagonia, however, according to the Argentine traveHer,
Seiior Lista, they count up to ten progressively. The Guaranis
have the expression ten or twenty, hut they "borrow it from the
hands and feet, saying two hcmds for the number ten, and iico
feet for twenty.
The Pampas, who are not less uncivilized than the Pata-
gonians, and at about the same depth, I cannot say height, as
the inhabitants of the Chaco, can, however, count indefinitely,
like their brethren the Araucanians or Chilenos.
The Peruvians, next neighbours of the Chilenos, and who, as
I have previously stated, formed the great empire of the Incas,
called by them Tavantin-siijii, or the four quarters of the world !
also count indefinitely ; likewise the Aimaras, who live in the
city and neighbourhood of Paz in Bolivia, and who probably,
before being conquered by the Chicciuas or Peruvians, extended
as far as Catamarca, and perhaps Jtijuy, as denoted by some of
their words, such as marca, pucccrd, Jnima-hiiaca, which would
be in Aimara language, people, fortress, spring of tcater.
All those nations who inhabit or have inhabited the Pampas,
the two declivities, Atlantic and Pacific, of the Cordillera,
and the table-land of Bolivia, owe their aptitude either to the
stage of civilization they had already reached, like the Peruvians
and tlie Chilenos, or to near connection and frequent contact
with them, as was the case with the Pampas. AVhile the lower
numbers differ notably in the difierent languages, some of them
higher than the numbers four or ten resemble each other, and
their construction obeys the same rule. This reveals the unity
of the source whence the knowledge was derived.
I do not think it opportune to dilate in this place on the
subject ; I hope to do so on another occasion, and then I
believe I shall be able to show the parentage of the languages
of different nations in this part of the continent, although widely
separated by locality and by their various degrees of civilization ;
but I will give one proof of the influence of contact among
these peoples, which I think has not been hitherto noticed.
Those Guaranis who count, as I have said, up to four, dwell
on the left banks of the Paraguay and the Parana. They were
surrounded and confronted by peoples who also counted up to
four. The Chiriguanos, on the contrary, Avho are in fact
Guaranis separated from the other savage tribes, either pre-
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. Ill
ri(nisly to the Spanish Comiuest or after the arrival of tho
Spaniards ; in any case thvelling on the borders of the ancient
Peruvian empire, as the historians of the conquest testify ; —
the Chiriguanos, I say, by contact with nations who could count
indefinitely, and who, moreover, were notably advanced in civi-
lization, can count indefinitely also, although, as I have shown,
they are at a stage of civilization very inferior to that of tlu-
Peruvians.
This fact, taken with the other that several of the higher
numbers, such as hundred or thousand, are alike in many dialects,
and again to the notorious superiority of the Peruvians in
civilization and in war, at least during the four centuries
prior to the Spanish Concjuest, by means of which they had ac-
quired an immense territory, larger than that indicated by his-
torians; — all these things, I say, make me think that the art of
numeration was imparted to the tribes of this part of the con-
tinent by the Peruvians, who moreover were acquainted with
the mode of determining numbers by a system of knofs which
they termed quijm. (We must regard this system, which ac-
cording to some historians was also possessed by the Mexicans,
as the first step towards writing, since it served to fix ideas by
signs.)
The ( 'hinese, if I may l)e allowed the digression, liad a similar
system handed down to tlieni from the second semi-mythological
Emperor of China, Soui-f]in-h; the same who discovered fire,
taught commerce, and established government among his peoj)le,
according to the annals of the Tribunal of History, tliat ad-
mirable and entirely Chinese institution, which dated from many
thousands of years.
It must not be thought, however, that this serious inferiority
in the power of expressing numbers has acorresponding inferiority
in the rest of the language of the inhabitants of the Chaco.
Not so ; their language is as rich as that of any other people.
If they are deficient in certain expressions of abstract ideas, it
is liecause the idea itself is wanting to them ; but tlieir lan-
guage is al)le to express new ideas and new things ad inrinitum.
It has tenses, moods, persons, number, and finally cases for verbs
and nouns, which render it very complicated.
Nor are general names wanting, such as fish, tree, bird ; and
they also have augmentatives and diminutives, which lend them-
selves readily to express new things l)y names of their own, which
they seek to preserve as much as possible.
112 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
I have already mentioned that certain animals imported by
the Spaniards are called by the native name of a somewhat
similar animal, with the addition of a distinctive particle ; thus,
the Mattacco word for horse is yelatdcli, meaning great tajpir,
from yelacli, tapir, and tach an augmentative particle ; a sheep
is Jieonaidch from keond, deer, and so on. If there is no
name in their vocabulary for an animal of the same kind, or if
they have already made use of it, then they take the foreign
appellation of the new object, pronouncing it according to the
physical capacity of their throat, and the nature of their lan-
guage. Thus they call a goat, ca-i-la, and Pedro, Pe-i-lo, for
being unable to pronounce the letter r, or the letters hi and dl,
they substitute for the former an 1, and for the latter an i,
Pedro and Pedlo thus becoming Peilo, with the accent on the
last syllable in accordance with the nature of the language.
When this law is recognized, several Guarani words are found
to be the equivalents of Mattacco words, by merely changing the
r into I ; and the same with some Spanish words.
But I admit that the principle was not easy to find out,
although now that it is explained it seems a very simple thing.
Since I am on the subject of language, it occurs to me to take
exception to an opinion that appears to have been put forward
by eminent philologists.
We are told, if I remember rightly, that there are three
distinct stages in the formation of language : the monosyllabic,
the agglomerate, and the inflected. The agglomerate is the
process by which, when we desire to express a modification of a
thing, we use the word expressing the thing and another word
expressing the idea of the modification ; on the other hand,
by inflection is meant modification by a variation in the form
of the word expressing the thing.
The inflected period in a language does not always corre-
spond with greater intellectual progress in those who employ it.
If such has been the case among Asiatics, it is not so here in
America, as I will proceed to show. The fact is, that if there
be a people lower than others in the scale, the Mattaccos are
that people ; now the Mattacco language is exuberantly inflected,
while numerous neighbouring tribes and numerous others more
civilized than they, are partly in the agglomerate period. For
example : the Chicciuans use the word cuna to express the
plural, this Avord does not mean viany, but it conveys a notion
of dignity or superiority ; the Guaranis use hetd, which means
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. II3
mav>j ; the Cliiiilipi hu-ue, much ; the Cileni, who have also a
dual form, make constant use of various particles; the Lules
use a word meaning much: all these Avords are added to tlio
sinj,nilar.
The iMattaccos, on the contrary, have no less than four de-
clensions, all of them inflected, and one that they make use
of by agglomeration, ntoTc, meaning much. The inflections are
•sw, e.sx, /, and I (like II in Spanish. Examples: horse, jclafach,
horses, jelatdss ; this toch, these tochess ; j)ost, ac-lu, posts,
ac-Io-i ; man, icnu ; men, icnul, or icnuil.
As to their verbs, besides an auxiliary oit-tac, that is the
same for all tenses, and means when used alone / will, they
employ the following inflections ; he comes, num, he came,
iionnne, lie will come, iiom-la ; there are many besides these
that I have not yet discovered.
Meanwhile it may be affirmed that the native American
languages are not strictly in any one of the three stages into
which we divide the growth of languages, and on the contrary,
they include, so to speak, all three.
The so-called wealth of the language of wild tribes has given
a supposed-to-be powerful weapon into the hands of the
philosophers of Revelation, who find in this abundance of gram-
matical form and of vocabulary a proof of the divine origin of
hunuvn speech. ]>ut independently of this consideration, and
ju'oceeding logically, I ask why these savages cannot count ?
and why if'k-Jn. And by means of these particles, the first time they
see a travelling-trunk or a birdcage, they name it at once imai-
lii, that is, a guard -garment, antl hncntie-hi, a gixard-bird. ^^
One of their most advanced industries is that of weaving, in
which, as T said before, they do not use a shuttle but a splinter
of palm -wood, with which they draw the woof together by hand ;
and another is tlie manufacture id" nets, which are sometimes
fifteen or twenty yards long.
lint their most remarkable and elegant manufacture is that of j_^
bags, in which the meshes are like rippling hair, and so elastic
that a small one Avill acquire considerable size, according to its
contents, wliile the network will remain sufficiently close to
prevent their escape. They make use of designs, but exclu-
sively geometrical ones, sucli as parallel lines, triangles, and
squares. /
Their canoes deserve special mention. They are made in one^
piece from the trunk of the large, cork-like giuccian, roughly
hollowed out, and then launched.
The tools used by the Indians are, in the first place, the shells
of a large kind of oyster, like those vulgarly called cockle-. shells
in Tuscany ; these are found in great quantities in the lakes of
the Chaco ; tiger-teeth; very hard wooden stakes ; and the jaw-
bones of fishes, such as the pahmifta, with which they also cut
their hair and the little beard they possess.
Far from being ignorant of potters' work, they are less inferior
to us in ceramic art than in any other.
The cooking of food no doubt contributed greatly to the birth
of this industry, but reverence for the dead lias been tho
determining cause of its development and comparative progress.
V
Il8 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
In effect, the Mattaccos, Tobas, Chiulipi, and others, who
do not pnt the bodies of their dead in jars, nse rough and
unvarnished vessels for cooking, but those wlio dwell at Santiago,
and the Chiriguanos in Bolivia, Avhile they use some for pitchers,
have others besides, very highly glazed, painted, and orna-
mented, in the largest and handsomest of Avhich they enclose
their corpses.
The water-jars are nearly ahvays made with a narrow neck in
the thickest part, through which a cord is passed ; this is fastened
in front and secures the jar on the bent shoulders of the bearer.
This fashion of carrying burdens is far less graceful than our
peasant women's way of bearing them on their heads, and makes
the bearers look like beasts of burden ; but it may, perhaps, be
a more wholesome mode.
They neither understand nor practise agriculture, yet they
sometimes sow maize (native to America) and sugar-cane.
When they think it is fit to eat, they gather it in. They do
not grind the maize, but eat it with sugar, fresh boiled or
roasted ; the harvest, therefore, is reaped little by little, and
lasts for some time. A hard wooden spade, shaped like an oar
or like a lance-head, is used at seed-time ; the man digs the
ground up, the woman scatters the seed and covers it, and all is
done. They sow in ground that has been burned, and is fresh
from recent rain.
Harvest is reaped in common, but they are tenacious of the
produce. While we were living on board, with provisions
almost all exhausted, and longing for fresh meat and vegetables,
for we had been more than three months without any, a gift of
ears of corn and of sugar-canes was received with great joy from
some friendly Indians — friendly, but who afterwards murdered
our interpreter. The sailors discovered where the maize and
sugar were growing, and went secretly and took some. The
next day they returned to the spot on the same errand, but
found the corn and sugar-cane cut, or plucked np or destroyed,
in short utterly useless And not one of those Indians showed
himself again.
It would seem, too, as if the Christians did not wish the
Indians to be agriculturists. I Avas assured that the former
having found fields sowed by the Indians of the frontier-
friendly Indians — destroyed them all, and that from that date
the Indians of those parts have never cultivated a foot of
ground. Such conduct springs from a motive of self-interest,
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. II9
and seeks to prevent the Indians from taking possession, that
would he recof^nized as legitimate by Argentine law, of fertile
land which the horder Christians look upon as future prey for
themselves.
\Jhey are not traders ; how could they trade without either
agricultural or industrial pursuits, and themselves a nomadic
people on a footing of i)erfect e(iuality 1 They barter, however,
on a snuill scale, exchange being the primitive and embryonic
form of commerce. Thty do not even possess any words
corresponding to purchase or sale, and to express these ideas
they would seem to have gone to school to an economist in
order to learn the du ut ties, the formula of barter ; the Mattaccos
for instance, when they wish to say loe sold, say atkioc nikioc,
i.e. (liv to me, I give to thee.
They have consequently no money ; but they constructed a
word for expressing it when they saw ours. The Mattaccos
call it tdoc-kijnat, signifying skins of metal, kijnat being the
generic name for any metal whatsoever. ^0 metal of any
kiml exists on the table-land of the Chaco.
^Nevertheless the inhabitants of the Chaco possess a certain
kind of money, in embryo as usual, in a material which is
valuable on account of its extrenre scarcity. The plant that
supplies it is called rirucu at Santa Cruz, in Bolivia, and when
the fruit is boiled for a night and a day, it deposits on the
surface of the water its colouring matter, which forms itself
into balls of different sizes. The colour is obtained from the
rind of the fruit, which is the size of an orange. Black rinds
produce a black dye, orange-coloured produce red, and white ones,
green. The two latter fruits are the size of a nut. All three are
ilitlerent species of the urucu. This shrub is of the height of a
V^man, the fruit resembles^lirpomegranate and opens when ripe.
This substance although grown and manufactured in Bolivia,
circulates among all the Indians of the Chaco, and is used liy
them to stain themselves red as a sign of love, black in sign of
fear, and green for ornament. The colours can be Avashed olf
with the greatest ease.
Apropos of ornament, the Indians of these parts are more or
less tattooed. I have seen tattoo to a gi'eat extent on famous
Toba warriore and especially on women. It looks like the
marking of small-pox, and is in geometrical designs. It i.s
(effected by pricking the skin with a big thorn dipped in an
acrid milky substance, that leaves an indelible mark wherever
I20 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
it falls, and which is absorbed into the epidermic tissue. This
substance is found principally at Santa Cruz, in Bolivia, and is
called in Guarani, as is likewise the plant itself, (-(juo-gui. It
is a climbing plant, with clusters of white flowers, and with a
round fruit from wliich a powder escapes when it bursts open.
In order to obtain the igiioqui, one of the clusters is broken
off before it is ripe, and a milky fluid exudes from the stem,
this, during the operation of tattooing, is kept in water, that
the milk may not escape. One of these shrubs was seen by a
Chiriguan, twenty miles from the Christian frontier, on the
Vermejo river, at a spot called Luna Nueva.
Another custom closely allied to that of tattooing, the end to
be attained being the same, is that of the depilation of the
skin, which is universal in the Chaco and possibly also among
all the Indians of the New World.
It is practised with a view to ornamentation, but perhaps the
real cause is health and convenience. Perhaps, also, they wish
to distinguish themselves in this way from the other animals
which are hairy.
Meanwhile, whether they are so originally, or whether the
effect has been produced by the gradual selection, consequent
on this custom, Indians are almost entirely hairless on face
and body, and with very few exceptions they voluntarily remove
the little hair they have.
Notwithstanding the completeness of their language, I have
been unable to discover any songs, or music of any kind. All
I know of among the Mattaccos is the following attempt at
verse, sung, heaven knows how, by the Chenas. It reveals,
however, a notion of rhyme —
"Bonica, nambonica,
Se-le-etie-no ;
Bouica, bonica,
Nambonica, nambonica."
" The meaning is : It displeases me, it pleases me, that thou
shouldst embrace me ; it displeases, me it displeases me, it
pleases me, it pleases me." Nor have they dances ; for their
Avild whirligigs hand in hand cannot be called dancing. They
are modest, however, for the men and women whirl round in
separate rings, not touching each other.
In short, all that is imagination, or is called religion, or
poetry, or cancan, is completely wanting in these wild tribes.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.
CHArXER XXII.
SOCIAL CONDITION'. (Cunfiuxcd.)
Does a want of imagination imply also a want of heart 1 It
lias been frequently stated and repeated again and again that
the tics of blood are neither strong nor tenacious among Indians,
and the assertion is based on observation, on reasoning, on the
want of oH'spring, and on the practice of concubinage.
I think this too hasty a judgment. Accustomed as we are
to Christian traditions, which, by the way, form an exception to
the great majority of others, and whicli are in some degree
balanced by hidilen infidelities, and l)y the shameless immorality
uf prostitution, it seems to us that if a woman is not united to a
nuui by all the sacraments of the Church, and if she is not the
only one, every proper feeling must be destroyed.
Tlie contrary could be demonstrated ; Init I will limit myself
to the Indians, among whom, although polygamists, I have
seen instances of tlie greatest conjugal tenderness.
One Indian wliom we had on board with us, and who had a
l.icautiful and youthful companion, watched over her and
Avorshipped her like the Virgin. The Indian who had been
bitten by a viper, and whom we cured on board, was
joined by his wife, who nursed him for twenty days, never
once leaving his side. The cacique Pasquale, whose old and
ugly wife was carried off in a sudden raid, i)repared an invasion,
followed on the tracks of the enemy, fought like a lion and
recovered his companion. These occurrences took place under
my own eyes and within a short space of time.
When an Indian introduces himself to you and asks for any-
thing, ho never forgets his chiUlren, his wives, or his parents ;
and if he receives anything divisil)le he shares it, not only with
his family, but with his comrades.
1 have always seen mothei-s mostaffectionate to their children.
122 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
and it is well known that the wars between the different tribes,
and murder among the inhabitants of the same tolderia, are
always acts of revenge for offences committed against comrades
or kin. What greater proof of affection can be given than
this ?
" But they are cruel, and kill their prisoners of war ! " AVe
con hardly reproach them for this, since, until recently, we did
the same ourselves. We did it on an immense scale at the time
of the Spanish Conquest towards these very tribes, and we do
it at the present day, when we can do so safely and without
risk to ourselves. Only a few short years ago Austria, the
chartered gendarme of the signatories of the Berlin treaty,
habitually shot the defenders of their country when prisoners
of war.
This custom of killing their prisoners is one of necessity for
the personal safety of the Indians, who are, through their
nomadic life, in constant danger of sudden surprise ; moreover,
it frees them from the shame of slavery which is unknown
among them. The custom is also of the greatest importance on
account of the alternation of victory among the tribes, by which
the superior of the two, either in strength or in intellect, takes
the place, for a while, of the vanquished, and thus affords an
opportunity for that process of natural selection which is the
scientific basis of Darwin's theory, and to which is due the
gradual improvement of races belonging to the organic kingdom
for whom the battle of life resolves itself into mors tua vita
mea.
Are these Indians cannibals 1 This question invariably
occurs in connection with savages.
In America anthropophagy has been held in honour by Jews
and Samaritans, by barbarism and civilization. The Caribbean
savages and the non-civUized Mexicans lived principally on
human flesh. The mild Peruvians did not abhor to mingle
human blood with their Paschal feast. They steeped their
maize bread in blood taken from the forehead of children.
But among the former, cannibalism was limited to prisoners
of war, and — death for death — it was considered more merci-
ful and more advantageous to let them fiist enjoy them-
selves and grow fat, in order that later they might grace the
conquerors' table.
Thus theChiululesandtheTlascalans, who aided the Spaniards
at the siege of Mexico, were horrified that the latter should,
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 12 3
tlirou;^'li Iiuii^'cr, have eaten the flesh of their own comrades
who had fallen at the siege. We are told, moreover, that an-
thropopljauenos Ayres. He was very
fond of her, and it occurred to me that I could not do better
for him than to present his wife with some ornaments and
articles of dress. The husband joined me in doing the same,
so that the girl was able to dress and adorn herseK better
than all the others.
When she appeared among her companions in an almost
Oriental costume of varied and brilliant colouring, the admiration
was general, but so also was the jjrotest.
I was in the tolderia once, and asked to see the beautiful
Mattacco in her new dress ; this I considered was my right, but
I never succeeded in obtaining it. The Caciq\ie liad forbidden
it, because the other women complained that so much finery
humiliated them ; and, for the sake of peace, the poor beauty
had lieen obliged to distribute her drcsses among them, and to
wear the few things she retained one at a time and very seldom.
There ai'e sumptuary laws even among savages 1
I30 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
CHAPTER XXIIL
SOCIAL CONDITION. {Continued.)
Is it really true that these Indians abandon themselves with-
out measure to sexual passion 1 and that they exhaust their
dynamic and reproductive powers by abuse, as has been fre-
quently stated 1
The explorer who finds himself for the first time in presence
of these daughters of the forests in a state of nature, without
veil or garment of any kind, may find this novel spectacle of
nudity f idl of danger and almost irresistible ; but in fact it is
not and cannot be so, in the ordinary intercourse of daily life.
Habit weakens impressions, and consequently tlie stimulus to
the passions — which, moreover, are not excited by meretricious
and bold caresses, or by irresistible coquetry.
The primitive clothing of these Indian Avomen, always in
one's sight, the menial offices they fulfil, and liberty, cause the
appetites of man to be satisfied by their exercise in such due
measure only as contributes to health.
As a matter of fact, who is ignorant of the attraction of
forbidden fruit ? But this is a thing unknown to these in-
genuous children of nature. On the other hand, how could the
orgies of luxury take place among a people so poor and so
simple 1
Moreover, we must bear carefully in mind that all which is
deadly to man, cannot be attributed to him as original or per-
manent ; how then has it been formed and multiplied 1
When therefore we attribute vices to the savage, we should
reflect that either the observer may be mistaken from precon-
ceived ideas against a state of life so diff'erent from his own, or
that those vices have been introduced by cont; ct with other
people, and are foreign to the very nature of savage life.
It has been said of the American Indians that they have
revenged themselves for the Conquest and for the smaU-pox
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 131
that we brought among them, by bestowing on Europeans
venereal disease.
I believe this to be one of the usual statements made
on insufficient grounds, and easy to disprove. I have heard
of learned woiks in whicli the scourge in question is referred to
a very remote period. Popular feeling (often fallacious) refers
its origin to France, and historians solemnly fix the date as the
period of Charles VIII. 's invasion of Italy. In Leviticus, chapter
XV., are the following words : —
" When any man hath a running issue out of his flesh,
because of his issue he is unclean.
" And this sliall be his uncleanness in his issue : whether
his flesh run with his issue, or his flesh be stopped from his
issue, it is his uncleanness."
1 leave to annotators the true signification of these words.
Meanwhile this scourge is unknown among the Indians of
the Chaco, or it is unknown at any rate where Cliristians
have not introduced it. And although this may be e.Kplained
by saying that a new malady disappears or becomes weaker
when once it has gathered in the victims predisposed to it,
nevertheless the facts are as I have given them. Tiiis is
the scientitic theory, and in my opinion it is supported by
the modern school of medicine, and seems to be in accordance
with Darwin's theory of Selection. Moreover, where this
disease exists, the Indians do not escape it ; while the Africans
are either exempt altogether, or suffer from it far less severely,
as every (jnneho can testify — the various races existing in
the country having afforiled opportunities for making tliese
observations, which I note here for the benefit of those who
may happen to have overlooked them.
It is known, but not sufficiently known, that these Indians
are nomadic ; it is not a custom with them to keep domestic
animals, the few they do keep are an exception that proves the
rule.
Even at the time of the Conquest the Spaniards were sur-
pri.sed by the want of domestic animals among them, and this
want, which prevails throughout the whole continent, is a charac-
teristic that from Robertson to Humboldt, and down to the very
latest explorer, has arrested tlie attention of historians and
philosophei-s.
Nomadism still, as formerly, exists in Asia, but domestic
animals, such as the horse and camel, have always been well
K 2
u
132 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
known. But the Laplanders, the Samoyedess, the Ciutci,
and the inhabitants of the Kamtschatkan Peninsula, have
domesticated, the former the reindeer, and the latter the dog, to
draw their sleighs.
To what then must we attribute the undoubted inferiority
of the nomadic Americans 1 Not to an innate incapacity
certainly, which at first sight might appear a simple and con-
venient solution, because in that case Greenlanders would not
have kept domestic animals, since American Esquimaux, wdio
are of the same race, make no use of them, although the bison,
a species of bull, inhabits the polar regions and can be
domesticated.
Nor, on the other hand, does the domestication of animals
present such difficulties as to require a very elevated capacity
in man, since these nomads have succeeded after some attempts
in domesticating them, and the Indians of the Chaco do in fact
habitually keep ostriches, churjnas and charatas, or wild fowl, and
we know that mute dogs were found domesticated among them.
I believe that the fact of the absence of domestic animals is
due to three circumstances peculiar to this continent and its
inhabitants, viz. their physical conditions, their social condi-
tions, and the scarcity, if not the actual absence, of animals that
can be domesticated.
Everybody knows that the cold on this continent, for easily
explained physical reasons, is much more intense than in the
same latitudes of the Old World. Thus the temperate zone is
far more circumscribed here than there. This has rendered the
care of animals difficult, and the means of feeding them extremely
limited, among the inhabitants of the cold regions of North
America, where the bison is found.
But these difficulties apart, the social state of the American
nomads makes the preservation of domestic animals almost im-
possible. For a time the same nation occupies or has occupied
immense districts, yet that nation may be divided into small
tribes to whom belong relatively small portions of land, and
these tribes will wage continual war upon each other. It
follows that the first condition for rearing animals, or for any
other peaceful occupation, i.e. security, will be wanting. At
this very time the Indians of the Chaco, although they know
our domestic animals and attempt to rear some of them, only
do so on an insignificant scale, because the fact of possessing
them is an incentive to neighbouring tribes to attack and
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 1 33
plunder tlicm. If tlieir social state had reached to the
point of teaching these Indians to dwell together in large
populations, then, although nomadic, and in spite of continual
war, they could always, in case of invasion, have placed their
animals in some safe spot of their enormous territory.
Finally, the scarcity of tameahle animals has made it
easier to do without domesticated animals, and this in its
turn has remlered large social aggregations less inevitable. This
scarcity is a notorious fact, and an irresistible proof is furnished
by the Peruvians, who, though o-wning a religion, a government,
and agragrian institutions, yet among the larger animals have
tamed only the llama, which for shape and strength may well be
called the camel of the Andes. On the other hand, the ^lexicans,
albeit they have a government, and may be called civilized, and
also the Kogotans, have only domesticated animals such as we
should keep shut up, viz. rabbits and poultrj', because there are
no other animals that can l)e tamed.
The same Peruvians who domesticated the llama, of whose
flesh and wool tliey made use, and who also utilized it as a
beast of burden, as those at tlie present day in Bolivia,^ had
to content themselves with hunting the sheep of the country,
the fine wool was then, as now, greatly appreciated, and this may
be the reason that these animals cannot be domesticated. The
hunts took place at certain tixed periods, and, Ijy order of the
Inca, a great number of persons assembled and enclosed a large
extent of precipitous country with a thin rope supp(jrted on stakes.
Tlie sheep would rush together and huddle in a small .space, for
to them the smallest obstacle that they could clear at a single
bounil appears insurmountable. Then the hunters, drawing in
the rope Ity degrees, a large number of the animals, linding
themselves thus enclosed between the rope on one side, and a
precipice on the other, are easily captured. The chase wa.s
restricted each year within certain limits, antl thus the danger
of extermination was avoided. A similar plan is pursued at the
present day, and although without limitation of zone, the race
of sheep does not seem to diminish.
AVe see liy this tliat, had there existed any other tameabl
animals, they would have been reduced to servitude, and we
must conclude, by analogy, that where this has not been
' The llamn, when trained as a beast of burden, carries only a weight
of four arrohas, i.e. fifty kiloi^rams ; while a mule can carry twelve,
that is, one hundred and fifty kilograms.
134 EIGHT MONTHS ON TPIE GRAN CHACO
done, animals must either have been non-existent or scarce in
the highest degree, which we know, in fact, to have been the
case.
The result has been a very sharp line of demarcation on this
continent between its nomad savage races, and those who have
devoted themselves to agriculture ; while in the Old World
there is an intermediary state combining the nomadic and the
pastoral life.
The absence of this intermediary state is sufficiently explained,
in my opinion, by the non-existence of domesticated animals, or
of animals that could he domesticated. Hence I believe it would
be a mistake on the part of any one suddenly finding himself in
presence of agricultural nations, such as Peru, Mexico, and
Bogota — surrounded, nevertheless, by multitudes of barbarous
tribes — to attempt to explain the anomaly by a reference to the
history of Asiatic races, and the hypothesis of an invasion by
the people of another continent, who would suddenly have intro-
duced and enforced their own pursuits in these regions. The
explanation is to be sought, on the contrary, in the natural causes
we have laid down ; and so far as Peru is concerned, I believe I
may affirm, with due knowledge of the facts, that the language
spoken there officially in the time of the Incas was kindred with
that spoken by the savages.
But if we admit the kind of Deus ex machhia of a supposed
invasion or immigration by a people of the Old World into the
regions inhabited by the above-named nations, the question
arises, to what are we to attribute the civilization of Peru and
Mexico ? These are countries where we find institutions of which
some appear to be copied from those of the peoples of the
Old Continent. We find, in fact, planets, gods, temples, priests,
nuns, and caste. At Mexico a calendar that Humboldt foimd
to be similar to the Egyptian ; at Cuzco, in Peru, a period of
years almost equal to that of the Hebrews ; strings for counting,
like those of one time in China ; a pedagogic government ;
a periodical distribution of land ; an assemblage of marriages
made publicly by the Inca, recalling to one's memory the
pedagogic governments and the agragrian laws of the Old Con-
tinent, the jubilees of the Hebrews, and the marriage customs of
the Assyrians.
The question is one that arises, and has always arisen, in the
mind of every thoughtful man, but the solution is difficult.
Some of the greatest historians answer it in this way. " The
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 1 35
rprrions occupied by those empires enjoy abeautiful.but enervating
climate, therefore their people will more readily accept the
discipline of civilized life. A conqueror, or a victorious people,
can subdue them and rule them with despotic sway, ferocious at
Mexico, mild at Cuzco, but invariably terrible. Human genius,
which is everywheixi human, will develop here in the same way
as elsewliere ; hence civilization and likeness to the peoples of
the Old World."
I do not fully endorse this reasoning?, especially the fii-st part.
I re^'ret that I am unacquainted with the physical conditions of
Mexico, but I know those of many parts of the Empire of the
Incas, and I find in tl)em the natural explanation of the fact.
That empire resulted from necessity, not from the enervation
of its inhabitants.
Throughout the whole of Peru, on all the western slopes,
and on almost all the eastern slopes of the Andes, and in Bolivia,
life is not possible for man, or even the lower animals, without
agriculture, and agiiculture is impossible without irrigation.
These two facts oblige man to remain in one spot and in
association, and hent.e to live undf-r laws, and to constitute and
liuild up successively arts, discipline, religion, and governuient.
I)f-spotism explains nothing. Proud nations and weak ones
Lave alike endured it ; they endure it now, and will endure it
in the future, without therefore becoming inferior to nations
under liberal rule, I In the Chaco, on the contrary, in the Pampas,
iJrazil, and Xorth America, the soil sp mtaneously brings forth
IVuits, roots, and food for quadruiicut here, separated by a few steps only, is the
naked Redskin, with his bow and arrow, on one side, on the
other the soldier, in variously-coloured uniform, armed with
his breechloader. On the one the natural law of retaliation,
and of compliance with innate tendencies ; on the other a
Avritten code, equal and superior to those of the most advanced
nations, compiled by such jurisconsults as Velez-8arstield and
Tejedor, Avhose names are known throughout the whole republic
of science ! On one side the spontaneous and territietl atlju-
ration of evil and of phantasms ; on the other the artificial,
incomprehensible Christian theogony. On one side nomadic
races expecting from inviolate nature spontaneous fruits, and
happy in a state of poverty equal for all, and in the savage
independence consequent upon it ; on the other tlie agricul-
turist, the shepherd, the mechanic, the merchant, the magistrate,
poor and rich, master and servant !
138 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
We reached Fort Gorriti about 10 a.m. "VVe know already
what a fort is, but I will add that forts are almost always named
after some distinguished citizen. On asking after the captain,
who was a friend of Signor Eoldan, my fellow-traveller, we were
informed that he had recently been transferred to a place called
Rivadavia, at twenty kilometers' distance, in order to assist at
the provincial legislative elections, which threatened to be
stormy.
Eoldan had a brother at Rivadavia ; we lost no time, there-
fore, and although Ave had been in the saddle for above five
hours, we mounted fresh horses, and accompanied by an ensign
and two men, we set otf with slackened rein. After a gallop of
two and a half hours through an exuberant growth of algarrobo,
vinal, chebracci and giuccian, diversified here and there by
pasture land, enclosed sometimes by a hedge, we reached
the settlement.
No one expected us ; moreover, it was dinner-time and Sunday ;
the few streets were therefore deserted, nor did the clatter of
five horses in a place where no step is taken except on horse-
back, and at the close of a day of elections, attract attention. We
arrive at the corner block, and at the place of business of
Roldan's brother ; the doors are shut, we knock, nobody comes.
We find our way to the piazza, this is likewise deserted ; then
we bend our steps towards a leafy giuccian tree, loaded ^\'ith
bursting fruit, all clothed in its tufts of white cotton.
We reach the house ; Eoldan ascends the steps, knocks —
and the two brothers are in each other's arms ! They are
speechless with emotion, and can find no other expression for
their delight than repeated embraces, until they exclaim in
tuin, " Brother, we have met at last ! "
The captain and the others long for their own turn, and a
series of embraces, hand-shakings, interrupted questions and
anticipated replies is commenced, amid a friendly rivalry of
eagerness, and demonstrations of atfection.
Every eye is wet, except perhaps mine. I am still in the
saddle, waiting for an invitation to dismount, with legs dangling,
body curved, head bent, shoulders up to my ears, and hands on
my saddle, while I watch the scene with dry eyes, and deep in
thought I contemplate things present and past, and in the far-
off distance. It was a scene that lasted perhaps five minutes,
but was indefinite in time and space and substance to me. I
know not what happened to me, but never have I felt so lonely
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 1 39
as at that moment in the midst of that joyful gathering. AVas
I niortitied at heing left out by all those good people 1 "Was I
grieved at counting for nothing in their joy]
And then, my thoughts suddenly reverted to my paternal
home, to my aged mother, my beloved brothers, and the
friends and inhabitants of my native village. And suddenly
it seemed as if I too had lightly bounded up the hill, had
knocked at the door of my home, and had been answered
by a cry of joy and delight ; and that I found myself encom-
passed by my loved ones, called by my boyhooil's name,
and apostrophized in a thousand exclamations. All this seemed
to be happening in the hall of the hcnise, while the neigh-
bours stood grouped romul the entrance, telling each otlier
tlie news, beckoning to me with their lingers, and talking about
me. And then it seemed to me that visitors began to arrive,
and that in the little drawing-room there was a great cruwd of
persons, and a constant succession of cpicstions, a continual iuHux
of fresh visitors, with greetings, questions, answers, and excla-
mations as before. And then all at once a dense cloud chilled
me to the heart, as I recollected the burial-ground where so
many of my house are at rest !
" The Seiior National Engineer," explained Signor Xatalio
Eoldan, as he introduced me to his brother and the rest of the
family.
We shook hands, and I dismounted.
I40 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
CHAPTER II.
The settlement of Eivadavia consists of about twenty houses
situated round a square and along the neighbouring streets. It is
laid out on the same plan as all the towns and districts in
America, i.e. straight streets about nine yards in width, inter-
sected at distances of one hundred and thirty, by others at right
angles, thus forming quadrangles. The land thus enclosed
between four streets is called manzana, that is, a table.
In new districts and the new parts of towns, for which a
great future is in store, the width of the streets has been
increased to fifteen or twenty yards.
The houses are built of unbaked bricks, made of clay or
other plastic earth, and worked with ground straw, dried in the
sun. These are called adohe in Spanish. A similar system
has been found to exist among the Indians of Peru, except that
the adohe are round instead of square. The same clay serves
for mortfu' when a little less stiff, and for plastering the walls.
A coating of whitewash over the plaster completes the busi-
ness, and gives the appearance of a house built of better
materials.
When I say better materials, I must explain. For houses of
one story only which have no great weight to sustain, and are
not to be used for the same purposes as higher houses, the adohe
is serviceable in these hot climates, for it necessitates thick
walls, and is a non-conductor of heat. But from another point
of view there are so many objections to it, that the habit of
employing it can only be explained by the necessity of economy,
or the inability to procure other material. For these reasons
the cities of the Republic, including the old town of Buenos
Ayres, are built of barro.
The roofs are thatched with straw, and for the most part
are daubed over yviih several coats of clay called harro. The
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 141
straw resemLlcs that of our straw hats when untwisted, ami is
plentiful throughout the RepuLlic.
The interior arrangeruents are extremely simple. Tin; rooms
are few in number ; sometimes there is only one. "With rare
exceptions there are no windows ; on the other liaiid there
are plenty of doors, some on the street, some at the back of the
house, ojxMiing on to a covered condor or gallery. Detaclied
houses also have these galleries or verandahs as a protection
from the sun, while in summer they are used in preference
to sleeping-rooms, for the stifling heat within the house and
the insects of every description that swarm in the straw of the
ronf and the Jxtrro of the walls ol)lige one to sleep out of doors.
The kitchen is always detached from the house, to which
also bclMiigs a courtyard or gar a force of five, and stationed them in readiness to
act on the first signal. Then he witli eight or ten others issued
from the house, and, making a circuit, re-entered the f/alpon
through a door at the hack, and confronted the Electoral Board,
vho, surprised and confused hy tlie audacity of the Opposition,
Ave re at a loss how to proceed. 1 stood apart, watching the
drama.
After a few short moments of amicable discussion the dispute
waxed warm, and was supplemented by shouts, gesticulation,
and invective.
" Buc this is a pronunciamiento ! " cried the president to the
cai)tain.
" Proimnciamiento indeed ! " replied the latter ; " do you
think that because I am a soldier, I am not a citizen as well ] "
"This is an atteii.pt against the majesty of the law!" ex-
claimed the secretary, addressing himself to Xatalio Eoldan.
" It is yours that is an attempt ! " returned Don .Natalio.
" The law is on our side ; look at it ! " and he held out the sheet
in his left haml, tapphig it with the right.
" Now we shall see ! " exclaimed the commissioner, and he
ordered the electors of the National Guard to advance in line,
while he and the captain left the enclosure, and those who
remained engaged in discussion.
kShortly after this a group of National Guards were seen ad-
vancing on foot, ten abreast, Irom the back of the piazza, armed
partly with carbines and partly wiih. far uns. On a whistle from
the captain, the five soldiers stood in readiness.
The National Guards advanced about twenty steps, and a
scct>nd whistle from the captain brought up the soldiers from one
side of the piazza, where they were stationed, to the church.
" lAjrward, forward ! " shouted the Commissary to the
Guards, wlio had already formed into four bodies of two ranks
each. A third whistle brought the soldiers between the door-
way of the church and the National Guards, who were half-way
across the piazza.
The Commissary and the captain standing side by side formed
a curious contrast. The latter had laid aside his sword on
entering the electoral precincts. The former in poncho and
ehiripa, the other in a plain tunic worn with some elegance,
L 2
148 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
and wide cavalry trowsers. Both carried revolvers. The
Commissary was furious at his position having been taken with
so much ease ; while the captain was as calm as if on parade.
The commissary shouted, " Forward, boys ! up with your
f aeons ! "
And the captain, " Present arms ! carry arms ! "
The National Guards waver. They are on foot, as are the
soldiers ; they come in order to vote, not to kill, or be killed
with Remingtons discharging fourteen shots a minute.
The commissary vociferates : " Forward, friends ; don't be
afraid ! — out with jonrf aeons — al de — (he meant to say deguello,
the act of cutting the throat).
" Ready ! " cried the captain at the same moment, and five
rifles were levelled in readiness for the word " Fire ! "
It was a solemn moment !
There, like a point in the vast square, stood the little troop of
five foot -soldiers, in linen clothes, rough highlows, and red caps,
armed at all points — breech-loaders, cartridge-belts — slender,
upright, resolute, and ready to obey the orders of the elegant
officer standing on their right.
Here, a parti-coloured crowd of peasants, in ponderous ^ot^c^os,
or large cloaks, held together at the edges, cliiripas, and white,
fringed caJzoncillos, with wrinkled boots, and tattered hats, of
various shapes, and worn in different ways, like men always
on horseback, and who have only just dismounted, and stood
awkwardly on their feet, balancing their carbines, and holding
their unsheathed daggers in a hundred different attitudes. At
the back of the galjyon were a number of cahalleros in two files,
one in front of the other, with uncovered heads, composed, but
resolute of mien, but scrutinizing countenance and calm,
observing by turns the adversaries in front and the troops in the
square.
All the rest of the square was empty, and the doors of the
few houses near were either shut, or, if slightly ajar, disclosed
upon a dark background white-robed female figures, who re-
vealed their presence and their fears by the stealthy movement
of the doors.
The silence was sepulchral !
It seemed as though we could hear the beating of our hearts.
And how all hearts were beating at that moment, on which hung
the lives of scores of fellow-citizens, of comrades, of friends, of
relations !
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. I49
lint suddenly the Xational Guards, already wavering, bruke
— some stood tirm, some, with their faces to the enemy, drew
back. There was confusion in their ranks. The Commissary's
orders by voice and gesture are no longer obeyed. The entire
column retreats, disperses, and abandons the square when con-
fronted with those five rifles that, at a moment's notice, would
have scattered death and destruction around. It would avail
nothing to recall them ; victory is on the other side, on the side
of principle, siiid Eoldan. On the side of discipline, of improved
tireurms, and of courage, say I.
I do not wish the reader to retain a bad impression of the
National Guards. They were numerous, it is true ; but half of
them at lea.st were at heart on the side of the Oppositionists ; and
all of them knew that the latter, who were there before their eyes,
li.id come to prevent an act that they declared to be illegal, and
which the Situationists made to appear so by the unusual,
lurtive, and scheming manner in which they managed it.
Moreover, their arms were inferior, and then they were fathers
of families and owners of property. How could they be ex-
pected to tight, or to wish to do so ?
At this point some one says to me, " This is all very well, but
in the meantime this is the beautiful Republic ? Abuses, civil
wars, anarchy, misery ! You require a Dictator, not a Republic ;
or, better still, a king !"
I do not think so. In politics accomplished facts must be
taken into account. Now the Republic is a fact, and its historical
reason appeai-s to me to reside in the other fact, that its in-
dependence was achieved outside of, and in oi)position to, the
monarchy. If the Bourbons, when Xapoleon drove them from
Spain, had retired to South America, and had there placed
themselves at the head of the movement of indejjendence of
the mother country, they would probably have taken root, as
the House of Braganza umler similar circumstances took root in
Ihiizil. But the Bour])ons were too much in love with the vast
and glorious kingdom of Spain, containing as it diil double the
numl)er of iidiabitants of the whole of Si)anish America, the
population of which was at that time three parts Indian, and
they knew not how to practise the cheerful st^-lf-renunciation of
the House of Braganza, when driven fn)m their modest Portu-
guese throne.
The House of Bourbon, with the authority of tradition, with
prestige of service rendered to tliose countries, might, with the
150 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
aid of other elements, have constituted an aristocracy of birth
9nd Avealth to be the base and nucleus for the concentration
around itself of the followers who would by degrees have arisen
in the different parties, and to discipline and educate them.
This we may believe, and it was much to be desired.
But the contrary took place. Independence became possible,
and therefore inevitable ; but it was vigorously resisted by kSpain.
In order to attain it, the people rallied round the most conspicuous
individuals, and by them were led to victory. Afterwards, there
being no superior centre of attraction, each wanted to preserve
supremacy, and this was only possible, tirstly, with the inde-
pendence of the great territorial historical and natural groups,
historically or geographically ; and secondly, by the federation, in
all these new nations, of the provinces that were distinct,
either by their physical or social characters, or by the part they
had taken in the war of independence.
The ideas of '89 had indeed taken hold of those classes who
had directed and inaugurated the war of liberation ; but the
physical and social conditions of these countries were and are
little adapted to such ideas, because their chief men were and
are inspired to abdicate a part of their liberty in favour of a
conventional personage, not supported by services rendered.
How then could a new dynasty take root 1 How the old, since
they had shed their blood to free themselves from it, and had
conquered. To attempt it was to ensure ruin. This was proved
in the case of San Martin, the great Argentine commander, who
was suspected, and perhaps not unjustly, of attempting it on
behalf of another ; and, again, Bolivar, the great Columbian
general, who was accused wrongfully, I think, of attempting it
for himself.
These countries, therefore, separated by immense distances,
by great natural demarcations, and by the limits of colonial
administration, felt the necessity of separating into different
nations, and when the Eepublic was constituted they became
federated on a basis of the widest political and administrative
liberty.
Was this federation an evil 1 Was this basis of liberty an
evil 1 The occurrence of an historical fact is difficult without
the ojieration of potent reasons, which, while they have made it
inevitable, make it also a substantial good — if, indeed, the
expressions bad and good can be used in reference to political
necessities.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 15I
J\e must also be obsorvod, that if we only recur in thought to
the times when the political and social centres were separated
one from anotiier hy hundreds and thousands of leagues and by
intervals of months of travel, before railways, tel<'graphs, or
even stage-coaches and mails had shortened the distances or
facilitated communication, federation was a primary fact, which
was written in the constitutions ; and because it was a fact,
it Avas also sanctioned in the constitutional laws. It may come
to pass that in time, with improved communications, and altered
relations, federation may disappear ; it is certain at any rate to
be modified, first in tlie actual relations between the ])rovincial
and national (lovernments, and next in the written laws. lUit
then and non' it was and is so. The same law is imposed by
similar physical conditions, upon Brazil, where notwithstanding
the monarchical and imperial form, the provinces are true con-
federate States, constituting an immense empire.
The necessity and hence the excellence of the federal order is
granted ; l)ut it is denied that written institutions, however
liberal, have been or are good for these people, who are not
supposed to be ripe, as it is called, for liberty. To this I reply:
The evil is not in the laws, but in the social conditions.
If liberty is, in fact, illusory among some nations, it would
be so to a still greater extent under a Dictator or a despot.
If the thirst for command agitates the whole country at election
time, and frecjuently renders them either violent or fraudulent,
this very thii'st has made and would make it quarrel with the
ruler who was not made one by election.
If the Government, in order to keep power in its party,
corrupts or coerces the electors, the same Government, if abso-
lute, would certainly, in order to prevent revolt, corrupt and
coerce the citizens.
]'>ut we have had peace ; with peace, prosperity ; and with
prosperity, the possibility of attaining true liberty.
We have also had frightf\U tyranny, and with it the reverse
of the medal. Under the social conditions of these countries, a
l)i(;tator or a Life President, in order to free the country from elec«
toral agitation and from the anarchy of liberty, would be quickly
transformed into a merciless tyrant, who would repress his
quarrelsome fellow-citizens in their distant provinces by means
<5f a crew of satellites more brutal than himself. Rosas was an
instance of this. And then, besides the danger to peace, is the
152 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
education of citizens to be coxinted as nothing, and free activity r
in all, for the moral and material progress of the country 1 v
However much these institutions and countries may be
traduced, the fact is, that power alternates between the two
parties ; that no citizen abandons his country in despair on account
of the eternal persecution of authority, which is curbed by its
precariousness. And according as wealth and political education
progress, the people become more and more the sovereign power ;
while in the solid reality of the constitutional guarantees, and
in the wide horizon now open to all, each citizen becomes a
better and a happier man.
Lastly, even when the tendency of a governor is towards an
abuse of his power, the institutions of the country virtually
exist. Then will the remembrance of fraud and violence endure
in the minds of the citizens, and when the day of reparation
comes, society resumes the suspended tradition with the mere
disappearance of the despot, and continues to confirm and
assimilate it.
To conclude, a periodic electoral agitation, in order to gain
the magistracy, is better than permanent political agitation in
order to obtain the control of the vote, where that manifesta-
tion of the popular will does not take place.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 1 53
CHAPTER IV.
POBLACIOXES — MISSIONS — CIVIC GOVERNMENT.
From Rivadavia I was to go to Oran, a city of 4000 inhabi-
tants before 1871, when it was destroyed and depopulated by
an earthquake. The distance geographically is 200 kilometers ;
but as I was to visit on my way that point of the River Vermejo
where it divides into two branches, the distance I should have
to cover on horseback would be doul)led, and, including the
return journey, quadrupled.
At the fork of the river, the stream on the right retains
the name of Vermejo, that on the left taking the name of Teuco,
from Tenrh, a word meaning river in the language of the
!Mattaccos who live on its banks.
The two branches run with many windings to a distance
of lifly kiloQieters, and in a direct line for a distance of 400
kilometers, thus forming a large oblong island, its width being
one-tenth of its length. It begins at about 100 kilumcters
within the frontier, and ends at the mouth of the Tcuci', 300
kilometers below the frontier.
In the Christian territory westward from the frontier the
banks of the island and those on the farther sides of the two
arms of the river are partly populated, i.e. they have been sold
as allotments or pre^ellas, consisting of a certain number of
jnovincial half-leagues, equal perhaps to 11:00 7«r/«/v.s- under con-
dition that the purchaser shall build a raiicho and set up a
pohlacion, that is a family with some cattle. "When the pobla-
ciun is on a large scale, from the number of animals, and the
extent of land, and consequently, with a large dwelling-house
and outbuildings, it is called an etitcntria.
Some of these exta7icio.-i are also met with beyond the frontier
within a radius of four leagues (twenty kilometei-s), the farthest
spot legally under the inspection of the patrols {comisiomi>) from
the Forts; beyond this distance the estancieros are deprived
154 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
even of that amount of protection. The love of gain, however,
induces the owners of estancias to push still farther forward, if
the bordering country (campo) affords good pasturage.
I leave you to imagine the kind of life led in these parts,
surrounded by savages and Avild beasts, at long distances from
the nearest inhabited districts, and hundreds of leagues from
any town. And nevertheless I have met with ladies in these
estmicias. I can assure you that the Argentine lady is inferior
to none in the world, in her spirit of self-sacrifice as a wife and
a mother, and her admirable domestic qualities.
It will easily be understood that individuals of certain classes,
such as medical men, priests, and gendarmes, are rarely found
out here, or, generally speaking, in the heart of the Argentine
countries. But life seems none the worse for their al^sence.
For the doctor, there is sometimes a substitute in the curandero
— but almost always in a sufficiently salubrious climate, whole-
some, though plain food, and a frame trained to this kind
of life. The gendarme is replaced by tlie strong hand of the
master over his j>eowes (labourers), and by the few opportunities
for evil-doing, with the exception of quarrels, and then the
guilty party can always lay his hand upon a horse and escape.
The priest's place is perfectly well filled by the moral sense
innate in man, and practically exhibited when required by the
exigencies of human society, Avhich depend in their turn on the
state of that society, whether the fact be or be not pleasing to
the advocates of an absolute morality, armed at all points, pre-
existing in the head of Jove.
And" then, too, the priest does not come to these parts, be-
cause he does not find it profitable either for himself or for his
Church. But in order to preserve appearances, he sends mis-
sionary brothers, who are as incapable of teaching savages one
step in civilization, as the Indians are incapable of appreciat-
ing their good intentions.
On this subject a large part of the public is in a state of
mental aberration, and some of the governors enact a ridiculous
part for their benefit. It is believed, and the belief is en-
couraged, that one barefooted friar is worth a battalion of
soldiers, or a police station, and funds are provided and
expended on this account. But it is not so.
Savages understand nothing about incarnations, transub-
stantiations, immaculate conceptions, and indulgences. And
should they, when those who are born amidst these beliefs
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 1 55
either laufjh at them or become mad on tlie subject ? The
idea of reward and punishment in a future life, by wliidi
they might be elevated and morally improved, is not new to
them ; they already possess it, as we have seen. Hence it is
more natural that they should remain in the faith of tlieir
fatliers, and it should be consiilered more moral also, ])y those
whose morality consists in the impossiltility of believing what
one no longer believes, or in cheating and lies. The savage will
learn the new religion, that to him is no religion, as a business,
and according to the measure imparted to him. Where is the
education in this 1 Whore is the march of civilization'? We
cannot make much of having taught him to gabble the creed,
or be sjirinkled with holy water !
A battalion, on the contrary, by preventing robbery, obliges
the savages to work for their living, and the station otfers relief
and help, in the day of want, that comes even to the nomad !
ifeanwhile the hope of gain attracts them to the new lite, from
which they are not able to witlidraw, and into which they will
enter as one of its necessary parts on the day that tlie inevit-
able progress of the superior race must despoil them of the
lands that they do not cultivate. This is education ! This is
civilization !
T!ie missions may supply convenient resting-places for tra-
vellers, as in Africa, or afford opjKirtunities for useful scientific
discoveries, if their members can be imbued with the scientific,
instead of the religious spirit; l)ut until then, I cannot see
what results they have to show, with the exception of some
acts of charity and courage, such as the rescue of ])risoners, a
trjjiy noble and holy deed. Among all the Indians of the Pam-
is, not one has joined us through the attraction of religion, and
the same is the case with the Chaco Indians. If a few
score live near the esfauciccd and work on them, it is because
the land was formerly theirs, or because they felt attracted to
the new life and lu'came unconsciously bound to it. If some
hundreds go to the sugar hacietu/as, it is because paid labour is
more attractive than idleness and misery. Let us enclose them
within the circle of civilization, and they will come to us quicker
than if enclosed in a circle of friai-s. And if this is not suffi-
cient to absorb them within the period jiidged necessary by civil
society, invasion antl force must be employed, not preaching.
The missions please neither savages nor citizens ; but they are
liked by governors, who use them for the purpose of deceiving
156 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
the people as to their devotion, and foreigners as to the mild-
ness of their rule.
Meanwhile there is strong antagonism between the pohladores
and the missionaries, and some years ago a regular pitched
battle took place between them, resulting in the burning of the
settlement and the destruction of the inhabitants. A monk,
whose name I forget, wrote a pamphlet on the subject at Genoa,
on his return to Italy. The divergence of the course of the
Vermejo subsequently destroyed two new houses (I have already
explained what these houses are) built by these same mis-
sionaries, and the neighbours declared and still declare it to
be the finger of God ! Is that finger, then, a two-edged
sword 1 Eventually, at the time of electing a Deputy to Con-
gress, the estancieros of the Eivadavia district united their
votes, in order to return a candidate who had assisted them in
their legal struggle before the Salta tribunals, consequent on the
battle I have already mentioned ; and at the present time, as I
am writing, this same gentleman. Dr. Oliva, has been elected
Governor of the province.
If the priest be wanting, so also must the marriage ceremony
be wanting, which is celebrated here by means of the Chiirch
exclusively. But the concubinage prevailing in the cavipo is
caused rather by the unwillingness of the man to contract
marriage than by the absence of the priest, because from time
to time some priest makes an excursion into the country,
not unprofitable to him, if he be a poor man ; and, on the other
hand, it would be no great thing to ride some score of miles for
once in a way, as in fact any wdio care about it do. It would
be wrong to attribute the same immorality to this custom, as if
it prevailed among ourselves ; the circumstances being totally
ditterent, whether as regards means of communication, social
conditions, or the race itself. While the unmarried man who
comes to these wildernesses is nearly always white, or presumed
to be so, the woman, on the contrary, is almost always an
acknowledged half-caste. Now this constitutes a social inequalitj''
that very few have the courage to face. The lower orders —
I use this term unwillingly, but in order to make myself clearly
understood — consist of a breed almost entirely native. There-
fore the custom of concubinage is the quickest and the least
costly. We must add that it preserves freedom, which is pre-
cious to a people who have it ever before their eyes in immense
and solitary lands, and among whom the women age very
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 1 5/
rapidly ! The Argentine laws, however, have looked to thi.s,
and have decreed that a natural sou shall inherit name and
property in the same, or almost the same, manner as a legitimate
child, and that he shall have the right to verify the father.
The learned jurisconsult, Velez-Sarsfield, who drew up this law,
was equally great in head and heart. The social disorder, there-
fore, that might perhaps be dreaded among ourselves only
appears here on a small scale in consequence of this provident
law— which, moreover, promotes fruitful unions and the blend-
ing of races, and thus contributes to the increase and improve-
ment of the population, objects of the highest importance in a
country such as this, of which it has been well said, to govurn is
to pojtnlate.
Nor do the women live in a state of humiliation. There are
few countiies in which women are more respected than here.
"Whether from Spanish traditions, or from lial)its formed under
the social conditions of the country, when the po]ndation was
only one-tifth of its present numbers, and each individual be-
came of increased value in the solitude of country life, women
possess extraordinary influence, and are loved and respected by
men. During the atrocious civil wars that distracted the
country for the lirst fifty years of its indejiendence, woman was
alternately the guide of a man's life and the companion of his
misfortunes. Hence the participation of women in the very
springs of politics, which, while it may seem imprudent, never-
theless excites the admiration of foreigners.
The respect and consideration for women that exist in the
upper classes of society are also found among the peoi)le, either
from the force of example, or from innate custom produced by
the causes I have mentioned. One example will suffice.
One of my servants, acting as guiile, was a poor country
lal)ourer, a married man with a family. After a couple of
months' absence, he asked me to ^^'Tite in his name to his wiCo.
Not quite knowing how to begin the letter, I asked him to tell
mo. Alter a moment's thought he said, " Write, *My esteemed
kvh/f"
This kind of tone is mutual — I do not say among the classes
privileged by wealth and education, for there it is a matter of
course, but among the lower classes and even among the Indian
nomads. The very prostitutes conceal and ilislike their mode of
life. The calm and apparently impassive Indian nature conduces
to this outwai-d bearing, which may be called irreproachable.
IS8 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
Their manner of walking is generally majestic ; and their way
of holding their arms, which has so much to do with the
elegance of motion, is nearly always absolutely correct. Two
Indian sisters, wives of the same Indian husband, who had
settled among the Christians, made such an impression on me
when they came with him to Eivadavia, that I took them
for two ladies in disguise, so correct and elegant were their
manners, although they were seated on the ground in the shade
of a tree at the side of the street, and busy over a child of the
husband's and with various little domestic duties.
In order to understand all the contingent value of any civil
institutions whose social and individual influence is so much
extolled, and also the conditions of their merit, it is necessary
to have been in places where they do not exist or act in a
contrary sense.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC- 159
CHAPTER V.
DETARTUUE FROM RIVADAVIA — FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY.
Ix tlie niidtllt! of October we set out for Oi-an. A few vrrinos
accompanied us for half a league, and then Signor Xatalio
Roldan and I continued our way, attended only by the Santia-
gueno 1 and the Chiriguan, who rejoiced in the name of Sardina !
On entering the territories of the savages we i'ound ourselves
on a vast wooded plain sloping imperceptibly from west to
east.
Yet on this immense table-land there are frequent and unex-
pected breaks in the ground. These are due to the action of
the waters, aided by the friable nature of the soil through which
they wander. The forking of tlie river has been repeated over
and over again since the primeval times, when the immense
plain first came into existence, and the abundant waters flowing
over it formed for themselves channels in which they were
confineil.
Only five or six years ago Rivadavia stood on the brink of
the river ; now it is half a league away and is reached by a
series of steps or terraces. The ancient bed of the river has
become an immense natural tank, retaining the water all
the year round, and replenished afresh during the floods. It is
the favourite haunt of the yacare, a kind of crocodile. Deposits
of mud will gradually fill it up ,and the level, being thus raised by
a succession of layers, will remain dry, tii-st in the season of
drought, and later during the moderate rains. Finally, with the
lapse of ages, joined to the deepening of the river's course, it
Avill remain dry even in the great floods, unless the overflow,
being impeded by banks formed across mouths belonging to a
former period, it becomes first a lake, then a hahado, and hxstly
a marsh.
^ Inlmbitant of tbo proviuce of Santingo.
l6o EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
Such is the genesis of the existing alluvial lands. They are due
to the working of causes still in activity, and which every year are
forming a more extensive and closer network, in the meshes of
which the primitive soil, broken up into islands of different size,
is enclosed. This soil, so long as it endures, will retain its own
altrimetrical, physical, and vegetable characteristics. The waters
will not overcome it, though they never cease from their
operations, sometimes carried on with insidious caresses of
the clay foundation of the perpendicular banks, and, by continual
lapping, bringing it down, bit by bit, into their bosom ; at other
times, turgid and impetuous, they seek to destroy it by force,
assaulting, dragging, demolishing, until, laden with its ancient
forest-growth, they whirl it into their seething currents.
The rings of the net already formed are subject to similar
action ; for the river, conscious, as it were, of its irresistible
strength, both for building up and for destroying, seems to take
pleasure in undoing its own work, and substituting other work
for it, tracing with its spume, more powerful than adamant, a
fresh network above and across the former one, which is unfitted
to resist the attack on account of its brief gestation in the bosom
of the waters.
And as it will cost nothing to the land that in the beginning
afforded an asylum to the waste of waters to receive on its soil
the axe-defying quebracho and the giuccian, with its produce of
white cotton, these trees will accompany its infancy while the
waters are coiling about like monstrous serpents. In the same
way, without cost, the later inhabitants will enjoy the fertility
of lands producing the algarrobo, the chauar, and the nutmeg,
with their delicious fruits ; and the medium lands will freely
provide for health and cleanliness in the growth of the splendid
and elegant pacara, with its saponaceous berries ; while the more
recent soil hastens, with child-like grace, to adorn the paths
with poplars, willows, and silvery-leaved shrubs that grow in
countless profusion along the wooded banks.
Alluvial action is very powerful, and exists on an extensive
scale. Diiring our journey we frequently came across dried-up
channels, sometimes many leagues in length, that had been full
of water three or four years previously. And it is certain that
if suitable engineering Avorks are not carried out, the existing
arm of the river that retains the name of Yermejo will soon
form, along its whole length of nearly a thousand kilometers,
a series of tanks that wiU themselves undergo the trans-
OV THE ARCFA'TINE REPUIiLIC. l6l
formations I have descriljetl. Fort Agiiirre only a short time
a^'O stood on the riglit V»ank of the Teuco, from ■wliich it is now
lialf a league distant, and a "madrechon," or natural roscrvoir,
lias taken the place of the river.
The alluvial lands, funned by the existing currents on Avhirh,
as hcin,^ the most ancient, the highest and driest, the algurroho
lluurisliL's, are always lower than the primitive soil, wliere
the (luehracho and the giuccian grow ; thus forming a kin«l of
stair, never less in depth, I think, than a couple of metres.
The steps of this stair are, of course, not always very distinct,
for the length of time in which atmos])heric agencies have Leer
at work has alloweil the parapets to slojie, and time has filled the
space between the two soils with detritus from tlie surface, as
is easily understood. ]>ut the perpendicular banks of the rivt-r
allbrd clear evidence of the facts i state, and 1 do so Avith the
greatest confidence, although based only on my own observations.
Occasionally, in the time of gi-eat floods, the algarrobo lands
are under water, but never the quebracho ; the former lie at a
height of six or eight yards in the centre and west, and eight
tu twelve yards and more, eastward, in Paraguay, for about
thirty leagues from the mouth of tlie river.
This first stair is generally succeeded by others before reach-
ing to the river, ami, as its course is more or less circuitous,
the bank on the outer side is almost always perpendicular, and
of greater or less height according to the nature of the soil.
The inner side of the curve is alluvial.
U'^'ow this alluvial land is nearly always in steps or terraces,
and seems as if butting against a high bank. One can actually
see these steps in process of formation Viy the river, which is
very muddy when swollen, besides which the friable soil on the
exterior side of the curve is easily disintegrated, and thus the
absolute, and even the relative position of the steps, is frequently
and rai)idly changed. This occurs when a liuge mass of earth
falls over into the stream, especially when trees are carried away
Avith it, or when the unevenness of the river-betl fails to olVer
a equal and homogeneous resisting power. In that case the
terrace becomes still more irregularly formed.
Tluis we find that the steps or stairways in the bed of the
river are owing, not to one year's work or one single flood, but
to the normal and continuous action of the stream in ordinary
seasons. These steps, however, are shallow, and the terraces
very narrow. They can be levelled with little trouble.
M
1 62 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
Tliose terraces and stairways which, from their size, are
important features iu the aspect of the country, are due to the
heavy floods which for considerable distances deposit wide
terraces four to six yards high, their width being increased by
the debris of a former smaller terrace — other lesser ones are due
to the ordinary floods. jS'ow, a different degree of productiveness
may be said to correspond with each terrace, because the com-
position of the soil in each must vary according to the known
laws of deposit, and on account of the depth of the water and
their longitudinal distance from it, which is a considerable ele-
ment in every respect in this country, where the climate is so
dry that agriculture is almost impossible.
To give an idea of this, Eivadavia is, or rather was, at a distance
of half a league from the river. In that space there are, as it
were, four stairways, with terraces six to eight hundred yards
long covered with algarrobo, and soils of all kinds, marshy, dry,
sandy, and clay.
]\[adrechons, lakes, and swamps, all formed by the same
force, constitute with the terraces the only features of the soil
that break its monotony, and partially alter the uniformity that
results from uniformity of climate.
OF THE ARGKXTINE REPUBLIC. 163
ClIAPTEIl vr.
ON OIR WAY TO ORAN— TIIK RAINS AND ACRICULTURE A LEPEU.
"We proceeded onwards acro>;s the imnionse level plain, broken
l)y the natural accidents I have descrihed, and clotlied with
■woods, varyin;j; according to the nature of the soil, hut so fre-
(]uent that they seemed to be the same, only with darker and
ilitl'erent shades alternately predominating.
Every eight or ten kilometers Ave came to some rancJio
inhabited by t\m jyobkulores ol the estate, and le.'^s frequently
to the dwellings of the extancieros. Our march Avas arranged
so as to bring us at nightfall to a place where Ave could get
Avater and jnisturage and a ]dace of safety for our horses. i)\i
drawing near such a halting-place, one of us Avould go
forward, and riding up close to the stockade that always
surrounds a house in the eampo Avould clap his hands to'^'ethi'i,
and on the appearance of the owner salute him Avitli the
words :—
" Ave, Maria ! "
" Ave, Cal)allero ! "
The customary courtesies Avere then immediately exchanged,
and our Avants Avere named ; the traveller remaining on horse-
back until the sacramental words, '■^ Baj<',,Main is harvested. The cause is simple enough. The climate
is so dry during the growth ami ripening of cereals that they
almost always fail, if not artificially irrigated, and on tliis
tal)ledand, with rivers running in very deep channels, that
cannot be accomplished without mechanical means or an ex-
tendt (1 system of canals, for which the lime is not yet come.
Flour is therefore purcliased at a distance, and brouglit in
from time to time on mules, for the most part from Catamarca,
Kioja, and even farther, a distance of a thousand or iifteen
hundred kilomete'-s.
This dryness of climate is so disastrous that even maize,
which is indigenous in America, is frequently ruined by it,
although sown expressly in the bed of former tanks, near
riuining water, and although it comes to maturity in forty
days.
I affirm tliat agriculture in the centre of the Chaco within a
limit of four to five hundred kilometers in breadth, and of some
thousands in length, is the most hopeless of pursuits, and it
Avould bo the greatest imprudence in the world to uneeause that scale represents a different period of
formation ; not, of course, a geological period, but one of those
into which the existence of the river has been divided up to
tliirf very day. Consequently there is not only a difference of
duration, during Avhich any given fibrous growth may easily
have predominated and imparted a particular character to the
])astures, but, more than this, there is a ditt'erence in the cc>m-
ponent parts and in structure, which causes varying conditions
of growth.
lam aware that I am saying no new thing; but I believe
that in general little attention has been given to this subject,
and I write for the geneiality. Learned men, if 1 have any
among my readers, will find their opinions confirmed by observa-
tions made in the presence of these vast solitudes.
"While navigating the Vermejo, the first thing that struck
nje was the presence of clover along the dampest parts of
the sloping banks, where the crumbling soil belonged to the
most ancient period. I thought the seeds might have bei-n
brought thither by the river, which higher up in its course
might have run through tields of clover; but, on the contrary,
the forage grown in the mountainous districts is tiie medi-
cinal trefoil, of which there was no trace here, nor did I see
it during my ride of 160 leagues through a territory, half
Indian, halt Christian, and thus was led to conclude that
the trefoil I mention is indigenous. The ^lattacco Indinns
call it chiu-asset-locq, i.e. stag-forage. This may be a secondary
174 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
reason for tlie name given by them to a cow which is also
a ruminating animal, chiu-nasset-tdch, i.e. a large deer. In
Chichuio, trefoil is called mosco-jujo.
^ Clover, which is a biennial, grows spontaneously in the
"dried-up shallows, and on the banks of the lakes, tanks, or
jjonds, as well as on the banks of the river itself. We found
it most serviceable during our journey across the Indian territory.
I saw scarcely any on the Christian country. I attribute the
scarcity to the cattle, who are fond of it, although I found it
bitter to the taste, and who exist in great numbers among the
Christians, while the Indians hardly own any. There are t-svo
principal kinds of trefoil. The importance of this food, in an
agragrian point of view, must be my excuse for having dwelt on
it, and I must add that 1500 kilometers south there are
natural fields of clover on this same river Negro, and the same
are found on other rivers of the Pampa and in the Chaco.
In solitary districts enclosed by forests covering the country
there are fields of simhdl which, from a distance, might be
taken for corn. It is a gramineous plant and grows to more
than the height of a man on horseback ; it is j)erennial, and
even Avhen burned grows again. It reigns as a sovereign,
despotic and exclusive, but it cannot escape the caresses of the
franwntcma, a climbing plant that entAvines it, and, mingling
its own leaves with those of \h%simh6l, affords a most appetizing
food.
On land almost ecpially dry and high there are vast meadows
consisting exclusively of aibp, a Imsh supplying a hard and
bitter food, never eaten but from necessity, and in its natural
state, but it does not fatten or give a factitious fat ; it has the
appearance of hay.
On level but somewhat high ground we find the coda di
voipe, or fox's tail, whi(;h is equal for fattening to the medicinal
trefoil.
We find also in succession tlie par/lia rostra, or red straw,
growing to a heiglit of over a yard and a half, and used also
for thatching roofs ; two kinds of Afata, remarkable for their
h\Yr
four years. Hence the colossal and increasing Avealth of some
• a-eat eslancifrus.
178 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
CHAPTER VIII.
A KIQHT AT THE MOUTH OF THE CHAPAPA.
After five days' journeying we reached the river at a place
called Bella Vista, where there was a boatman and his chalana,
i.e. a narrow, fiat-bottomed boat suitable for floating over
shallows. Thence we were to go up stream for about thirty
kilometers until we should roach the bifurcation of the river,
which it was one of the principal objects of my journey
to survey.
Along the whole way we had met, at the end of three days'
journeying, with only one little settlement, consisting of a few
wooden and barro houses, called Villa del Carmen ; the usual
leprosy was prevalent, and we had crossed a region of former
channels of the Kio that are still deep, although dried up.
Two, four, or eight years ago, the river rushed impetuously
through channels that arts now sand-pits, and did not even
spare the two jNIissions established at Sauzal, but washed
tlaem away in its whirlpools — providentially, says vulgar report.
The Missions have been re-established two days' journey lower
down, near Rivadavia, at a place called Pozo del Tigre. When
I passed them, the fathers in charge — there were but two, I
think — were absent ; nor were there any toldevias of Indian
catechumens, so that the mission seems to be of a somewhat
intermittent character. Moreover, the I'ear of another flood has
made them seek for higher and firmer ground, which is likewise
less damp.
The whole length of the route I saw neither priest nor friar,
and only one on arriving at Oran. It is true that these parts
are not adapted for a profitable propaganda, because the Indians
decline to be converted, and the population is scanty, poor, and
scattered at great distances. The clergy, therefore, muster their
forces in the cities, where, since the suppression of religious
orders in Italy, they have largely increased, and acquire greater
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. I79
influence every day, partly by the traditional ability of this
powerful ecclesiastical institution and partly by the talents of
some of the fathers. Among these I cannot refrain from
nii'utioning Father Pio dei Eentivoglio, a man of letters, a
jiliilcisoplier and a gentleman; Father Georgi, orator, musi(.'ian,
and architect ; the Fathers Donati ^larco and Porreca Quiricn,
models of charity and humanity, who more than once have
risked their lives in endeavouring to rescue Christian prisoners
from the Indians, and in braving the pestilential diseases that
have ravaged the country.
I am of opinion that through one of those numerous in-
versions of things that cannot fail to strike a philosopher-
historian, the Catholic clergy are gaining in America in the
same proportion as they are losing in Europe ; although ulti-
mately the destiny of both continents must be substantially
the same, in this respect as well as in all cither social con-
ditions.
.Starting from Bella Yista, Ave four began to descend the
river; the two men being Caronios. At times the waters llowed
over an immensely Avide bed, Avhich so diminished its depth
that Ave Avere obliged to land, in order to lighten the boat
until the difficult bit had been overcome ; and at other times
the stream rushed through a deep and narrow gorge, and
disaster seemed imminent. We soon recognized that the river
voyage Ave had undertaken Avould be long and dangerous, but
Avhat could Ave do 1 We could look for no help in the deserts
through which the river flowed.
Close to a spot called Pozo de la Oreja (Well of the Ear) Ave
saAV some Indians on the bank. Thinking Ave might obtain
assistance from them, we drew near. But not one Avould
come Avith us for all our promises of gifts and our a.ssurances
that Ave should turn back after a few days. Their iuA'ariable
reply Avas that their enemies Avere a little loAver down, and that
they feared an attack. Some bloody fray had probably taken
}»lace, and they feared the customary Biblical and Indian
reprisals.
Croups of Indians are often met with on Christian territory ;
on the frontiei-s, hoAvever, they live either in the midst of
the riverside forests, or are attached to some t^fa/iria, Avhere
they Avork for the owner Avlun re- 2
l8o EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
t.iloe, that in later times was called
lS4 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
liy lying greed the Silver FJver (Eio de la Plata), was twice
its present size, the two tributaries of which it consisted coni-
hining in one full stream along its whole course, while at a
subsequent period they were again separated, and remained
distinct and apart among the numerous islands they encircled,
although circumscribed in their flow and subdivided by many
an outlet.
Then, the waters rolled precipitously through the narrow
rocky channels and steep mountain passes, and sought their
level as they flowed over the vast plain beneath, wandering
liappily over the gentle slope that drew them to the east and
south, while this twofold invitation was seconded by the irre-
sistible laws of nature ; and thus flowing neither directly east
nor absolutely south, they yet turned much more in the former
than in the latter direction. And in this same direction, and
lollowing the features of the soil as produced by the very waters
themselves, and at times actually coerced by their own products,
they excavate an ever deepening and narrowing channel, witli a
maximum of regularity and a minimum of force.
The soil, which is still recent, especially when it has been
elaborated in a short time, and in shallow waters, is therefore,
when brought to light, insufiiciently compact, becomes easily
divided by the action of the current, which at one moment subtle
and persuasive, and at another swollen and impetuous, seeks
to force open a permanent channel.
In the early but brief period when the Avaters lay level on the
plain, the floods may have contributed to form a covering to the
immersed surfaces, but the channel of the river soon became
suflicient for its wants, compensating in Avidth for any deficiency
in depth, until equilibrium was restored.
On the first occurrence of inundation, the soil being unable
to resist the lateral pressure of the current that was unchecked
by the very slight declivity of its course, afforded at once an
ample space for innumerable windings, and from the first
moment that the bed of the river sufficed to contain the mass
of waters, the process of disintegration on one side and of
deposit on the other was set up, the latter being inferior to the
former both as to level and as to bulk.
Hence the extraordinary tortuosity of the rivers of the Chaco,
and of this river Yermejo, the windings of which measure 320
leagues over a geographical distance of 130. Hence the
terraces ; hence the inevitable lowering of the absolute level of
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 1 85
the land wlu-n tlie rivers shall have completed the disintorrration
of the primitive soil, and shall have substituted a soil composed
of their own deposits, the hi}/hest points of which are at present
twi> yards lower than the opposite soil. Hence the alluvials
which have formed the islands of the Parana and the Unii;uay,
and whicli follow on the deposits or dcUatiott of the mouths of
tliose rivers, and will end by lillinj,' up the estuary of the Plata.
The development of the rivers, their depth, and the frialjility
of the soil give rapid extension to this process, and great results
must ensue in a relatively short time, geologically speaking.
lu fact, if we may suppose (and tin; hypothesis is rational)
that the lateral erosion of the primitive soil proceeds at the
rate of two yards a year along the whole course of the river,
the soil subtracted annually by the Vermejo alone from the
territory of the Chaco would amount to G, -400,000 cubic yards,
etjual to an island ten yards deep by 1000 in width, and with
a frontage of 640 — that is, one of the largest islands in the Pio
de la Plata. We can now inulerstand that the disintegration
of the mountains in the dcltation of the Parana and the liio de
la Plata does not equal in importance that of the plain, and the
importance of the latter is increased when we reflect that the
jirocess is being repeated under similar conditions by the Pilco-
mayo and the Salado, the other two rivers of the Chaco.
According to this hypothesis the surface of the basin of the
Vermejo plain, which is ecjual to 9000 scjuare leagues, will have
lost two yards in level 70.000 years after its emersion, and will
then have yielded 450,000,000,000 cubie yards, which will
represent an island ten yards deej), 500 kilometers long, and
ninety kilometers wide, i.e. twice and one-fourth the surface of
the estuary of the Rio de la Plata, which contains nearly 20,000
.'square kilometers. In other Avords a ma.ss of earth sutticient to
till the estuary four times over, supposing the average depth to
be five yards.
Nor is this all. This disintegrating action of the river tends
towards changing the character of the vegt^tation in the Chaco,
because, according to my experience, tlie plants growing on the
primitive soil or on the emerged lantls differ from those clothing
the alluvial lands, the former belonging, generally speaking, to
timber-giving trees, such as the (piebrdcho, the urunday, and
the palo-santo. But we will revert to this when treating of
the forest flora.
The change which thus takes place without the agency of
l8o EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
climate affords us an excellent explanation of analogous con-
ditions in Denmark with respect to the pine and the oak, Avhich
have been replaced by the beech, the last named even retaining
the name of one of its predecessors. The cause is usually
referred simply to change of climate, while the renovation
of the superficial stratum may have largely contributed to it as
well as the law of natural affinities. Hence a detailed study of
the Chaco, with particular reference to relative altimetry and to
the amount of vegetation, might supply us with the chronological
data of the period in which this territory first made its appear-
ance ; data no less certain than those adopted in respect of other
regions by such geographers as Morlot, Forel, and Arcelin.
In fact, if we assume a lateral disintegration of the bordojirme,
or primiiive soil, at the rate of tAvo superficial yards a year along
the whole course of the river for 320 leagues over the plain, we
obtain a complete change of the surface of the Yerraejo country
and a lower level for the soil in 70,000 years from its appearance.
And if we suppose that at the present time the surface we are
treating of has risen to one-half of the whole, as is in fact the
case, more or less, we still find that the age of the Chaco terri-
tories amounts to not less than 35,000 years. In any case it is
my opinion that the first appearance beneath the light of the
sun of these lands that are now called the Gran Chaco from a
Chicciuan word ^ does not date back to the glacial epoch. The
existence of that epoch on this continent and in these latitudes
is, to my mind, an indubitable fact. In the neighbourhood of
the Acconquica Mountains, in the provinces of Catamarca and
Tucuman, and at a height of 2000 or 3000 yards above the
level of the sea, latitude 27° S., I saw huge masses like high
hills clothed Avith thick and ancient forests, but with all the
cliaracteristics of IMorenica formation, and I observed also single
masses on high and isolated peaks.
Following the river back from its mouth to the moun-
tains, the recent perpendicular banks disclose a formation of
the strength of fifteen or twenty yards in the first cutting of the
geographical length of thirty leagues, and of the strength of ten
yards, and even less as it reascends.
^ According to a dictionary printed at Lima in 1754 cUacu means the
hunting of wild beasts. In the Chaco itself I was told that chacumcaus
a place where animals are confined. The pohladores say habitually
edos c.hacos for " these fields." In the Italian edition chaco is rendered
by lake.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 187
This formation rests upon a substratum called tosra, of a
?oapy and partly niagnesian nature, and consequently not
easily friable. This is revealed in the lower parts by small
streams of water, which f,Mve place to the rapids or natural
cataracts (anrri/as) at seven or eight points.
To.tra, sometimes of a bluish colour, at others somewhat
red, has a tendency to splinter into small scales, and might be
termed niagnesian schist. The scales are very soft. In other
districts there are toscas of a different kind.
The formation above the to^ra, and which may be called the
visil)le part, is again subdivided into stratiKcations from two to
four yards in depth, those strata nearest the bottom and towards
the mouth of the river being liner, more clayey, deeper in
eoloiu, and consequently more compact, while the upper strata,
as we ascend the river, become fainter in tint, coarser, less
clayey, less comi)act, and of a sandy nature, in accordance with
the mechanical laws of deposit.
I say deeper in colour and consequently more compact,
because colouring depends on the presence of metallic oxides,
and every one knows the agglutinative force of these latter.
On the oth(>r hand the parallelism between these stratifica-
tions and the uniformity in every sense of the inclination
of the surface, point to a common grand cause of origin, which
has acted at intervals between one and another emersion, during
which each would become clothed with vegetation which would
at a later period be submerged in the waters, and give place to
noAvly formed surface.
These operations must have occurred when -the climate of
these regions was in the same relative condition as at present,
bucause the vegetntion Mas evidently fine and multiform in t!ie
lower cutting, and there was a surfnce of dark earth or humua,
]iroduced from its accumulated residuum, as at the present
time, while both are scanty in the centre until close to the
mountains. In the same way the dark part of the lower
stratifications, corresponding with a former vegetation, lies
relatively high, while it is thin and snmetimes almost impei--
ceptible in the centre, where the climate at the present day
is likewise arid.
And then, as now, there existed alkalis in the earth, which
are indicated by incrustations and nitrous elllorescence on the
uncovered parts of the banks, the same elements are exhibited
at the present i!ay in the salnitrali frequently covering the sur-
1 88 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
faces less elevated from the water, and by the growth oljumes
and cactus on the higher ground, and of bobos and other
shrubs on the low-lying soil scarcely out of reach of the
current. The ashes of all these plants yield an abundance of
potash and soda that hitherto has only been used for domestic
purposes.
Thus we find the same climate and the same materials
then as now, and the same conditions at the period of the
formation of the deepest strata as at that of the actual alluvial
lands.
Yet this identity of original causes is not accompanied by
identity in floral phenomena. We have pointed this out
already. Because the physical conditions of the soil, which, if
we except extremes, are the most influential in determining
vegetable life, vary according to the amount of the deposits
and according to the length of time during which all the energies
have been in action. The result of these same energies alters
the chemical order of the elements to which they are due, either
by chemical reaction, or by the products of vegetation giving
back to mother earth the aliments received from her, trans-
formed and enriched by new ones absorbed from the atmosphere.
Hence the variety of the herbaceous and forest flora that
respectively cover similarly situated soils. Hence the aptitude
ior new growths, and for agriculture, varying according to the
above-named conditions.
Such is the past history of the Vermejo. What of the
present 1
The work of ages is still going on — erosion on the one hand,
and alluvial formation on the other, in the shape of terraces,
and the later floods either carrying away the previous deposits if
these lie in their Avay, or adding fresh deposits, if the former are
oidy reached by exceptionally lull floods. As we have already
mentioned, the alluvial soil brought by the river is a couple of
yards lower than the original soil, which is known in the locality
as bordojirme, and is never inundated by the floods.
Some of the alluvial soil is several yards in depth, although
deposited as it Avere almost instantaneously, so great is the
quantity carried by the waters, and washed down almost in one
mass from the surrounding land, of which a large proportion
is crumbling. Other alluvials are again deposited over these,
without obliterating them, and it is not unusual to see bohos,
very straight poplar-like shrubs, with their leaves silvered on
OF TPIE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 1 89
the lower sitlo. These trees are of rapid growth and bur<,'eon
after four or six years, hardly before, if an abundant supply of
water be wanting. Their boles traverse three or four different
layers of alluvial deposit ; their roots therefore are three or font
yards below the surface of the ground.
After this fashion does the river, year by year, pursue its
task ; tausing changes of every kind, as it alternately flows
along the banks of the Jiovdo Jinne,^ or over its own alluvial
deposits. The number of these changes, their symmetry, their
correspondence with the disintegration of the laml, the constant
deposits, and the consequent steps or terraces, cannot fail to
make a deep impression on the spectator, notwithstanding that
he uutlerstands the inevitability of them, from physical and
mechaiiieal laws.
The Vermejo divides into two arms ; the stream on the right-
hand, which in the greatest droughts carries one-fifth of its
waters, is much more winding in its course than that on the
left-hand, named the Teuco, which carries the remainder. Tlie
cause of this inequality is simply the inferior flexibility of the
larger mass of water, and in the lesser influence on this of the
numberless accidents to which the river is exposed ; while its
course being not so tortuous, it consequently spreads out less,
and hence the zone in which the river exercises its erosive and
sedimentary action. The state of fulness, moreover, in the
smaller stream being proportionately more abnormal, the acci-
dental channel formed during the shallow .season is altogether
inadequate at the season of fulness, and the waters therefore
force into exi^tence an adequate channel, and in so doing destroy
many sinuosities formed in the time of shallows, and thus con-
tribute to greater changes than would take place, had the bed
of the river been at firet less winding and less uneven.
"We may therefore assert, however paradoxical it may seem,
that the displacements of the river — or I will say of rivers —
are, under like circumstances of easily disintegrated soil and
heavy floods, in inverse proportion to their mass c>f water. This
is demonstrated by the magnihcent Paraguay and the gigantic
Paranii and Uruguay. I do not say this of the Kio de la Plata,
which is principally governed throughout its immense course
by the tides. The eljb and flow of these are pereei)tible for some
scoiesof leagues from the mouth of the river, and the case is the
> Bordo Jinne, as it is called, is land that is never submerged hy th«
flocxls ; I liave loudered it souietimes by emerged land.
190 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
same -with, the Uruguay and Parana. Yet even so, these rivers are
not exempt from the law of perpetual displacement wliich is
inevitable from the crumbling condition of their banks. It
is certain that if we could compare their course to-day Avitli
that of a century ago, or more, we should notice remarkable
changes in the line of their shores, independently of the effects
produced by the deltation or depositation, as I will call it, of sedi-
ment from the rivers of the Gran Chaco, which tends to lengthen
these rivers at the expense of the Rio de la Plata as well as to
choke the greater part of this latter and the other rivers.
In the landslips of the hordo Jirme, as well as in those of the
alluvial soil, an immense number of trees are precipitated into
the Avater and remain hxed, either on account of theii- foliage, or
because the greater part of those of the hordofirme are much
heavier than water. Immovable banks impervious to water are
thus very frequently formed ; the stream therefore rushes to the
sides and forms a new channel.
Sometimes one of these trees, either falling singly or becoming
isolated on its short journey, remains head downwards, and its
trunk, not being strong enough to form a bank, becomes, if un-
seen, the most terrible enemy to the keels of boats. These trunks
are called raigoues. In any case it is a satisfaction to know that
it is extremely rare for a tree to be carried any great distance by
the stream, or for timber to float, on account of the manner of
its fall.
In other respects the soil forming the bed of the river is, by
reason of the timber that has fallen on it, or by geological
accidents, more capable of resisting the action of the stream
than is the soil of the banks to resist the friction of the lateral
currents. The waters therefore overflow and form almost in-
numerable shallows, which, however, are easily cleared by means
of spirals or steam-wheels.
The bottom of the river-bed is at present crossed, as we have
said, by seven or eight veins of chalky magnesia, dithcult to
corrode. These diminish the amount of water, and cause rapids
and cataracts (arrecifas).
All these features render navigation so difficult, that it is
only possible in vessels of light draught, and during the season
of deep waters. To these causes of the division of the river
into two branches, we must add another important one.
The limits within which so far the Yermejo has oscillated,
may be considered to include from ten to fifteen leagues in
OF Tin: ARGENTINE UEPUDLIC. I9I
wiilth ; and as tliis increases, a somc-vvliat analogous course
is ]juisucd hy the Pilcuniajo {Bird river, in Chichuan), running
north of the Verniejo. At no distant date, perhaps, a junction
may he etiected hctween tlic lower parts of the two rivers. The
uniform level of the country will facilitate this.
The land watered hy the Vermejo may be estimated at 13,000
square leagues, of which a fourth part is mountainous, and the
remainder consists of plains.
The mountain portion, or liigher basin, is comprised witliin
lat. S. 21° to 25°, and within three degrees of longitude ; the
lower portion, or basin, is comprised between the Equator and
27', i.e. within three and a half degrees of latitude, and five of
longitude.
The lower Yermejo crosses tlie Gran Chaco from north-west to
south-east for a geographical distance of 130 leagues, between the
Juntas del San Francisco and its fall into the Paraguay. It
runs a course of 320 leagues, making a curve about every (|uarter
of a league. It is confined on the east l)y Chaco Central, which
lies ])etween the Vermejo and the Pilcomajo.
The comjiarative narrowness of Ihe hydrographical basin, with
its six degrees of latitude, and the uniformly eastward position
of the mountains from north to south, cause the volume of
Its Avaters to do])end on a very usual order of climatologic;d
])henomena. N^he rainy season occurs only in summer, from
December to ^larch, and the melting of the snow on all excejit
the very highest mountains occasions heavy Hoods, which are
succeeded by extreme droughts in part of winter and spring.
During the time of floods the masses of water are enormous ;
in the middle of the dry season — that is, in the month of July —
I measured eighty cubic yards per second, and in the next
drought, in October, fifty cubic yards.
At about fifteen leagues from the Juntas del San Francisco,
which are situated at the foot of the mountains, the river ilivides
into two branches : the one on tlie east, or left hand, is called tlie
Tc'uco, from the Mattacco word meaning " river ;" and that on
the west, or right hand, retains the name of Yermejo, Tcncli-tarh,
or "Great River" in Mattacco. "When I was sailing in those
waters, the Teuco contained four-fifths of the totiil bulk of the
stream, and the rest formed the Vermejo.
The two arms of the river, with a distance between them
varying from five to ten leagues, are reunited after a course of
20U leagues, at a distance by river of ninety leagues from the
192 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
spdt where it empties itself into the Paraguay. This spot is
culled ^oca del Teuco.
During this last course of ninety leagues, corresponding to
fifty leagues in a straight line by land, we come to parts that
look like artificial canals ; in ihese plates we find for the most
part the clay banks I have already mentioned ; here, too, the
river runs deepest.
At 1 40 leagues by w^ater from the Boca del Teuco, and follow-
ing the banks of the river, is Eivadavia on the present frontier,
and ninety leagues fuither on las Juntas del San Francisco, near
which, at eight leagues farther north, is Oran.
■ ., In all this long distance from the fall into the Paraguay to
the Juntas, there is not one single hill !
The water is brackish, on account alike of its scarcity and its
muddiness ; on the other hand, it contains an immense variety
of fish, thus providing the inhabitants of the country with
unfailing and palatable food. Some kinds weigh from twenty-
five to thirty kilograms, without counting the yacare or
crocodiles that weigh two or three times as much.
Is this river navigable 1
With a steamboat drawing one yard, it would be navigable
for at least half the year, with no further trouble than forcing
the flow of water through one arm only, which arm should be
the Teuco, since it already bears four-fifths of the whole bulk of
the river. The cost of such an undertaking, together with the
annual expense of maintaining it in working order, would
amount, I calculate, to a sum of 23,000 scudi.
In order to make navigation possible throughout the year, ^
system of dredging away the sandbanks must be brought into
operation, the tosca must be destroyed, and the raigones cut
away. These works, supposing the dredging machines to be
used for hauling, when not wanted on the river, w^ould absorb
about 50,000 scudi per annum. In all, 70,000 scudi per
annum.
I do not speak of locks or weirs. The expense would be too
great at such a distance for commercial enterprise.
There should be also a system of steam transports of various
draught ibr serving the markets. Those of one-yard draught
and of eighty tons' burden should ply between the Foce nel
Paraguay, or the cities of Humaita or Corrientes, and Kiva-
diivia on the Christian frontier ; others of half a yard draught
and thirty tons' burden, between Eivadavia and las Juntas dd
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. I93
San Francisct), or practically Oran. It is useless to dream of
sailing-vessels in such a sinuous, deeply-lying river, with its
banks crowned with woods and swarming with Indians.
The cost of a voyage from Corrientes to las Jnntait and
rice rcrsu, including interest on the value of the vessel and its
fittings, and the redemption of mortgage, would amount, allow-
ing for the highest charges, to about 4000 scuili, with which a
160-ton burden could be carried at a rate of twenty-four scudi
and three-f timber, all of
them thatched with straw and mud, surround the ])iazz;i. These
and a few more scattered round constitute the whole village,
which is inhabited by tlie soldiers, their wives and children, and
a few tradesmen and their families. It is customary here for
si>ldiers to be accompanied by their wives, to wliom Government
allows lialf-rations. There is nothing more picturesque, and
sometimes a little grotesipie too, than an encampment or military
march in time of war, above all when the camp is broken uj).
How often have I not longed for a JJe Amicis to describe these
and many otlier scenes !
o 2
196 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
A delightful surprise awaited us at Fort Sarmiento, and made
our three days' visit seem like a country holiday.
The commander of the regiment was Lieutenant-Colonel
Emiliano Perez Milan, a brave officer, who on one occasion was
struck by a ball in the knee when leading his soldiers to the attack
during the war in Paraguay, and immediately on his recovery
rejoined his regiment. On another occasion, his men having
mutinied, he left his bed before daybreak, seized a revolver, and
wrapping a poncho about him, faced the mutineers alone, and
disarmed them.
As I was already known to him, and he was besides a friend
of Roldan's, we were received with the greatest hospitality.
How comfortable it was ! What a contrast to the Boca de la
ChajMjM, and to every other place we had visited the last five
months ! The house was large and cool, there were beds, there
was water from a well, there were pleasant meals, with bright,
youthful company and gentlemanly men, and — there were
also savoury and varied dishes. Two kinds of soup, one
of which, called locro, made from maize, was excellent ; an
asada a la cnoglia, cutlets a la Milanese, and algarrobo aloja,
prepared by the skilful hand of our hostess ; wine and beer.
There were roots also and some few dishes of green vegetables
— too delicious in these regions where kitchen-gardens are
not ! And then some sweets, either of milk and honey, or
of preserved apple-quince, or of some other kind ; and, last of
all, a cup of magnificent Yunca coffee, and a scented Havana
cigar. Could more be desired 1 I felt like a prince, and I thought
princes could not have a better time of it than I. Moreover,
in the hottest part of the afternoon beautiful earthen vases
were brought in filled Avith old aloja, amber-coloured, crystal-
clear, sparkling and cool ; and a little later we had our choice of
tea, or mate, or both !
In the evening of this delightful day there was a military
ball. Everything is military here, and once again the fair
Tucuraan ladies bore away the palm from their Argentine
sisters, as did the officers from the citizens, whose claims as
guests were quite eclipsed by their gold lace. The ball w^as
held on a clearing covered by a straw roof, and with the four
sides open.
At about a league away the colonel had set up a tan-yard, that
we went over. A flint hatchet had been discovered there during
excavations for a well ; and, to my great disappointment, this had
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. I97
been given a few weeks before to the official paymasters from
Buenos Ayrcs, wlio had returned thitlier. The search for
fossils in tliese parts might lead to great discoveries, especially
in the direction of the Oran Cordillera. I remember seeing
some years ago, in a precipitous part between Oran and the
Juntas of San Francisco, some bones of a gigantic animal that
according to the inhabitants of the neighbourhood no longer
existed. Other explorers have remarked similar fossils in the
north, in the river-gorges of a road leading to IJolivia, super-
jiosed on a stratum of chalk. This stratum is probably the con-
tinuation of a chalk formation that I remarked at the foot of the
Prccordillera, farthest east between Cordoba and Oran, extending
for about a thousand kilometers and forming banks of great size,
and high hills that seem once to have been the coast, when the
present Argentine table-land was covered by the sea. A true
geological horizon is thus presented to us.
Kear the tan-yard {cui-tiemhre) there were many wild mul-
beiTy-trees, or vwra, as they are called here. They grow in
large quantities in the woods between this neighbourhood and
the slopes of the mountains. The mora attains a very great
height ; the trunk is of close fibre, and is used for articles of
furniture and for carts ; the leaf resembles that of our mulberry,
but is smaller; the fruit is the same as ours; a milky fluid
exudes from the stalk when the leaves are plucked.
The tan is made from the bark of the rebil, a large tree like
our sorb-apple, but with smaller leaves. It grows at first on the
plains immediately contiguous to the mountains, and extends to
a considerable height up the slopes. The extent covered by
this tree, its importance and its characteristics are sufldcient
reasons for taking it into account Avhen determining the dis-
tribution of the flora. There are two kinds, the irhitc and the
red. The timber is not adapted for building, but is used for
ploughs and carts ; the bark resembles cork, and that of the red
is preferred, as being less knotty, for the knots cannot be split
through, and therefore the timber is less good. The bark con-
tains from 1 4 to 15 % of tannin. The worst is that the tree
dies Avhen stripped of its bark ; and in Tucuman, consecpiently,
where there are many tan-yards, the rrltil is beginning to be
very costly, especially as its growth is not at all rapid.
As we are on the subject of tanning, I will add that the leaf
of the Quehrarho Blanco (Aspidosperraa quebracho), which
abounds in the Chaco and in the forests of Santiago, contains
198 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
27-50% of tannin ; it is not, however, so far as I know, made
use of on an}' large scale, although it has the quality of not
colouring the hides, like the cehil, and acting, therefore, as a
corrective of the latter.
But to return to Fort Sarmiento. Besides all the delights I
have mentioned, there was another, the crown of all. This
Avas a line library belonging to the colonel, full of military and
other histories, of Avorks on science and literature, and of those
liandbooks that make science popular by presenting it under an
attractive form, such as the works of JNIantegazza, of Flammarion,
and of Jules Verne. Writers such as these are the evangelists
of science, and however loudly learned pedants and sophistical
teachers may declaim against the usurpations, the transfigurations,
and even the inaccuracy of these authors, the fact remains, that
tiirough them and by their means the public learns and enjoys
the truths of science distilled in their laboratories, where but for
such Avriters they would remain inaccessible to the people, who
Avould not appreciate them if not presented under an attractive
form.
When Avandering in foreign countries, one ahvays seeks,
especially at first, for something that appertains to one's OAvn
native land. I looked round, therefore, for Italian authors.
One only had the honour of being a guest, but to me and to
the OAvner of the library he Avas a host in himself. I speak of
Cesare Cantu and his " Universal History " (Storia Universale)
in a handsome Spanish translation.
I have met Avith this history in all parts of the Eepublic,
thanks to the public circulating libraries, that, during the
presidency of Sarmiento, Avere extended in every direction Avith
tlie aid of the National Government, Avho granted in every case
a sum equal in amount to that collected in the neighbourliood.
They are noAV ruined by the mismanagement of taxes, and are
struggling Avith numberless local difficulties, the chief of Avhich
are the long distances.
I have often wondered Avhy Cantu is not even a senator, and
then I have reflected that he must have declined the honour,
because it Avould have been a disgrace to jVIenabrea at least, if
not to Cairoli and Depretis, not to have offered him a nomina-
tion. I am aAvare that he has been accused of historical in-
accuracy on certain very intricate questions, but I, Avho cannot
unravel them, am struck Avith admiration, not only for the
gigantic lines on Avhich his Avork is laid, but also for his lucid
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. I99
ami beautiful style. I loamed more of tlie liistory of American
iiuU'pemleiice in twenty pages of his work, than in any special
liistory of the subject.
It is said that " he has not the philosophic mind." I grant
it, but he is a model of the grand historical style, in the di.s-
tribution of subject, the grouping of facts, in conciseness, in
clearness, and in the literary style which is so greatly a^jpreciated
in other authors.
" But his history is written in favour of the Catholic Church."
I remarked this myself, and 1 luive Jiever been able to forget
till' kind of subterfuge made u.se of with regard to a letter on
tlie analogy between Christianity and pre-existing Buddhism
written by a missionary named ])e (Jiorgi to the Propaganda at
Kome. Cantii transcribes it, either in the appendi.x to one of
his volumes or among his authorities, Imt in Latin ; and, however
familiar the style, it is not easy, and the greater number of
readers will not take the trouble to make it out. On the other
hand, he translates many other documents. But after all, this
is oidy one of the many sides of the work, and although open
to criticism, as are some other points, tiie larger remaining
Itortion dries not thereby Io.se its value.
Be.sides, are there not numberle.ss historians who devote
their skill to the service of a cause? — and who, nevertheless,
are ajiproved by the majority of readere ? It is merely a
question of .sympathy with the writer's view.s. Now let him
who is without sin cast the first stone.
In the public liln-ary of a mining district I met with another
])ook by an Italian autlior ; tlie " Ltzioni di (Jeologia," by the
Abate .Stop{>azii, a well-known name in Italy. To a vast scientific
erudition, he adds a style so splendid, that it is a real creation
ajiplied to the discour.se on the earth.
I feel that I owe much to Stoppani, although I do not even
know him by sight. The full discu.ssion of, and his own views
on, the circulation of the atmosphere as ba.sed on the theories
of Dana and Manry, and his hypothesis on the upheaval by
cn. I do not enter into the science of it, for I know
nothing of that ; let me speak of what may be called the
litcnuy side.
To begin with, the author is too argumentative. It may seem
strange to call this a fault, but I consider it one in a scientific
work. The eagerness of the author to demonstrate his con
elusions, his enthusiastic, nay, almost irritable advocacy of
views which, if true, are true, and Avhich, if not, can be made so
by no (!librt of rhetoric, does not appear to me a good scientific
method. It must at first confuse the student, sometimes annoy
him, and often compromise the author.
The very honesty which leads the writer to correct in the
edition I have mentioned some conclusions to which he had
come in an earlier edition, is apt to shake the confidence of the
reader, and, if he is a pupil, to expose him to severe mortification.
The student, as such, espouses his author's cause, and supports
all his teaching tlirough thick and thin, and then some fine
day may find himself confuted out of the mouth of his own
master ! The latter, in his turn, cannot Init find himself
trammelled by the previous hot polemic, and the confidence
he had inspired lessened by his change of sides.
There are, moreover, two other serious defects, which to my
mind are anti-scientific : these are, firstly, the absolutism of
certain theses ; and secondly, intolerance and contempt for his
oi)ponents, who are for him enemies.
Our author bases this cliaracter of his on h.\& profound srit-ntifir
ronvidiona. But may not his opponents put forth a like claim ?
They, however, are more reserved, and do not take it at all that
themselves, their pupils, and the public should accept their
conclusions, with all the conditions that are i)resented with them.
But Stoppani is exasperated by the conclusions of otliei-s, if
contradictory of the teaching of the Scri])tures, which he
ingeniously interprets so as to harmonize witli the henceforth
unanswerable tniths of science. But I ask, are not these
very interpretations that harmonize science and the Bildc
precisely the fruit of profane truths denietl in the beginning by
the authorized exponents of Scripture with such positive con-
viction and such contemptuous intolerance? And why should
it be surprising that the learned and the curious, not concerning
202 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
themselves with Biblical doctrines, should take advantage of every
kind of data in order to draw rational conclusions, and should
leave to the expositors of Scriptural tradition the task of
harmonizing the two ?
It is not only useful, it is honest and right to be prudent, in
order faithfully to serve science, which is jeopardized if tram-
melled by former beliefs extraneous to her. Our author is
indignant at the hypothesis of tertiary man ; and excluding or
omitting the greater, interpreting the lesser spaces of time at-
tributed to the quaternary epoch, deduced by some naturalists
from geological data — none of them very convincing — proceed-
ing in sequence with traditional and archaeological elements, he
places the appearance of man at an epoch that makes it agree
with the words of Scripture. It is a line demonstration,
although, of course, somewhat lame, and will be found interest-
ing both by poets and ladies who care to seek for it at the end
of the second volume. But the basis is unsound. For it is in
fact demonstrated that it is impossible to prove the existence
of man in the tertiary period. Yes, by the author and some
others, to his and their satisfaction, and to that of others,
perhaps, up to the moment at which he wrote, but can it be so
for the future 1 A j)^'iori the answer must be in the negative, since
mammals are shown to have existed in the secondary period,
and the following facts refute such a premature and positive
conclusion, albeit accompanied by anathema. Quatrefages, in-
deed, who is beyond the suspicion of the most orthodox, who
at the time that Stoppani's work was published suspended his
judgment on this difficult and transcendental qu(!stion, came
later to the conclusion that the existence of tertiary man is
proved by the fresh discoveries of the Abbe Bourgeois at Thenay,
and those of Professor Cappellini at Monte Aperto. Moreover,
he came to the opinion that tertiary man is proved, and not
only as belonging to the last period of the tertiary epoch, but
also to the middle period, and also he does not hesitate to accept
the idea of man as still more remote.
Now, one such proof, if accepted, relegates man to an antiquity
with which it is impossible to make the Bible (ransacked to
establish an opposite conclusion) agree, unless by means of a
retractation like the famous one concerning the immobility of
the earth. Such a retractation would be dangerous and scandalous
to timid souls and upright minds, in proportion to the fury ami
intolerance with which the contrary thesis has been su2:)ported.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 203
I'.ut the incompatibility of science as the servant of dogma,
Avith science as the servant of truth, is sliown most clearly in
the question that Avill henceforth be called Darwinism. Our
author here pushes anger and intolerance to the verge of
insult.
According to the Darwinian theory, living organisms are the
product of progressive evolution in embryonic form, which by
exercise of forces of complex kinds, called natural selection,
and developed in different directions, with successive subdivi-
sions, has given place to the infinite variety of past and present
existing organisms.
This theory, which is corroborated both by fact and reflection,
commends itself so strongly to the mind by its simplicity, and
to the understanding by its force and depth, that it would
probably have been accepted universally, with an immense
longing to search into its truths, only that it clashed with the
previous cosmogonies sanctioned by ancient religions. The
theory was, therefore, received with indignation, when it was
extended to the origin of man. The self-esteem of men was
appealed to in order to controvert it ; and it was confouiuled
with atheism and materialism, which, although Jio less Avortliy
of respect than any other oi)inions, are not necessarily either
admittetl or rejected by the l)arwinian theory. Stoppani even
goes so far as to ask whether Darwinians are not ashamed of
having been born, now that they renounce their origin from
Adam. No ! there is no disgrace in admitting the lowliness
of our origin, it is our duty to recognize it, when so it is ; ami
the vaunt of Themistocles that the nobility of his family origi-
nateil in himself may even likewise lie justified. Mans worth
is not to be measured by what he or his ancestors may have been,
but by what he is. There is no divine righteousness that can
be preferred before the righteousness of the human conscience,
and this conscience teaches lis that rewanls and punishments
must be awarded to the man as he now exists, not to a man
who existed in the past and is now no more.
What 1 Has the Eternal Father who, according to the
orthodox, calls to His bosom the souls of those who are like
Him, lost all power, and have we lost all merit because the root
of our genealogical tree is an organic mumxl instead of an
image of clay 1
Jiut such a theory is atheism and materialism ! By no
means ! How do we deny God by affirming that a Creating
204 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
Power and a Preordinating Mind— instead of manifesting; itself
by the numerous isolated, intermittent, non-coordinate acts of
Avill which would be necessitated by the separate creation of
each of the innumerable species belonging to the vegetable and
animal kingdoms — should have created one solitary germ, and
pre-ordained for it the laws according to which it should
develop m the numberless directions which correspond to the
combination and the empire of these very laws 1
How do we deny the soul by affirming that the vital force
acquires new virtue as it becomes incarnated in progressively
higher organisms, imtil at last it attains to human life, and sees
before it the destiny which is attributed by religion to man 1
Because, in fact, tlie reasonableness and the justice of this
destiny actually reside, according to the declarations of philoso-
phers and doctors and the common consent of mankind, on the
faculties by which man is distinguished from other creatures.
Now these faculties are not denied by the fact of attributing
to them the various gestations of Darwinism.
This DarAvinian theory, independently of all metaphysical
considerations, and although not exempt from the severity of
scientific criticism, presents itself, nevertheless, with such an
impress of simplicity, of fulness, of harmony, and of gravity,
that it becomes the duty of the learned and the unlearned to
study it with profound attention, and to welcome it as a hope
that brightens the future of science and of the speculative
intellect.
For my own part, I parody the saying on behalf of the
existence of God, that " if the Darwinian theory did not exist,
we should have to invent it," because the mind and the soul of
man may in it find rest in contemplation of the progi^ession and
concatenation of organisms, and from that of the irrationality
of their existence in such large numbers, if their appearance
must be attributed to an equal number of acts of an omniscient
and omnipotent will.
We much enjoyed our agreeable and instructive conversation
with the gallant colonel, but so soon as the storm, of which
the climatological instruments included among his astronomical
ones had warned us, had passed away, we decided on resuming
our journey, and on the morning of the fourth day we took a
regretful leave of our kind hosts, and started for Oran.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 205
CHAPTER XL
THE CIIUQCHO — REPTILES, BTRDS, QUADRUPEDS.
The poor colonel ! An attack of paralysis, brought on by the
chu(|i'ho, might hav(^ kept him in bed for a long time. But,
fin-tunately, the regimental surgeon, Signor Baldi, froiu Lucca,
a man esteemed and liked by all who knew him, and expe-
rienced in this kind of malady, diagno.sed the disease at once,
and saved him.
The chu([cho is the same as our marsh fever. It breaks out
fre(piently in the summer and autumn seasons in the northern
provinces of the Kopublic, in localities on or near the mountains,
where the redundant vegetation, added to a high temperature
and a moist atmosphere, determines the production of marshy
miasma. The provinces of Salta and Tucuman, and sometimes
those parts of Catamarca also that are situate on the plain near
hills and villeys, are visited with this scourge. ■ Oran, which is
shut in among mountains, and stands in the midst of dense
and luxuriant forests, sutlers from it to a still greater
degree.
It has already been remarked by naturalists that the southern
hemisphere suliers le.ss from inarsh miasma than the northern ;
it exists in the latter as far as 59° lat. N., while in the former it
does not habitually leach from beyond the tropic to 24^ lat. 8.
I can add from personal observation that miasma is not only
allecled by latitude, but by orographical conditions also — which,
interfering with the free circulation of tlu- air, and thus caus-
ing the atmosi^here to be more easily saturated with moisture,
constitute, togetlier with the latitude, a region possessing the
three conditions mentioned above, viz. redundant vegetation,
moisture, and heat. These conditions are thus supplied even
more easily than by the great masses of running water and the
low-lying i)lains of the Parar.a and the Paraguay in the same
latitude. Mai-sh fevers prevad, therefore, in the Republic as far
206 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
as 30° lat. S., in the places and under the orogvaphical conditions
aforesaid.
From Fort Sarmiento we proceeded towards Oran, a distance
by road of thirty-four leagues, but only twenty in a direct
line, which is, liowever, impracticable. We skirted the line of
the tropics, and our shadows no longer accompanied us on our
left side, but were sometimes in front, sometimes behind, ac-
cording to the time of day ; and at last we drew near Oran in a
W.N.W. direction.
It was the middle of October. The sun was in its dog-days'
strength, and the plants, miserdike, after the earliest hours (jf
the day, gathered round them and beneath them all the shade
that would have been so grateful to the wayfarer ; while the
lizard and the viper, stationed at the edge of the belt of shade,
made all approach dangerous.
All was silence, not a rustling leaf heralded a refreshing
breeze to play on our foreheads and assuage the burning heat
within us ; not a warbling note to encourage our progress
from the innumerable singing-birds that were hidden among
the leaves, or, with ruffled feathers, perched motionless on the
branches, or slowly fluttered, as we approached, from one twig to
another.
But, at long intervals, there was a shrill and prolonged
whistle, like that of a steam-engine. This was tlie song with
which the coyuyo, a large sort of cicada, announces and rejoices
over the maturity of the caruba.
As we drew near to the stagnant waters, the frog, hidden
under the grass, would suddenly splash in, and for a moment
the widening circles would simulate life, as the fetid bubbles
rose to the surface; while the stupid toad fancied he was
escaping danger by hiding his ill-formed head in the first ostrich
egg-hole he saw before him.
Our horses, overcome with the heat, were insensible to the
spur ; and the riders, wearied with useless endeavours, left their
steeds to their own devices.
Our progress was slow, but not the less fatiguing. At dusk
we lighted upon a numerous vanguard of the new flora. These
were chebiU. We were within a little of finding ourselves
prisoners until the next day, each step through the plantation,
of more than three leagues in length, was so full of difficulty.
We reached our halting-place late at night, having made
thirteen leagues. This was an edancia called liosario : the few
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 20/
inlml>itants were already asleep, and, stretcliiiif,' ourselves on the
ground, we followed their example. Our slumbers were accom-
panied by the wailing of women in a neighbouring tolderia, aa
they mourned over tlie body of a man who had died of a disease
only recently developed among them, and by which they were
being decimated.
Tlie next morning the mountains rose distinctly in view, and
we could see their crests now and again as far as Fort 8ar-
miento, standing out against the horizon like immense stretches
of landscape suspended between earth and sky. "We were at
that moment ten leagues away from the nearest, yet we saw it
clearly and distinctly. In cloudless weather the atmosphere
throughout the IJepublic is so diaphanous, that European eyes,
even when educated to the transparency of southern skies, are
often deceived as to distance. 1 have frequently experienced
this on the railway, being able to distinguish the huts of the
settlers and the stations at a distance of seven or eight kilo-
meters ; a more delightiul j)rospect awaits me whenever I go to
I'ucuman and suddenly catch sight of the majestic amphi-
theatre of mountains by which that province is enclosed on the
west and north, while I am still at a distance from it of 200
kilometers.
.After travelling for thirty kilometers, we halted for luncheon
at the house of a wealthy Spanish estanciero, who was said
to own more than 10,000 head of cattle. The hour and the
heat of the season made the conversation turn on reptiles.
"We were told of several vipers whose bite is dangerous to man
and beast, and of the belief entertained by Creoles and Indians
that the skin of a serpent, drieil and worn round the head, is
a remedy for violent headache. This idea prevails throughout
the Republic among the inhabitants of the canqto.
A virtue even superior to this resides in the lizard and the
chameleon, whether raw or cooked, as a cure for syphilis.
Some marvellous cures are reported. It is said that if the belly
of a living toad be applied to erysipelas a cure is effected. Thi.s
belief is shared by everybody here, whether civilized or savage;
and the skin powdend and rubbed on the gums is said to be a
cure for scurvy.
As to the application of one body to another, there seems no
rea.son to reject a priari certain opinions, when accompanied liy
circumstances that induce reflection. 2seither mystic signs nor
cabalistic words are in question in these cases. I should add
208 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
that an ointment of toad-grease, dissolved in boiling oil, and
collected on the lid of the stew-pan, has been of proved efficacy
in cases of quinsy. A colleague of mine, who was educated
in England, Engineer Pardo Saltegno, knew it to be efficacious
on two occasions in the case of his brother, a lawyer.
Another of my colleagues. Engineer Valiente, had suggested
it to Pardo, who thus escaped the operation he had under-
gone on a former occasion, and which was impending a second
time several years later. My own brother was threatened
with the loss of his leg from erysipelas in Italy, but was unex-
pectedly cured, shortly after binding two live frogs for a whole
night on the atfected part. He knows how they tortured him !
I was a child, but I remember it.
Snakes, including vipers, are very greedy for milk in these
parts. There are plenty of anecdotes on the sulyect, as in Italy.
I knew a lady in Rivadavia, the wife of an Englishman, with
whom I was also acquainted, who nearly lost a precious infant
through a viper that found its way to the child's bed. The
mother discovered it one day at the hour of siesta, and after-
wards, on making a search through the house, its mate was
found on the straw roof.
It is wonderful that these vipers so continually glide among
persons sleeping on the ground without disturbing them, and
do not bite, even when unconsciously touched by the sleeper.
This proves not only the intelligence of the creature, but also
that it only strikes in self-defence.
The ampalagua, so common in the province of Santiago, is
very rarely met with in these parts. This snake is four yards
in length and about the tenth of a yard or rather more
in diameter. Its colour is the same as that of our common
snakes. My men destroyed a female containing a number of
eggs, with yolks three times the size of the yolk of a fowl's
egg. I do not know what stage of pregnancy had been reached.
A coral-snake lying on an iron rod and trodden upon, gave
a sort of electric shock to a friend of mine, who felt too
much disgusteii to repeat the experiment. These vipers are
diistinguished by coloured rings, white, red, and black, on the
back.
There is also a species of animal, half-newt, half-lizard, with
a short tail, vulgarly called sierra morena, from being marked
with a saw {sierra) on the back. It is the colour of wood, lives
in trees, and is venomous. It is extremely dangerous.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 209
The iguana, on the contrary, is harmless. It is an enormous
newt, and is sometimes a yard in len;^'th, and in tliat case is
tifteen or twenty centimeters in diameter. It is amphibious,
the skin speckled a dull red and green, ;ind changing its colour
according to the light. It is eaten by the natives, and the short,
thick tail is considered a delicacy.
j^^Thc turtle is a^s much honoured in the kitchen here as with
ourselves. It is in general very much larger than our turtles,
and the shell is superior — being so delicately carved in geome-
trical patterns at the edge of each octagonal scale that it looks
like the ■work of some skilful engraver.
"N'enomous insects are not Avanting. There are scorpions and
tarantulas, like those in the Tuscan marshes, only uglier, and
innumerable absurd-looking spiders with bodies as big as a
baby's fist poised on the tips of its fingers. They are hairy,
extremely prolific, and carry their young astride on their backs
when first hatched. They make their nests up trees and in
roofs. They are said to be venomous.
In contrast with these ugly and poisonous spiders are
the numerous kinds of bees, whose honey— or niilh; as the
Chiccuan wurd has it {iniJhqui, like the German milrk and
English milk) — is so delicious to man and to many wild animals.
One kind of bee, called alpamilhqui, makes its honey on the
ground (a/pa), in hives divided into several compartmejits of five
centimetti-s in length and one in diameter, from each of which
a diflerent kind of honey is extracted, according to the prevail-
ing flowers entering into its composition. Then there is the
ffiD-finii, or sand-bee ; the moro-mdro, that produces a rapidly
crystallizing honey in small quantities, but so strong that, on
•me occasion having taken a little while fasting, I became,
as it were, intoxicated. 'J'here are many other kinds of bees
that, like the two last named, deposit their honey in the trunks
of trees. All these are harmless ; they do not sting ; and look
like flies, from which they are only distinguishable by their
persistence and viscosity when they alight on the h;\nds and
face, and use their trunks for sucking. The two species of
fr/iieatin<,' their -winj^'s
until she becomes confused aTnl wanders away from the calf,
which, unconscious of danger, bellows witli raised head and
open mouth. The rest of tlie brigade tlien swooping down
drag out its tongue with a sudthjn stroke of their talons, and
then put out its eyes. Thus the mother no longer hears the
son. and the latter cannot see the mother, wlio, terrified by the
iiorce condors, wanders farther and farther from the poor blind
calf, that, without strength to defend itself, soon falls a victim.
If the cow has any previous experience of her enemies' mode
of attack, she stands over her calf, and freciuently defends her-
self with such success as to put her cruel foes to Hight.
In the case of lambs and kids, resistance is impossil)Ie ; with
two strokes of the talon, all is over.
To get rid of this terrible scourge, the f.^tnnriorox have for
some years past made use of strychnine. They insert it into
numenms wounds made in the carcase of an animal, either
slaughtered for the purpose, or that has been fortunately dis-
covered Avhen newl}' dead.
At first the condors remain round the carcase, tearing it and
feeding from it. liut after a while they detect something
wrong, and refuse to touch the suspected flesh ; and even if it
is removed at night to another place, they recognize it again.
In order to convince himself of the truth of his suspicion,
the condor waits until the caranchos and crows have thrown
themselves first on the prey ; if they do not fall dead, the
condors plunge down from the mountain-toits and hill-sides, and
fall upon the carcase, while, in the contrary event, they remove
to a distance.
At present, therefore, strychnine is of no use, except to get rid
of a few novices who are ignorant of, or mIio despise the danger.
The condor, when full to repletion, is slow in flight, and is
obliged to throw himself into space fnmi a height like the
SM'allow. Sometimes on these occasions he can lie despatched
by blows from a slick, but this happens very seldom.
Among the quadrupeds of the Chaco, the tupir or aula (the
214 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
Chiccliuan name by wliicli lie is called in these i)arts) is remark-
able for its strange structure. It resem})Ies both the horse
and the pig. 'l"he Mattaccos, in fact, call a horse jelatatch, or
Jcuyje tapir. Above all, when in a sitting posture, supported on
the forelegs, it looks like a horse, from the waist upwards. The
skin is dark cotfee-brown, almost black, and of a texture between
horse and bull. The tail is like a pig's ; the hoofs cloven, with
four front toes and three beliind ; tlie intestines are similar to,
if not the same as those of the horse ; the excrements are those of
the ass. This animal has small, pig-like eyes and ears; the cervix
is armed Avith a bony projection of immense power. The legs
are short and massive; body thick and short, of most inelegant
shape, yet with swift action nevertheless. It has a movable nasal
appendage, resembling a diminutive proboscis with the nasal
orifices at the end ; and twenty-four teeth, twelve in each jaw,
arranged in groups of four, of which there is one in front and
one on each side ; the teeth are shaped like the teeth of horses.
The creature is herbivorous ; and being a pachyderm, the hide
is excessively hard and most valuable for harness, especially the
shield-like part along the spine. The liver is large, thirty centi-
meters by forty, and consists of three lobes ; tlie centre one
being subdivided at the base into four others, which are partly
placed over it, and into two smaller ones above. The tapir
plunges willingly into and under the water, like the hippo-
potamus. Tlie one we killed was one yard in height, and
about one and a half in length ; its proboscis measured twenty
centimeters. Lt was full-grown and was separated from its
female, by which it was generally accompanied, as well as by
another couple or two. It is found in the thickets of the
tropical regions, on the plains, and on the hills. Hence it
abounds in the Chaco and in Tucuman, but avoids inhabited
places, although easily tamed.
The flesh is sweetish, like horse-flesh, and excessively
hard ; the taste remained in my mouth for several days.
Its weight may be about that of a medium- sized horse, or
perhaps rather more, on account of its corpulence and mas-
.siveness.
I have given a detailed description of this creature, because
I have read inexact accounts of it, written perhaps by persons
who had not seen the brute. I derive its name from its copper
coloui*, anta being Chicchuan for copper, and not iox large beast,
as so many writers have, I know not why, asserted. There are
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC 21$
groat munT)ers of rhvarf dogs and dwarf fowls in tnose parts, not
ifroin individual defective groAvtli, but the raee is dwarfed.
The tiger feeds not oidy on q\iadrupeds large and small, but,
like our own domestic cat, on poultry in times of dearth, and
even on fish. To obtain the latter he stands on watch in some
suitable place, often the trunk of a tree that has fallen in the
river, and either clutches it with his claws as it swims by, or
with one blow of his paw flings it on the bank.
For killing horses and cattle he hunts against the wind, that
his prey may not detect him by scent. He springs on the
crupper and attacks the head, tearing the creature's neck with
his strong teeth and claws. AVhen it has fallen, he prefers the
breast, leaving the remainder to the vultures, who aie never
absent from the festival.
The ;;«»?a is the other large carnivorous animal. The vulgar
name for it here is lion, but this is about as appropriate as the
name of horse given to the llama by the Chinese when they dis-
covered America on the Pacific side, or that of tapir, given by
the ^Mattaccos to the horse. The American male lion has no
mane, nor a tuft to his tail, nor is he as large as the lion of
Africa. He is a large cat, if I may say so, entirely grey ; about
eighty centimeters in height, and a yard and twenty centi-
meters in length. Ho can be domesticated, but even his master
must be cautious, while strangers must not go near him. He
attacks the smaller quadrupeds, such as goats, .sheep, and deer,
but ho does not like the woods. "When pursued, he climbs
trees, and dares not descend among the pack of hounds at the
foot. The hunters, who have climbed into adjoining trees, thou
have recourse to the lasso, and strangle him. The puma will
attack a man asleep, and even the hunters in extreme cases.
AVhile tliey are cubs the tapir and the roclmck are striped
with white, and the puma has .muall dark spots. They lose this
adventitious colouring afterwards, but it indicates some vanished
traits of jirogenitors.
The ant-bear is a most curious and ugly creature. It derives
its name from feeding on those insects, which are found in
onormous numbers in the Chaco. Thoy build cities, consisting
of thousands of cone-shaped hills about a yartl in height, in
each of which arc billions of these most intelligent insects.
The ant-bear is usually dwarf, and crawds, as it were, along the
ground ; it is over a yard in length, with a long, sharp snout,
more like a fleshy appendage ; its coat is dark yellow, with stilf
2l6 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
hristles. Those along the spine are long and black ; the tail
has a crook, with which it holds its cub, which clambers on
its back. At Eivadavia a cub, whose mother had been killed,
refused the milk offered it, unless it was allowed to climb on the
carcass of the dead mother. It makes its way about by jumping,
with the muzzle on the ground.
The forelegs are armed with claws, and are of enormous
strength. They form the bear's sole means of defence ; he sits
on his hind-quarters, and contends successfully even with tigers.
The tongue is excessively long and thin, and nsed with such
twirling rapidity that it reminds one of a venomous asp when
in action. It is a prehensile instrument for procuring food.
The wild cat or wood-cat is a great enemy to fowls, both wild
and domestic ; I killed a speckled one. There are many kinds
of doer, and the roebuck, called corzuela, also other lesser
ruminants.
I must also mention the simarrone, or wild bull, which has
escaped from the estancias. It is a terrible brute to meet ; a
man has barely time to seek safety in a tree, when the creature
stations himself at the foot, and endeavours to tear it up by the
roots. Once, when on the top of a steep and solitary mountain,
I saw the Indian who was with me turn pale on hearing the
trampling of simarrones.
Hares are very abundant ; they are larger than with us, and
slightly different. Their speed is great, attaining two-thirds of
a kilometer per minute, as I had an opportunity of verifying
once in the province of Santiago, when a frightened hare rushed
along the metals in front of the locomotive.
An animal called the hiscacha is part fox, part hare, part cat ;
its tiesh is not very palatable, it is nocturnal, lives in holes, is most
prolific, and does great damage in the fields, selecting by pre-
ference those near inhabited spots. The owl, called lecliuza in
Spanish, shares in its retreat. I wondered at seeing owls so
frequently in the Pampas, because at home with us they live in
solitary ruined towers.
Wild rabbits are also excessively abundant ; in size and colour
they might be mistaken for tailless moles. They are delicious
morsels for falcons and vipers, Indians and Christians, as we ex-
perienced ourselves after living for months without flesh-meat.
]jut the idea is repugnant to Italians.
Among semi-aquatic, not to say amphibious animals, tlie
largest, though not the most common, is the carpincho, a kind
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 21/
of wliitc pi;,', bristled like the porcupine, witli bearded snout,
slow in its movements, and wliieli avoids danger by long-con-
tinued immersion under water. The Hesh is good eating ; it
weighs about forty kilograms ; it is a pachyderm.
The icatcr icolf^ is of dwarf size, weighing at most fifteen
kilograms, the head is catdike and extremely intelligent ; the
skin is valuable, and the llesh good. It saves itself from
danger like the carpincho, but with more alnlity, making the
most astonishing sj)rings. I have oidy met with it in the lower
part of the "\'ermejo, where the water is deep and brackish.
In the same localities, and likewise higher up the river, we
find the otter, or nutria in Spanish. The skin is a most valuable
article of commerce ; the flesh is good to eat. It weighs from
hve to seven kilograms. Its movements are sIoav on land, but
it is thoroughly at home in the water, where it gambols and
disports itself in view of the hunter. The skin of the otter and
that of the wolf, both brown, supply the greater part of winter
clothing.
We do not find in the wooded plains of the Chaco the sheep,
with its beautiful, almond-shaped black eyes, that lives in
deserted fields ; or the llama, a beast of burden ; or the untam-
able vicuna, with its valuable fleece; or the domesticated
alpaca, which represents our own flocks at home, and that lives
on the unforested mountains. All these are ruminants, all
have long necks frequently curved in artistic attitudes, and all
are graceful and stupid in their ways.
^ Commonly so called ; if not carnivorous, it is certainly piscivorous.
OF
2l8 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
CHAPTEE XII.
CHANGE OF LANDSCAPE — PROGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC —
IRRIGATION.
"\Vb Avere eager to reach' Oran, the most tropical city of the
Argentines, situate in the midst of a region in which the irony
of Fate showers with one hand every requisite for the most
astounding fecundity, and with the other restricts the means of
fructification within an angle hundreds of leagues from any
Centre of consumption or of traffic, and subject to volcanic
convulsions.
At about two-thirds of our day's journey we came to the
skirts of the chain of hills enclosing on the east the basin of
Oran, which is bounded on the west by the high chain of the
Zenta. This name, like that of Oran, is African, either trans-
planted here by the pious patriotism of the first colonists, or, as
some assert, so named in consequence of their analogous destiny,
which was originally that of a penal settlement.
The forests, denser and more lofty, no longer consist of
algarrobo, nor of innumerable kinds of mimosa with their
minute and deeply-notched leaves, nor of aromatic flowering
plants ; but sebillos, with knotty and wrinkled bark, begin to
predominate, and lapachos witli their roseate flowers and hard
timber, suitable for all kinds of buildirig purposes ; and, further
up, the china-china, with its fragrant resin, and the purgative
sarsa2^arilla.
It is curious that the chebraccio, that flourishes in the very
driest regions, should be numerously represented here, and Ijy
trees of exceptional height or size.
We ascended the cordon called Loma de la Emharcacion by
a path that wound sometimes down a deep ravine, and some-
times at the edge of a precipice, the steep sides of which
revealed the most capricious stratifications — tokens of the local
efl'ects of repeated volcanic convulsions. There are traces
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 219
roiiiainin;^ of the cartlKjuake of 1871, Avhen a gulf of some
yanls in width, and many leagues in K'ngth from east to west,
openedin the direction of Oran, crossing tlie whole basin and tho
hills, and lowering by noontide the surrounding land to the
extent of one yard. Time has obliterated any distinct traces
in till' plain near Talxu-al, but landslips are still visilile on the
hills.
Having leached the summit, we easily descended tlie other
side by a kind of road that had bi-en out through, and which
led us through a forest vegetation continually increasing iu
beauty until, late in the evening, we reached the plain.
The bogs formed by the rains and by the floods of the
Vermejo, which river runs along the western skirt of the cordon
and a few leagues lower down joins the S. Francisco, takes a
curve to the south-east, and begins its course across the plain of
the Gran Chaco — the bogs, I say, formed by the rains, were
tilled by an extraordinary quantity of frogs of a thousand
ditt'erent species. The croaking of tliese creatures made our
voices inaudible to each other at the distance of a few yards.
The damp, close, heavy, and cold atmosphere made us
anxious to leave these wilds behind us, where every mouthful
of air seemed fever-laden. To tin's was added the misery of
mosfjuitoes. Countless, persistent, stinging, greedy, insatiable,
undaunted, they reduced us to desperation. Exaggeration
becomes impossible in describing the misery, the restles.sness,
the fury these plagues of nature produce. One must have
travelled in these parts, or, what is still worse, have lived on
board a vessel at anchor, surrounded by forest, in the miilst of
a summer calm, to understand the amount of suffering endured
from these tyrants of one's existence. It is necessary to eat
before dusk, to go to bed when the meal is scarcely at an end,
to enclose oneself in a mosquito curtain as in a sepulchral urn,
to endure a stifling heat ami an overwhelming perspiration, an«l
to lie awake till dawn. There is nothing to be done beyond
tossing and turning on the little bedstead of half a yard wide,
Avhile all the time there is a beautiful moon shining, or a starry
sky, and one knows that with two stejis out of doors and a fan,
one could spend a night in Paradi.se. Nor is this all, fur
somehow or other a mosquito always flnds its way inside the
curtains, followed by several more. One's liands are soon
iiisutficient for self-defence, and with smarting shoidders, and
face aching from one's own boxes on the eai-s, and burning witli
220 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
a childish rage, one must wait seven or eight liours for the
early breeze heralding the approach of dawn.
We crossed the river at night on a flat-bottomed boat, and in a
few moments were hospitably received at a military post called
La Emharcacion.
Here we met with an old acquaintance, Colonel Napoleon
TIriburu, commandant of the northern frontier of the Gran
Ghaco, with whom we spent a week or ten days.
This young and able officer holds a distinct place in the
military and political life of the country ; and there are pages
in his life's history that deserve to be known. I am confident
that the reader and he will forgive me if I say a few words
concerning him. His is a remarkable instance of how men are
made. When a lad he worked on his own estancia, and being
inquisitive, ambitious, and extremely intelligent, he learnt their
native language from the Indians who came harvesting to the
estancia, lived among them, and ended by occasionally adopting
their mode of life when more convenient, while he worked and
studied. Belonging to one of the most distinguished families
in the province of Salta and the Republic, he next entered the
army, thus adopting the most exalted career afforded by this
country, and entered the military college. During the Para-
guayan war he had the honour of being chosen to bear the good
tidings of victory to the general-in-chief and the President of
the Republic, gaining promotion by so doing. Later, he was
ordered to make a military reconnaissance of the Chaco from
Humaita to Oran, and succeeded to the fullest extent. Avithout
even the loss of a single horse, though in the midst of Indians,
who are adepts at horse-lifting. He published proclamations
to the Indians in their own language, gave them presents,
and made friends of them for the time being.
In 1874 he was made lieutenant-colonel, and while in com-
mand of the Northern Division, occupied in quelling the revo-
lution which had broken out in that year, he gave proofs of
extraordinary activity and ability. Since then he has received
various important commands from the National Government,
and has been acknowledged as the head of a party in his native
l)iovince and in that of Jujuy. A few months after our meeting
liiin. General Roca, the War Minister, being in need of an
otficer whose fidelity was alcove suspicion for the command of
the right wing in the expedition to Rio Negro against the
Indians of the Pampas, selected Uriburu, who has now for
OF THE ARC.KNTINl': RliPUCLIC. 221
eifflit niouUis been ti<,'htin^' against tln'iii. All the licaviest
li;,'liting has fallen to the right wing, which is posted against
the Conlilli'ra, across the river Nauquen, and is constantly
attacked with desperation. He has thus obtained the rank of
eolunel.
Physically he is the true type of his countrymen. Rather
above middle height, slight of figure, with muscles of steel,
lirown complexion, dark and sparkling eyes, jet black hair
and beard, well-bred, and of distinguished appearance.
He likes illustrative conversation. He is studious, hard-work-
ing, and active. He lias, if he chooses, a great future before hiui
in this Keimblican, dcmiocratic, restless nation.
Now, whether it be from race, or climate, or food, or the
freedom enjoyed even by children, or all these together, the fact
remains that the people of the Argentines are remarkably intel-
ligent, and have a truly a.stonishing quickness of jierception.
It remains to be seen whetlier they- possess corresponding go(jd
sense ; but this is acquired in a great measure by stiidioua
cultivation of the intellect, and l)y living in the midst of fully-
developed and complicated socdal conditions. Education and
.social development are spreading daily throughout the country,
which, in a few short years, has made gigantic strid(!.s in
jiopulation, in the development of wealth, and of the means of
wealtli, and in the progress of learning. Bank.s, railways,
telegraph.s, and other public Avorks, agrarian and industrial
nuichinerv, have come into operation in such proportions as to
renund one of, and even to surpass, Italy in the first twenty
years of her national existence — I say surpass, by reason of the
relatively or individually greater wealth. When Ave consider
the number of inhabitants is only 2,000,000, and that there is
a corresponding amount of railways and of telegraphs, equal, if
not superior, to the like proportion in Xorth America and in
England.
Tiieu the national .system of education and that of the pro-
vince of lUuMios Ayres, has taken root and been regulated and
developed so as to change tlie face of the country in this respect
within a few years. Two universities, a national college in
CkIcIi of the fourteen provinces, museums of physics, chemistry
and natural science, might well be envied by many of the
largest cities of Italy. There are numerous Government
libraries, academies, and scientific .societies ; and, above all,
gjneral elementary instruction is of obligation in conjunction
222 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
with secondary studies, and these, again, with professional
studies. I am speaking now with due knowledge of tlie facts,
for I have been present at the examinations both as examiner
and as an interested spectator. Splendid results must be, and
are in fact, obtained from a generation passing through such an
apprenticeship as this. And expectation is the more legitimate,
since before the present system of preparation, such self-made
n^en as Sarmiento, Alberdi, Mitre, Rawson, Lopez, Tejedor, to
name only the greatest, and the lamented Guttierrez and Velez-
kSarsKeld, have risen up from among the Argentine people, and
would be remarkable in any part of the world.
The next morning our spirits were raised by the sight of an
unaccustomed spectacle. The immense plain was succeeded l)y
a valley surrounded on all sides by hills and mountains, the
former clothed with thick forests, and the arid and wild
landscape through which we had been journeying for ten
days was replaced by a vast chess-board of cultivated fields,
growing cereals, oranges, and bananas. Then instead of the
rastrillada or beaten track made by the footsteps of animals
across the country, like our own dogane, traces of which still
remain in the Mare m ma, the road lay across helds flanked by
thick and wide quick-set hedges concealing the canals beneath
their luxuriant vegetation.
For although the climate of Oran is comparatively moist, the
harvest could not be depended on unless the fields were
artificially Avatered. Irrigation is practised in the Argentines
wherever the existence of running streams and the slope of the
land make the necessary wurks inexpensive. This is the
case in the districts adjoining the mountains, or enclosed within
them, and consequently throughout the northern and western
extremities of the Republic. In the west the rivers and torrents
are few in number and poorly sui)plied with water, and, for the
most part, disappear as soon as they reach tlie plain. But it is
at this juncture that the industry of man has been applied to
dealing witli the scarcity of the element, and has worked
wonders by adapting the simplest means to his purpose.
Doubtless a professional engineer would add many improvements,
and perhaps would entirely recommence the work, but the
agriculturist is well aware that the extra cost involved in a
]H;rfect system would swallow up all his profit, and contents
liimself with the actual state of things.
The provinces of Catamarca, Riuja, S. Giovanni, Mendoza,
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 223
and S. Luiffi owe all their prosperity to the small amount of
irrigation tliey are able to effect, the aridity of the climate
forbidding tlie growth of even a blade of grass outside of the
irrigated districts — but these, on the other hand, are veritalile
oases. S. tiiovanni is distinguished by wise use of the treasuie
— for water is indeed a treasure — and Mendoza by the extent
of its irrigation, that amounts to 100,000 hectares.
In order to cut a canal for irrigation the country folk use no
other level than that — of water ! They begin excavating, and
as long as the water runs without injuring either the bottom or
the sides, the work is considered satisfactory.
It might be supposed that the art of irrigation was introduced
into this country by the Spaniards, by whom it was held in
honour ab anfiqiw, principally through the works of the Arabs
when they were dominant in the souih. But it is more likely
that they found the art already known to the natives, and that
they only continued and extended its practice. All the con-
(juered provirices, in fact, and those of Salta and Jujuy in the
north, Gran included, were inhabited by subjects of the empire
of the Incas. History does not tell us this, but I assert it, and
I believe I can prove it on another occasion. Now, every one
knows that the Incas were perfectly acijuainted with the art of
irrigation, and practised it on a gigantic scale — gigantic, of
necessity, because without irrigation not a 2)oqcfta of maize could
have been gathered throughout the w^hole of the immense
empire {-a jyoqrha was a measiire for grain), and in those very
provinces irrigation is flourishing.
It is true that in Tucuman, a province included among those
I have named and among other Inr a pi)pulations, and dej)endent
on them, irrigation is not practised to the same extent, although
it is being much extended on account of rice, sugar, and tobacco
plantations ; but in the tirst place we must understand that it is
less imperative in re-jrions adjacent to the mountains, and then
we must remember that Tucuman maintaineil a kind of auto-
nomy and held a special position with regard to the Incas.
These rulers had not colonized it by expelling the original
inhabitants and replacing them by their own legions, because
ihe Tucuman.s, according to my interpretation of a pa-ssage in
(larcilaz de la Yega, had otlereil friendship to the Incas long
before the latter were in a position to injure them, and had
subsecpiently facilitated the imperial conquests south of Tucu-
num. They thus escaped the scourge of the Mituiacs, or Inca
224 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
colonists, who were despatched into conquered countries and
very speedily reduced them to their own level.
How beautiful is a banana-tree ! The stem is from four
to six yards in height, with a diameter at the base of
fifteen to twenty centimeters ; the green leaves are thirty to
forty centimeters in width and more than two yards long.
They are rolled where joined to the stem, and fall by their own
weight into a succession of graceful curves, one above the other,
crowned at the summit by immense clusters '.of bananas lying
on the leaves beneath. The tree lasts three years. During
this period numerous shoots spring every year from the roots,
each of which bears fruit and dies in the third year, so that one
year afterwards the whole of the beautiful plantation has ceased
to exist, the soil being exhausted of the aliments necessary for
the plant.
And what of the orange-trees 1 They attain to an extra-
ordinary size, and some trees produce 10,000 oranges. They
are planted in rows in the orangeries, and form, as it were, so
many porticoes to the leafy vaults, where no ray of tlie sun
can ever penetrate, so that the ground beneath is bare of all
vegetation. They form consequently a providential refuge for
travellers in this torrid clime.
We proceed onward for another seven leagues, and when
half-way we find ourselves in a magnificent forest, surprising us
by its density and the variety and height of its plants, which,
imprisoned on all sides, dart up in clusters in search of light
and air to the height of thirty yards and more.
The forest is succeeded by a stony, barren, and waterless
country. At last, on reaching a height, Ave can distinguish
Oran, and are at once reminded of its past ill-fortiine and the
presages of its recurrence in the future.
OF THE AKGENTIXE REPUBLIC. 225
CHAPTER xiir.
Oni.v uiiii' vciU'.s ago, a traveller Ixiuiid northwards could have
(k'scrit'd a fuw miles beyond the tropics, close to tiio Indian
frontier, and a little above the centre of a vast basin, a small but
beautiful city, with wiile streets lyin<,' at right angles, with
whitish houses of one and two storeys, surrounded 1)y ever
fruitful orange-trees, with numerous canals through which the
crystal waters from the skirts of the neighbouring Cordillera
brought fertility to the rich lands, wliich by their produce con-
ferred wealth on their owner?, and enabled them to make their
homes beautiful and deliglitful. The basin in which stands
the city is slightly undulating in the centre, bounded at the
eiust ami north l)y pleasant hills, and on the west by a sixccession
of mountains, rising step by step to the highest summit of the
Andes. Tiiey were then fitly crowned by the ancient and
dense forests that clothe tlu; greater part of the plain and all
the skirts of the hills, reaching at last to the edge of the snowy
mantle of the Zenta, and comprising the greatest variety of
sptnies, which, growing luxuriantly in this rich soil and favourable
climate, interlace their branches and mingle their intoxicating
perfumes, while they increase and multiply in marvellous
fashion. Then, too, the cultivation of rice, plantations of sugar- \/
cane and tol)acco, rows of banani'.-trces, and ever venlant fields
repaid the care of the inhabitants, whose labours were sweetened
by the ceaseless song of birds, while the perfumed air, laden
with a thousand sweet scents, invited all to delicious repose.
A sudden shock of eartlupiake, followed by a second, occurred
eight years ago — and great houses as well as humble cottages
were shaken to the grouml. Perchance nature repented of
her crime and would not aggravate it by claiming human
victims, with the exception of one young maiden whom she
selected to propitiate her wrath. Poor child ! she had fietl
from danger, rushing from her bed at the first alarm, but her
mother, ignorant of fate, drove her back with assurances of
226 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
safety, and she fell crushed on the very threshold ! All was
ruin and desolation.
Three-fourths of the inhabitants fled in terror from the
sudden and terrible peril ; much of the cultivated land and of
the plantations ceased to exist for want of the labour required
to keep them in order; the neglected streamlets either for-
sook their recently-constructed channels, or formed into angry
pools at their intersection, while numbers of frogs, emboldened
by impunity, assembled together, croaking in discordant and
never-ending chorus.
It was melancholy to see masses of ruins in every direction ;
the larger the building, the worse Avas the destruction. On
one side a shapeless mound of earth, on another shattered,
broken, or cracked walls ; here, door-jambs, rafters, and doors,
either overthrown or standing upright like military columns
amid the general disaster ; and nettles and weeds of all sorts
springing up, flourishing and multiplying amid the broken
rubbish of what was until recently a humnn dwelling.
Farther on there are disroofed and dismantled houses, whose
walls, bare and split, otf"er a safe retreat for the amorous embraces
of lizards and vipers. Ah ! if it be allowable to compare small
things with great ones, these ruins recall to mind those of some
cities in the Tuscan marshes. There, also, is a fierce sun, a
clear sky, a splendid vegetation, mountains on each side, a
wide plain in front and a desert witljin ; there, also, perennial
shade, among broken fragments, of the evergreen olive, as here,
of the orange-tree and the little noisy stream tumbling and
frothing until it reaches the plain, where its waters creep slow
and neglected about the city walls, carrying death where
formerly they brought life and fertility.
Among the houses formerly constituting the town of Oran,
there may still be seen a few that escaped the catastrophe.
Their dislocated Avails seem to be staggering under the weight
of the thatched roof, and new dwellings have been and are
being built on ready-made and plastered timber framework and
wooden lattices, to lill them up again ; while behind these, or
standing detached in the rectangular fields at the back of the
orchards, are solitary and poor little cottages.
This corner ol' the E.epul)lic, however, is an absolute garden.
The very atmosphere seems a poem, so fragrant is it with the
scent of the gaggio, the brea, the chaiiar, the thousand species
of aromatic plants, the orange-tree, and Avith the floAvers that
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 227
enamel the meadows and bloom on the gi,i,'antic plants of the
forest, and the resin tliat exudes from tlieir trunks. Is it not
poetry to admire the lofty mountains, tlie lovely liill-j, and the
well-watered plain, the astonishing fertility of the soil, and tlie
beneficent sunl Is it not poetry to contemplate tlie forests
with their innumerable species of jjlants, growing separately in
other places, but in this region united and attaining gigantic
dimensions, such as the willow, the algarrobo, and the chebraccio
— common trees, indeed, but highly useful — the chebil, the .
cedar, the walnut, the lapaccio, the quinquina, the aliso, and ./
many others. These forests cover the greater part of the plain,
the entire hills, and tlie skirts of the mountains to a great height
and for a distance of 4000 square kilometers. Is there not
poetry in Yerba mate, in cocoa, in the tea-plant — all of
indigenous growth, — in the banana, the chirimoi/a, the sugar-
cane, in cottee, tobacco, or rice (all so valuable in commerce),
not to speak of other commoner products'?
lias tliis country a future before it] It has an immediate
and magnilicent future, if the Vermejo becomes safe, periodical,
and ])ermanent for commerce. When this is an accomplished
fact, the valuable i)roductions of this privileged zone Avill be
ol)tained at a small cost through the labour of the thousands of
Indians who rove through the immense Chaco; and when cheaply
transported to the coast will be able to vie with the products
ot other regions. And Oran, being situate on the skirts of the
Cordilleras and possessing the finest harbour on the river, will
become, there can be no doubt, a necessary and convenient
emporium for the international carrying trade with the south
of Bolivia, now carried on at a loss of four months' time, and
1000 francs per ton for transjHH't.
When this shall have come to pass, the traveller in the
tropics will find on the eastern slopes of the Zenta, and skirting
the Indian territory, a wealthy and prosperous city, risen from
its ruins, and surrounded by beautiful country. And instead
of feeling called upon to recount a nudaneholy history of
^laremma desolation, he will imagine himself transported to
the deliglitful environs of Florence. In the shade of oiange
trees, listening to the song of the blackbird amid the perfumed
breezes, and the sweet murmur of the stream, he will rest
during the burning heat of a tropical day, and there will come
to him sweet dreams of love, country, life, the earth, and —
who knows] — perhaps even of heaven !
Q 2
228 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
CHAPTER XIV.
The disaster of Oran reminds me of the still greater misfortune
that befell another of the jewels in the belt encircling the
Republic — I refer to Mendoza.
This city is the Turin of the Argentines. It is situated on
the skirts of the Cordilleras, whose endless ridge of snow-clad
peaks can be discerned at a distance of fifty leagues, and is the
last trading-point with Chili, just as Turin is between Italy
and France.
Railways will bring it into rapid communication with the
Atlantic, and when once corinected with its harbours, Mendoza
Avill be the richest market for commerce between the two
oceans.
• The city has had a presentiment of its future destiny, and
is hastening to prepare for it.
If you could only see it always in gala dress !
Mendoza is the most beautiful and the most agreeable city
in the Republic.
The principal street is a fine avenue, a league in length and
thirty yards in width, planted with a double row of plane-trees,
poplars, and weeping willows, and watered by two running
streams that divide the foot pavement from the road. All the
streets are laid at right angles and are fifteen or twenty yards
wide, and are also ornamented with trees on each side. The
houses are either on the streets, or stand a little way back in
pretty little gardens, and are of various kinds, some being
simple and modest, and some elegant and picturesque, but all
of them only one storey in height, so as to minimize the dreaded
perils — alas ! already experienced — of earthquakes.
Mendoza possesses the finest public promenade in the Re-
public. It consists of a large octagonal garden situated in a
piazza of four quadrants. In the centre is a spacious artificial
OP^ THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 229
lake surroinided liy a lahyriiith of paths, kiosks, grottoes,
fountains, trees, sliriiljs and rare Mowers both native and
foreign.
Yet tliis city has been in existence only twelve years. She
is the lovely daughter of a fair mother, who, while st.ll young
and beautiful, succumbed fifteen years ago to a most terrible
fate.
It was on the "Wednesday of the week that is called Holy by
the Xazarenes, in the year 1861 of tlieir era.
The inhabitants were engnged in the customary practices of
their religious worship in the splendid and numerous temples
raised for the purjiose. The priests were preaching to the
crowds, who extended to the piazzas, on the Passion of the
God whom 300,000,000 of men acknowledge as the Redeemer
of mankind. The sun had set, and the contrite crowds were
returning to their homes, indiiferent to the beauty of the
wonderfully clear sky, illumined by a brighter moon than usual,
and to the cool zephyr that was seeking to refresh these igno-
rant children of the soil after a stifling day, wdien suddenly the
earth trembled, darkness obscured the heavens, a loud noise
struck on the cars of those who miuht thenceforth be called
the survivors, and the humblest dwellings and proudest temples
fell alike in fragments, becoming sepulchres for those most
devoted to their (Jod and their Lares.
Five, water, anroken, like the artificial enclosures of
an En.L,'lish garden. At the lowest part, where all the ribs
are joined, or rather at the hilt-point, where all the three
fans meet, there is a handle of suitable size and glittering like
silver.
The mists rose ])r('spntly to the mountain tops, and the plain
lay clear and distinct ])efore us. AVonderful to relate, the
three glittering silver handles are the rivers Parnguay, Upper
Parana, and Uruguay. The two tirst, after hundreiis of leagues
of separate existence, join in one, under the name of the
Parana, a little below Humaita, and almost opprtsite the Argen-
tine city of Corrientes. The other, that is, the Uruguay and the
]'arana, after loOO kilometers of an almost parallel course, unite a
little a])ove Duenos Ayres and form the Rio de la Plata, or the
!Mar Dolce, as it was called by its first discoverers, which at that
point is thirty kilometers in width, by a length of 270 ; and
.at the mouth, where it falls into the Atlantic, lietween Monte-
video and Cape S. Antonio, is 160 kilometers wide.
The immense basin thus spread out before us is therefore
the basin of the Kio de la Plata ; it is in the shape of a horse-
shoe, the open part or base lying against the Atlantic, and the
upi>erpart towards the Eipiator, and embracing twenty degrees
of latitude from the Elatii>n of
tlie niountain-ran^'e.s standing,' behind tlio.se I have nientii»neil,
Jim I farllu'^it to the east, and of the Cordillera itself with its
1 leaks of 7000 yards in height, although situated many hun-
dred kilometers west of the alwve. In any other way their
denudatiiin would be inexplicable, since such mountains belong
g(>(jgrai)liically to the forest zone as we have defined it.
Meanwhili; the plienomenon of a jlara of the jjlain existing
and beini,' developiid in a diy climate, and another similar one
of ilic iiKiHutaiiis needing humidity for its formation and
development is no less extraordinary. ]5oth require the same
conditions of heat. The most salient ditlerence in the aspect
of the two is that the flora of the plain is smaller in the
trunk, and especially less lofty, and that in general the
leaves are deeply notched and very small ; while the mountain
Hora is of laige and lofty trunk, and with larger leaves,
thus Itearing a resemblance to the European flora. It is
Bingular that, generally speaking, the timber of the flora of the
plain resists tlie action of water better — being, in some cases,
absolutely incorruptible — than that of the flora growing in a
damp climate. Is this a caprice, a compensation, or a law of
nature 1
Having set forth in the preceding chapter the principal con-
ditions on which the presence and development of the arboreal
flora depend, and having roughly defined the superficial extent of
the forest region, letme saya few words on its vertical distribution.
I will proceed a.s before on the data of personal observa-
tion made while exploring the mountains and plains of the
forest region, and I will jx^rmit myself some few rejietitiona
for the sake of clearness.
As with us the zone of the oak, that of the chestnut, and
that of the beech, are vertically distinguished, — a nomenclature
which has served since in agronomia, and in practical agricul-
ture, to divide the mountainous regions into so many agrarian
zones, to which corresponds a climate and soil of certain known
pr(^))erties ; so an analogous distinction ma}' be made in these
parts with the same results, altlu)Ugh the state of cultivation in
the country renders it of less practical importiince than among
ourselves. Still, it will help us to place our ideas in order.
The forest region of the Argentines — I speak of tliat portion
of it with which we are occupied; that is, the north and centre —
must be divided, in the altimetrical sense, into three zones,
246 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
which, being named according to the plants distinguished by
their greater respective expansion united to their importance,
ought to take the name of the algarrobo or carob-tree zone, the
sebil zone, and the aliso zone.
In the regions where the pine is found, a fourth, the pine
zone, must be added. It lies between the sebil and aliso zones.
The algarrobo zone includes, as we have seen, the whole
plain; it begins at a height of 50 to 100 j^ards, above the
level of the sea, and ends at a height of 300 or 400, according
to the latitude. Most of the hard timber is found in this zone,
viz. the red chebraccio, the iirunday, nnndubay, palo-santo,
palo-ferro, guajacan, iscajanta, and others whose specific weight,
generally speaking, exceeds that of water.
The presence of the algarrobo mostly indicates a dry climate;
its forest companions nevertheless, or those trees that must be
included in this vast zone, admit of differences which may give
room to sub-zones, like that of the somewhat humid urnnday, or
of the palo-santo and the excessively dry paiai algarrobo.
With regard to agriculture it is unfortunate, but as we have
seen, not the less certain, that throughout the great algarrobo
zone, unless irrigation be employed, the climate forbids any
great prosperity, owing to the absence of rain and of atmo-
spheric moisture, except in the sub-zone of the urunday and
likewise in that of the nandubay, or in localities very specially
situated. But Avherever irrigation is practised, splendid results
are obtained ; and the sub-zone of the patai algarrobo is singu-
larly favourable to the culture of the vine and the olive, when
duly irrigated. In that of the palo-santo, and the conter-
minous zones, on the other hand, the chaguar testile, of which
we have spoken elsewhere, and the aji or pepper-tree grow
spontaneously.
Wherever there are rivers in the algarrobo zone, we find
■what may be termed an island zone, going up the valleys
among the high mountains, whose flora consists principally of
various kinds of willows, of seibos and bobos. Only certain
kinds of -willows that are almost like forest trees, and form
beautiful groves along the banks of the river, are available, and
that to a limited extent, for building purposes.
iS^'ext above the algarrobo zone comes that of the sebil, which,
in its lower part, shelters some of the inferior flora, while sup-
porting among them numerous colonies of its own. This zone
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 247
comprises the lands adjacent to the mountains where the climate
is siifKciently moist, and the slopes to the remarkable height
of 1000 or 1500 yards above the level of the sea, according
to the latitude, diminishing towards the south on account ui
the excessive dryness of the climate.
This is the region of the timber most valualile for its
size, its adaptation to various uses, and the large niirnbci-
of trees. The sebil, of which there are three kinds, is ul
the present time the basis of one of the most important
industries in the interior of the Republic, viz. the tanning
of skins. Growing with or near the sebil, Ave find the two
cedars, the white and the pink ; the lapaccio, that we have
remarked likewise in the sub-zone of the urunday, the
walnut, the laurel, the tataue, the pacara, the mulberry,
the tipa, the male oak, the orco-moglie, the fragrant china-
china, the palo-lancia, the palo-blanco, and many others, in-
cluding the biscote, wliose wood resembles ebony. It is very
scarce, requiring both dryness and heat, so that but for its
altimetrical situation it should rather be classed with the flora
of the algarrobo zone.
It is in tlie sebil region that Ave find the colossal trees, tif
numerous kinds, and in immense quantities, that have made
tropical forests so famous. Tucuman and Oran bear away the
palm of wealth in this flora.
/In the lower part of this zone, that is to say on the
plain or tabledand adjoining the mountain skirts, and particu-
larly in the provinces of Tucuman, Salta, and Jujuy, agrari in
industry has been developed to a certain extent in the cultiv.i-
tiou of sugar-cane, rice, and tobacco. In the section nearest
the tropics we find the requisite conditions for a great develop-
ment of agrarian industry, in the numerous and abundant
streams which, flowing from the neighbouring heights, make
irrigation eavsy, and likewise afford a gratuitous motive power ;
making amply remunerative the large capital employed, where
transport does not imply vast expense.
Agriculture scarcely exists in the upper part of the zone I
am describing, on account of the excessive labour required for
the cultivation of the declivities of the hills, and of the quantity
of excellent land in more advantageous situations.
The cultivation of the vine and the olive will not be suc-
cessful in general in all the sebil zone, because of the rains
and humidity, which are excessive for these plants, and prevail
248 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
iit unsuitable pcasons, that is, at the setting of the hlossom, and
at the maturity of the fruit. Pasture, on the contrary, would
be very suitable, notwithstanding the large portion of the land
occupied by trees, for the grass grows beneath their foliage
o\ying to climatic influences, including that of light, which is
admitted by the incline of the mountain sides.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 249
CHAPTER XYIir.
FOREST FLORA OF THE MOUNTAIN — THE ALISO ZONE NOMENCLA-
TURE — FUTURE DESTINY OF CERTAIN FLOWERS.
As we come forth from the splendid vegetation I have briefly
described, we meet after a short interval with the first repre-
sentatives of the forest zone of the aliso, which after a while,
are sncceeded by extensive and dense woods, consisting almost
exclusively of that tree. The spectacle they present is entirely
ditforent from the la^t, and resembles that of European forests
of a single species of tree.
Tlie aliso is found at the height of 2000 or 2500 yards
above tlii^ level of the sea, according to the latitude ; and
consequently crowns many of the lower ranges of hills, and
clothes the sides of the higher mountains. It has a tendency,
in my opinion, to push its way farther into the lowlands, and on
comparing it with the preceding flora, it would seem that the
latter begins to extend itself from below, while the aliso works
downwards from the heights, and the two are thus endeavour-
ing to come into contact.
The aliso (a variety of the alnus) is our alder, and is of two
kinds, which are much alike in appearance and in properties.
It is lofty and upright Avith a diameter from twenty to forty
centimeters ; it is very abundant and scattered, holding the
same place in the flora of these parts that is held by the beech
in the European flora ; and tlie timber also is similar. It is
little known, nevertheless, if not absolutely unknown, and for
this reason I will say a few words on the sulgect.
The timber is adapted for building under cover and will
resist water. In the church of Santa Maria of Catamarca, a
master-beam of the roof, more than seventy years old, was
found the best for replacing; 1800 years ago, Pliny de-
clared this timber to be indesti-uctible, and builders inform
2 so EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
us tliat the Icacustrine cities of Venice and Holland have the
greater part of their houses supported on stakes of aliso, other-
wise alder, diiven in beloAv the water.
The height, therefore, of the aliso and its lightness, make it
admirable for building, because, generally speaking, timber that
Avill resist water in this country is very deficient in length.
The difficulty of access to the regions of its growth Avould not
constitute any serious obstacle if the system of transport by
water, as practised in the Alps and in North America, were
adopted. Such a system Avould be quite practicable here by
reason of the numerous streams running through every mountain
pass, and by this means, the other forests that form the wealth
of this mountainous district could be utilized.
The aliso is only met with on the summits of mountains, or
on the declivities exposed to the south and south-east winds.
At an equal height, but on summits and declivities sheltered
from those winds, Ave find pasture-land, provided there is
moisture sufficient.
Grasses grow freely under aliso-trees, because in general
there are no climbing plants, nor even shrubs about their roots,
the temperature not being sufficiently high.
This region or zone of the aliso is favourable, therefore, to
pasturedand, and together with the region of natural meadows
lying above it, offers immense advantages for estancias, for
summering cattle.
Between the sebil and the aliso zones, we occasionally find
interpolated the pine zone, which seems to fill the void we
liave noticed where the pine is absent. This tree appears to
like very tropical latitudes, at any rate they seem to be the
centre of its diffusion, since it is not met with until the north-
west of Oran and on the hills of the Upper Parana. I am told
it grows also at Tafi, north of Tucuman.
A curious and very unexpected mountain vegetation is tliat
of the reed-cane, or cana brava as it is called here. We
suddenly come across it in the aliso zone, on the more marshy
spots, which are nearly always dark and miry, in bushes con-
sisting of hundreds of high reeds, that entangled with each
other and with those of the neighbouring bushes, form an
archway under which a man may pass on horseback. They
frequently make quite a labyrinth of galleries through which
one may wander over immense mountain tracts.
A similar reed cane, called caiia tacudra, growing along the
OF THE argentin'p: republic. 251
livors, in the luwer plains f>f tropical Cliaco, attains such
(liini nsions that it is used for props in rootinj,'.
( )n the heij,'hts of the aliso zone, ■\ve also wonder to find the
arborescent sa/via and the sambuco, called sauco, the leaves of
which are said to have medicinal properties.
The zone of the mountain flora above mentioned may he
subdivided into sub-zones. But besides the aljsence of sulfi-
ciei;t data from Avhich to generalize, 1 have already said enough
to indicate the cliaracteristic features of the forest zone, esjte-
cially with regard to climate and consequently to agriculture
and pasture, which was one of our principal objects.
Many of the plants I have named serve for dyeing and
tanning purposes, and some, besides those I have noted here
and there, are fruit-ljearing ; among which we may remark the
mato, bearing a cherry that is good to eat raw, and which
makes also a fermented drink, and the arrayan, a shrub bear-
ing a kind of currant which can be used in the same way as
the mato. Besides these there are several enrcdadra^, in-
cluding the tasi, Avith a hairy, milky fruit like an egg, an(jlias, yield a fragrant
scent when rubbed ; the same with the flowers of the numerous
varieties of acacia and mimosa, particularly the tusca and tiie
ciurchi, which are the same as our cassia {).
Scientific Nomenclature ok thk said Plants.
Asi (pimento) . . . Capsicum microcarpum.
Algarrobo .... I'rosopis algarrobo.
„ bianco ... „ alba.
Aliso ..... Alnus ferrwjinea (var. Alisus).
AlfiTirrobillo .... Acacia moniliformis.
Anoyiin ..... Eugenia unijlora.
Bica ..... Caesalpinia praecrir.
Cedro ..... Cedrela Brasilermis (car. Atistralis).
Ciaguar ..... GuvUaea decorticans {delle papi-
glionacee).
Cingnar (textile) . . . Una Itromeliacea.
Ciugcio ..... Niereinbergia hippomanica.
Ciurclii ..... ProKofiis adstringens.
Chebraccio bianco , . . AspiUofpernia Chebraccio.
„ Colorado (red) . Loxopterygium Lorentzii,
„ Jlojo (elirub) . . lodina rhombifoUa.
Cortaiiora .... Gynerium Argetitinum.
252
EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
Garabato
. Acacia tucumanensis.
„ shrub
,, subscandens.
Giuccian (Yuchdn) .
. Chorisia insignis.
Guayacan
Caesalpina melano carpa.
Jiime (dello salicornip) .
. Spirntachys vaginata.
Lanza ....
. Mi/rsine marginata.
Lapaccio
. Tecoma (gen. belonging to the Bigo
gniacee).
Laurel ....
. Nectandra porphyria.
Mato ....
■ Eugenia mato (helonging to the Mir-
tacee).
Mistol ....
. Zizyphus inistol.
Moglie or Moje
. Beloi ging to the Terebentmacee.
Mora ....
Gelso Ainericano.
Niandubay (Nandubay) .
Acacia carena.
Nio-Nio (venomous herb)
Baccharis cordifolia.
Noofal ....
Yuglans nigra (var. Boliciana).
Ombii ....
Pircnnia dioica.
Pacara ....
. Euterolobium timbavva.
Palm of the Gran Chaco
Copernica Cerifera f
Palo bianco .
Belonging to the Rubiacee.
l^alo-santo
A Ziigopiiyllea.
Pino ....
. Podocarpus angiistifolia.
Eoble (male oak) .
Belonging to the Leguminnse.
Saloio (willow)
Salix Humboldtiana.
Sambuco (sauco) .
Sambuccus Australis, S. Peruviana,
Salvia ....
Salvia maiico.
Sebil ....
Acacia Cebil.
Seibo
An Erythrina (Christa-galli).
Soconto (coloured, climbing)
Galium hirsutum.
Tala ....
Celtis Tala.
Tasi (climbins:)
Morrena Brachystepliana (Asclep.).
Tatane (Espinillo of the North)
Belonging to the Leguminose.
Tipa ....
Machaerium fertile.
Tuna
Cactus.
Tnsoa ....
3'Iimose fam. (Acacia aroma ?).
Vinal ....
Prosopis ruscifoLia (Mimose faDiilij).
The question may be asked whether the flora of these regions
is in a state of progression or on the contrary, either stationary
or retrograding. There are indications in some species, of one
of these three conditions. For example, in the sand of the
arid Uacino di Belen, after long journeying across bare and
saline land, we come suddenly upon a magnificent forest of
jjatai algarrobos, of ancient growth and large bulk, not a young
tree among them. I have no hesitation in saying that this
flora will not be renewed and must disappear.
In the forests of Tucuman, within the sebil zone, it is ex-
tremely rare to find a young cedar, although there are plenty of
OK THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 253
aiiincnt cedars of stupendous size. I do not think we can roft-r
the. destruction of the young trees to cattle, wliicli do nut exist
in sulHcient nunil)er. The same may be said of tlie chebraccio
in tlnj centre of the chehmrciali. This, however, may be ex-
phiined by the famous "struggle for existence ;" air and light,
if not soil, arc wanting to the young shoots in the thick of the
forest. lUit even on th(3 skirts, young trees ;ire very scarce in
the chebraccio and cedar forests, and among the other trees in
the sebil zone, and do not seem to exist in sufficient proportion
to replace the former growth when it shall have perished,
although in general the growth is excessively slow, and hence
the decay of the individual tree very remote. But these remarks
show us that where the axe anticipates the destruction of
Nature, while it cannot hasten its productive i)Ower, it would
be well to regulate the felling of timber, and to fill up the
vacuums thus created, so tis not to exhaust the forest long before
the period popularly assigned to its duration.
"\\'e have already seen that the chebraccio of the Chaco has
a tendency to become scarcer iis the lauds of euicrsion disappear.
The danger, however, is remote, on account of the vast extent
of the territory, audit is probable that the conditions of climate
and of vegetation suited to its reproduction will jireviously
alter. Dut on the hills (Lomas) of the provinces of Santiago
and Catamarca, even this danger does not exist, and there yet
remains territory for this tree to iuA'ade.
In the sebil zone the forest has already spread over almost all
the available territory, only leaving part of the strip dividing
it from the aliso. The latter, on the contrary, has still a vast
territory before it, which it is hastening to conquer by visible
forward extension every year. The aliso is in the period of
expansion.
1 have not remarked in the sebil and algarrobo zones any
tree with a tendency to predominate over the others. It is not
impossible, however, that some that may be imported into the
still virgin forests may produce that result. I have spoken of
territory to be coiU[Uered ; but then do not the forests spread all
at once over the ground they occupy or will occupy ? ^ly answer
is this : afibrestment seems so have proceeded by irradiation, as
it were, from various nuclei of isolated wooils, ever increasing
in size, until uniting together they have constituted immense
forests.
Certain isolated forest centres are still fiecjuently met with,
254 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
both in the Chaco and in Santiago, the expansion of -winch, ]>y
irradiation, seems established not only l^y ratiocination, hut hy
the facts as narrated to me by some timlier contractors, that in
the heart of these so-called islands the trees are of older
growth and a large average of them split under the saw,
or are defective in other ways, and that, on the contrary, the
outside trees are smaller and younger, and exempt in larger
proportion from the defects I have mentioned. These circum-
stances appear to justify me in an assumption that is based
on reason, and is moreover confirmed by the habits of the aliso.
OF THE ARGENTINE KErUBLIC.
CHAPTKR XIX.
THE PUCAKA COUNTRY.
At a lieight of 2500 yards above tlie sea, on the range of
mountains that divides from north to south the two provinces
of Tucuman and Catamarca, and at a point where they join
other ranges that turn east, west, and north, we come sud-
denly upon a large basin, twenty kilometers by thirty, surrounded
by a circle of mountains of various heights, among wliich the
Aconguija rise majestically, nearly always crowned with snow
for a distance of oOOO yards downward from the summit.
This basin contrasts greatly with the surrounding landscape,
and is itself in strong contrast with its condition in the past.
It still retains the name by which it was known to the
aborigines, who inhabited it in large numbers, and is called the
country or camjw of the Pucard. The word means strength in
the Aimara language, and red in tlie Chiijcluum, both of which
appellations are appropriate, the one on account of the general
colouring, and the other on account of formerly existing fortih-
cations, of which some fragments yet remain.
The explorer who, crossing the mountain range at this point,
delays his steps for a while, nui} tiiid here an opportunity of
acquiring special information.
On his riglit liand there is a narrow range of hills 2000
yards in heiglit, tlie eastern slopes of which, facing the south-
east winds, are clothed with magnificent forests that sj^read out
at tlie base and form splendid wooded skirts to the fertile plain
of Tucuman lying at his feel. The western and steeper de-
clivity is thick with beautiful wood.*!, which, however, betray
their recent origin by being cliieHy grou[>ed where a line of
counterforts has sheltered them when still young from the
prolonged heat of the sun, ami the spray of a precij)itou3 torrent
has charged the atmosphere with moisture. Then comes a
second range, higher by 1000 yards than the tii-st, with wider
256 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
crest, with the lower part of its eastern slopes comparatively
denuded of forest, and the higher parts clothed with woods of
aliso- trees, while the summit is crowned with meadows. The
western declivity of this range, entirely hare of arboreous plants
and with very scant pasture, encloses on one side the campo
that lies beneath at a depth of 500 yards.
On the west of the Tucara the horizon is bounded by low-
lying barren hills ; beyond a bare and rocky precipice 800
yards high, lies the vast Bacino di Eelen, enclosed on all
sides by high mountains and by the Cordillera, whose snow-
clad Famatina can be discerned from an immense distance.
This mountain is rich in mines ; the table-land is extremely
aritl and for the most part sandy, but with some oases of ancient
algarrobos (carobs), which, however, are not reproductive. In
the concave centre of the mountain there is an immense tract
of whitish hue, thirty leagues by three, consisting of salt-mines.
During the brief season of light rain these become an immense
niarsh or bog.
The Campo del Pticara is the turning-point between the
grassy ranges on the east and the bare sand-banks of the west.
It is itself arid and burning, but affords sustenance to cuttle
during some months of the year.
Its elevation, however, and the encircling hills, among which
the Alpine Aconquija on the north is like a star surmounting a
diadem, would seem to promise at first sight a climate more
favourable to the vegetable life that only a few steps further
is so luxuriantly developed on the eastern slopes. There is, in
fact, less than the distance of a league between the ridge of the
Tucuman mountains and the eastern extremity of the campo,
and only five leagues from the same point to the sandy basin of
the Belen.
Here the action of the winds is evident ; as is the inference
from the position of the mountains with regard to them, and
here again we have the same teaching, repeated in less concise
language, but much more rigorously by the other immense
circuits of the liepublic.
The parallelism, or in other words the uniformity of direction
in the mountainous system of the Republic, joined to the
uniform direction of the atmospheric currents, and to the
seasons in which they prevail, in that region at least which is
comprised within a limit a little beyond the Rosario and the
northern extremity of the Eepublic, afford us an anticipated
OF THE ARGENTINE RErt'DLIC. 257
knowledge of the climates of the country, and a.ssij;t us woudur-
fully in verifying the theory of atmospheric circulation excogi-
tated and demonstrated by the most learned modern climato-
logists,
Meanwliile a magnificent spectacle is presented to us during
the summer season in tlie Pucara Campo. A hot, still, and
unpleasant air, accompanied by a diminution of twenty to
tw(!nty-tive millimeters of atmospheric pressure, is succeeded
first by a light brecv.e that veers rapidly from north-east to south-
east, and thfu by a furious wind, raising great clouds of dust
from a soil burnt up by eight months' drought, darkening
the clear sky, and tormenting any one exposed to violent
contact with the grains of sand that are driven before it. Our
tent is loosened Ijy the repeated shocks of the aerial current,
and soon atibrds an insufficient refuge, as does also the humble
ranchn whirh owes its own safety to the numberless fissures
that allow of a passage to the gale through which it strikes the
powerless inhabitant. On the outside of the crest of the circle
of mountains there now appears a subtle vapour which almost
immediately vanishes into space and is succeeded by light white
clouds that also evaporate, followed by others rather denser; these
seem to shrink from resting on the ridge of the mountains and
disai)pear almost as quickly as they come. I do not know
"wliether they tuni back or vanish away.
The south wind now blows furiously, and the air becomes
colder, and behind the white cloudlets are big clouds, dark at
tii-st and black, that rise up and intermingle, advance and
recede, seeming to roll up the steep incline like another
Sisyphus, anil when they have reached the top to be thrust
down again to the depths whence they lirst rose.
To the shrieking and raging of the wind is now added the
noise of the thunder and the flashing of the lightning, the
battle waxes fiercer, the combatants can now scarcely be dis-
tinguished ; the dense phalanxes on the heights are hardly to
be discerned as they clash together, intermingle, and form at
last a compact dark mass that advances slowly and heavily
over the face of the campo. This mass is constantly diminish-
ing ; it is whitish and vaporous towards the west and is con-
stantly renewed by black clouds from the east ; now it halts,
anon draws back, obeying I know imt what occult, mysterious
foi"«je, until at last the storm has conipiered every mount;iin
summit. Then a leaden pall covers all the heiglits like an
258 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
enornious bell, and after remaining for a long interval will
often vanish harmlessly away. Sometimes through a rent in
tlie edge the sun can be seen shining in imperturbable splendour
on the Belen basin lying beneath.
The dryness causes the evaporation of the clouds, which,
when the atmosphere is saturated on the side of the eastern
Tucuman declivities, are driven by the wind into fresh space
above the ridges of the mountains. Hence the rainfall in
the Campo of Pucara is very slight, and still less in the Bacino
di Belen.
Nevertheless, there are large remains of Indian habitations,
which are built in clusters, looking like so many separate villages.
They are situated not only on the plain, but on the mountain-
skirts as well.
If the campo were formerly under the same conditions of
natural productiveness as are now existent, it could not have
afforded subsistence to so many human beings. Can a change
of climate have occurred? If this has been the case it has
not been due to any change in the accidents of the moun-
tains ; there is no indication of such having taken place, or
any tradition on the subject. It is more probable that the
local conditions have changed by the drying up of some
large reservoir of water in the neighbourhood, some lake, in
short, of which the fish afforded food, and the water was
used for agriculture, while it supplied the first, necessity of
material life. And, in fact, north of the campo, in the lands
of recent formation, there is a passage for the watercourses of
this basin, and its name of Cortadera expresses both its aspect
and the phenomenon indicated by it, just as among ourselves
we call tlie openings of former lakes indsa (a cwi), rotta (a break),
or ripafratta (broken shore). Tradition or popidar acuteness
having bestowed these appellations, or else we may infer that
either during the conquest of the indigenous tribes of Catamarca
by the Chiqchuans, or that of the Americans by the Spaniards,
the primitive inhabitants of the land sought refuge there as in
a stronghold, and protracted their defence, although anlid
serious priA^ation.
However this may have been, a country which once swarmed
with human life is now almost a desert, useful, perhaps, to the
antiquary and to the dilettante traveller or scientist.
OF THE ARGENTINE KEl'UIiLIC. 259
CHAriER XX.
I CANNOT refrain from recording here the impressions produced
by my visit to Tucuman, the garden of the Kepul)lic, after a
long period of absence. I had been received there with the
most flattering kindness during my first visit of eiglit montlis,
in wliich I explored its Avildest and most picturesque parts,
spending the winter on the j)eaks, I may say, of its lofty
mountains. In the course of this book I have mentioned it
freipientiy as one of the privileged cantons of the Republic, so
that to return to it now will not be entirely out of place, or
unintelligible to the reader. I will add that I claim to be
accurate in all essentials, notwithstanding the poetical form in
which my description is cast in order to do honour to the
subject, and to make it more attractive to the numerous readers
of the Ojirniin Italiano, in which it first saw the light.
( ) Tucuman ! thou the most beautiful among thy .sisters, all
hail to thee ! "Whether I contemplate the level plain or lift up
my eyes to the lofty mountains encircling thee on the side of the
Circolo ^lassimo or the Occaso, my soul is thrilled with delight
and admiration. Nature, who has been somewhat niggardly to
thy companions, has lavished her gifts on thee, her favoured
one, because thou wcrt beautiful and beloved ! To thee she
has given the vast plain of the Pampa, and bounded it with a
semicircle of hills so as to welcome the Alixiati wiwix, that in
return for thy hospitality, enrich thee with the life-giving
elements gathered in their wanderings over numberless Alpine
heights, and fraternize with thy river, called ])y thee the Foiido,
but changing its name over and over again, according to the
caprice of the friendly lands whose bosoms it fertilizes. And if
the sun shines on thee with burning rays, his heat is tempered
by the moisture dropping from the clouds as they are rent by
electricity, with sudden explosion, or prolonged thunder.
260 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
Hence tliy soil is verdant in the winter, and in spring is
adorned with innumerable flowers — a treasure-house of exotics
— giving place one to the other for thy embellishment during
half the year ; and in the summer and autumn thou gatherest
abundantly the fruits of a few growths. i!^ature has not
bestowed on thee the algarrobo, nor is the mistol, its comrade,
abundant with thee, nor yet the dianar, that emulating the
tamarind, buds forth in primitive Santiago, on thy southern
borders. But instead of these she has given thee the tuna, the
prickly pear-tree, the arrayan, and the maio, growing on thy
sierras ; and grants thee, with little trouble, the orange, the
yam, rice, potatoes, Avheat, corn, barley, and other cereals, in
such wise as to make her storehouse within thy borders. Thy
climate refuses to give any industrial advantage to the culture^
of that fruit which is first mentioned in connection with sii
that, according to Biblical teaching, was fatal to its unconscioi
inheritors, the pre-destined inhabitants of unfruitful Africa.'
But thou, yielding the glory thereof to thy western neighbour,
sober, laborious, and honest Catamarca, ai't compensated by the
cana, that while bestowing on thee the principle of the vine,
enriches thee with sugar, and is guiltless of the shame of Noah
or the punishment of Cham. Thou dost not fear the envy of
proud Salta, lying close against thee on the side of the seven-
starred Ursa Major, nor the unrecognized claims of distant
and neglected Jujuy. Meanwhile thy pre-eminence is assured
hy thy many fine estahleciudentos, by thy highways crowded
with waggons, the clamour of the husbandmen, the creaking of
the presses, the bubbling of the boiling caldrons, the hubbub
of ail kinds, the ovens, the buildings, the heat, the smoke, the
feast of peeled cane with its fresh juice and syrup, which, at
liarvest time, constitutes a, fete cliamiMve worthy of Arcadia.
And how shall I fitly praise the soothing herb that in mani-
fold guise bestows such bliss on man — tobacco, which is to thee
a boundless source of wealth ? Until now it has crossed the
Cordilleras in large quantities, and its progress has only been
stopped by the seashore, where it is unable to compete with the
produce of other lands. But when its culture ceases to be a
monopoly in the hands of the representatives of the first
inhabitants, and science and art take it under their protection,
it will become thy special honour and glory.
The iron-fibred chebraccio, wliich is wealth to thy sisters,
finds no hold on thy plains, nor are they shaded by frequent
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 26l
woods, but thy mountain is clothed witli primeval forests
stretchinf,' to its very base, and rich in magnificent cedars
and graceful walnut-trees with their ashen bark, orrmnidlnii,
tlie two kinds of cebils, whose bark is used for tanning, the
pacara with its saponaceous i)roperties, the lai)accio with its
rose-coloured blossoms, the two kinds of alilers (alisos), which,
with many others, crown its aljnne heights, and daily push
forward towards the barren coiist. All these trees atiord
building materials or food to thy anerraderos, while at dif-
ferent altitudes grow among them the early-flowering cassia
{rhurt//(i), its sister-plant, the tusca (])Iack vine), the garravato,
and two kinds of wild orange, mingling the perfume of their
innumerable blossoms with the arrayan, the mato, and the
molli, whose leaves give forth fragrance when bruised, or are of
metlicinal value.
The borracho, with its barrel-shaped trunk and lemon-like
fruit, which, when rii)e, is full of cotton, flourishes as far as
thy southern limits, but refuses to grow in a more humid
climate.
The nalvia likewise enlivens the forest, and in the form of a
tall shrub is found on the topmost altitudes, and is rivalled
in its Imxving of the elements by the alder, the elder, and
the peach-tree. And there, where tree and shrub can no
longer live in the cold and rarified atmosphere, strong
herbaceous i)lants, food for cattle, take their place. But why
endeavour to describe thy flora since the life of a man would
not suffice to enumerate and ut it grieves me that thou affordost no home to the deer
and the lama, to the hare an
ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE MATTACCO INDIANS
OF THE GRAN CHACO.
CHAPTER I.
JUAN M. GUTTIERREZ'S ADVICE — MY FIRST LESSON'S IN MATTACCO
AND THE SPEECH OF THE T0I3A CACIQUE MAKE ME DESPAIR
OF SUCCESS — HOW I TRIED TO PLUCK AT THE FRUIT
FAUSTINO IS MY MATTACCO MASTER— EXPERIMENT WITH
NATALIO ROLDAN THE OPINION OF THE MISSIONARY FATHERS
IS CONFIRMED HOW I DISCOVERED ONE OF THE FUNDA-
MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE— FUNCTIONS
OF THE PREPOSITIVE PARTICLES IIU, «', 111 — GREATER FACILITY
FOLLOWING ON THIS — ADVICE TO AMATEURS OF PHILOLOGY.
"While waiting for the succouring party, which was destined
to be greatly delayed, I knew no butter way of employing part
of my time than by learning words from the Indians by whom
we were surrounded.
I had often been told that their language must be poor both
as to the number of the words and their forms ; and although
from the little I had read on philology, I was disposed to come
to quite a contrary conclusion, I was desirous of personal expe-
rience before forming a deciilcd opinion and communicating it
to others. On the other hand before leaving lUienos Ayres, I
hatl seen Dr. Juan Maria Cluttierrez — the same to whom Mante-
gazza detlicated his hue work, Tawrijie f Rio de la Plain, in
which the only fault is that the beauty of the style may cause
the reader to doubt the truth of the narrative, which 1 have
found to be strictly exact, and he had said to me, —
266 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
" If you have leisure, study the language of the Indians ;
in the absence of all tradition and of all archaeological data with
regard to them, philology is called upon to p]ay a great part in
interpreting their origin, and explaining their connection, if
any, with other peoples in very remote times, remote at least
with regard to the history of existing mankind. The study of
language, will henceforth be raised to a science that will in due
time slied marvellous light on the history of humanity."
And then he added, in order to encourage me, " The soil of
linguistic research is still virgin in many parts, and on this
account, promises an abundant harvest to whomsoever will
cultivate it ; take advantage of it, and you Avill succeed."
HoAv could I neglect advice coming from such a quarter 1
Although conscious that I should only be able to add an in-
significant little stone to the pyramid of philology, yet I felt
stimulated by his words, and as it were, pledged to the task.
And afterwards; while I Avas puzzling my brains to wrench a
rule of some kind from the medley of sentences that I had
gathered together, and when I appeared to have done so success-
fully, the delight I felt was increased by the thought of how,
on my return to Buenos Ayres, I should hasten to Guttierrez on
the very first night, show him the results of my endeavours and
talk them over with him. A man of powerful mind and pro-
found erudition, he had a love for art and science, and a
tolerance in accordance with his vast knowledge and the extreme
liberality of his views. His manners and appearance were
agreeable, he was a self-made man and had experienced the
greatest changes of fortune. At the age of seventy and in the
high literary and administrative position which he occupied,
he yet knew how to speak a word of encouragement to the
most modest student, and to converse Avith cordial deference
Avith the least important visitor, a very rare thing AA'ith men of
his age and attainments.
Eut this joy Avas not to be mine ! The first paragraph that
I read in the first ncAvspaper I met Avith as I stepped from the
vessel on my return, Avas an account of his burial on the pre-
ceding night.
May thy memory, Guttierrez, be embalmed in the hearts of
thy felloAv-citizens as vividly and lastingly as in that ot him
Avho Avrites ; may the earth lie light upon thee ! and let me
dedicate to thee and give the shelter of thy name to the fcAV
lines on the native languages Avhich 1 shall Avrite on the f oIIoav-
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 267
ing paf,'C'S ; for they are due to theo, and without thy patronages
I should not have courage to publish them.
^[y tirst attempts gave rae but little hope. "We had on board
an Indian, who called himself a Mattacco, for whom I sent at
once in order to learn the names of our garments and of the
surrounding objects. r>ut after a few word.s the man grew
weary. It was evident that he was not capable of intellectual
cllbrt, however slight. If, however, I asked a second time,
either inadvertently or on purpose, for the same word, he would
make signs that he had already told it mo, and taking my note-
book, would look through the few writtcni jjages and point the
exact place where I had written it down. And yet one would
have thought that he was looking in another direction while I
wrote. So that when we Italians say far V iwliano to describe
assumed ignorance, we are expressing an actual fact.
I therefore made little or no progress.
Eut when, a few days later, we were harangued by a Toba
cacique who seemed to be barking at us rather than speak-
ing, the only appropriate course was to conceal my want
of comprehension, since it was useless to attempt to construe
his yells.
Ilowever, man proposes and circumstances dispose. For
some days we were agi-ound, and being unable to piLsh on, I
had a great deal of time to dispose of as I pleased ; the Indians
remained grouped round the vessel, and many of their caciques
came to visit us. "We could understand none of them; in short,
the longed-for fruit was there ; I attempted to gather it.
The Indian is so suspicious that he dislikes any one learning
his language ; but Faustino the Christian was with us, and I
began questioning him in secret, unknown to the Indians. At
fii-st, however, I was dissatisfied, finding so much difficulty in
resolving phrases into words, which I attributed to his want of
knowlt'dge. Finally, I succeeded in establishing l>etter relations
■with the Indians, and the openness of our behaviour, the per-
severance I showed in repeating their wonls, as if they were
something precious, whenever the opportunity ofTereil, and
finally a few presents, removed their suspicions, cspocially
among the younger ones, who vied with each other in tolling
me the name of any object that I pointed out to them.
But it was curious how a woiil on being r<>p('ated appeared to
change without any discoverable reason. Sometimes it was th(^
sJightly double sound of a diphthong, one vowel or the othc^r
268 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
being the more marked, but often a syllable was actually
changed, and sometimes a syllable was added to or subtracted
from the word.
One morning, N'atalio Roldan and I endeavoured to come to
a conclusion on the matter. For a quarter of an hour we tried
to decide Avhich was the actual sound to be reproduced by the
Castilian alphabet, and which of two sounds had been intended
in a Avord that had been taught us. The uncertainty confirmed
Roldan in his opinion that the Mattacco language was an
enigma, that it was impossible to reproduce it, that it had no
rules, and could not be acquired, and that he agreed with the
missionary lathers on the Christian territory near the frontier,
Avho had always said so.
My ear, however, was becoming cultivated, and I was begin-
ning to believe tliat the Mattacco language was not, after all,
such an intractable Bucephalus ; yet, although able to distin-
guish the sounds, I could not fathom the reason of the change
in certain syllables,.
I made up my mind to avoid every pretext for a discussion,
and to continue accumulating words, and then after examining
and comparing them, and writing them down according to
their apparent pronunciation, to deduce some laws for my
guidance.
I caught hold, one day, of the son of a cacique, and began
asking him the names of the various parts of his body. Nude
as he was, there was no danger of misapprehension betweeu
humanity and clothes.
But I had hardly ended my inquiries before I perceived
that each of the fifteen or twenty words began with nu or no,
the It and the o being frequently substituted the one for the
other by an almost imperceptible gradation of sound.
Good Heavens ! I muttered to myself, this nu must be either
an article or a particle expressing affinity, because it is morally
impossible that so many words should have a common root. It
seemed unlikely to be an article ; nevertheless, I bethought me
that had any one, when I was a boy, asked me the name of
any of my features, I should have touched the part mentioned
and rejilied, for example, the eye, the mouth, &c. Why should
not these young Indians do the same ?
But it soon became clear to me. I resume my questions, asking
the names of the various parts of my own body, and these are
repeated to me, with the nu changed into a, and sometimes some
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 269
of tlie siicceediii;^' letters chan^'ed. This was a flasli of li^'lit, but
1 still felt uncertain, and to clear away my doubts 1 took ad-
vantage of having captured a kind of hawk, to ask the names
of the same parts of tlie bird's body. In the replies I received
many words began with lu or lu, and the rest remained tlie
same, or nearly the same, as the corresponding parts in man,
minus the nu or the a.
The following conclusion appeared to be almost certain. In
!Mattacco the principal words are preceded by a variable particle
which expresses relationship. But of what kind 1
I look through my notes, especially through the phrases I
had collected, and I find that whenever reference is made to the
person speaking the word begins with na ; when the person
addressed is referred to, with a, and when a third person is iu
question, with hb or lo.
This was a revelation. It gave me the key to the under-
standing of a great number of words ; it was the mariner's
compass leading me through a great part of the labyrinth I
Great was my deliglit !
Moreover, those particles are placed not only before nouns, but
also before verl)S and adjectives when necessary. Tiicy are
used redundantly and in pleonasm, just as is the case in Italian
conversation, and still more in vernacular Italian, with certain
particles.
Continuing my search for the reason of these particles, I
found my previous induction confirmed. Nu is an abbreviation
of nueh-ca, meaning my ; a of wh-ru, thy ; Iu of Iwh-ro, his, of
him {eh being pronounced as in German, or like the Castilian
jutd) : before substantives and 1>efore verbs they may be con-
sidered as abbreviations of mirh c-ld)n, I ; a»i or ham, thou ;
bifd or fuch-/ut~.i, they, them. Before verbs, however, /wis less
used than torh, which, standing alone, means these (near mc),
while toi-li-mm and toch-lani mean those (near you), and tucli-
/itvu' and iorh-bi-tzi mean those (yonder).
Besides simplicity and convenience, is there not also cleame.ss
and ])eauty in the relation between the personal pronoun, the
personal adjective, a!ul the particle of personal relation 1 And
was it possible tnat such a language should be without rules ?
I felt encouraged, therefore, to carry on my researches.
Being accustomed in our languages to find the root and
invariable portion of the part of speech at the beginning of the
word, it was truly confusing to meet continually with the
270 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
contrary before discovering the law. Therefore this fundamental
rule must be borne in mind. Whoever wishes to study lan-
guages that are without written rules must dismiss from his
mind all those rules that govern his own, or it will be as difficult
for him to enter on the right road as to recognize a person
wearing a mask.
OF THE ARGENTINE REI'UBLIC. 27 1
CHAPTER II.
NAMES GIVEN BY THE MATTACCOS TO IMPORTED ANIMALS — HOW
I FOUND OUT THE ETYMOLOGY THEREOF IMPORTANCE OF
THIS DATUM AUOMENTATIVES AND DIMINUTIVES — CHANGES
IDENTICAL WITH THOSE IN ITALIAN NEGATIVES — THEIR
COLLOCATION — EXAMPLES — ADHUEVIATIONS — ANALOGY WITH
ITALIAN.
Another tiling over wliicli I cudj/cllcd mj' brains was tlic names
of the domesitic animals imported into America from Europe at
the time of the discovery or comiuest of the former.
It is well known that in those countries where new things
are suddenly introduced, their names, as a rule, accompany
them. It is equally well knoAvn what an important advantage
this is, not only to the philologist, but also to the ethnographer
— in a word, to all who study the distribution and description
of the human race.
Now, it so happened that when I asked the names of the
horse, the ox, the sheep, which in Spanish, as it is here pro-
nounced, are called rabar/r/io, vart-a, and ovecha, the names
given me in answer were entirely different.
It still makes me laugh when I think of the efforts I made
to reduce ^Fattacco words, by my own fanciful alterations, to
their Spanish roots.
15ut one fine day I found myself killing two birds with one
stone.
"We had a handsome bull-dog on board. Now, siiioch is
Mattacco for dog. The creature's name was Palomo (dove),
wliich the Mattaccos translated literally into U>-quinatar. But
one anish, and srliiarrian- (to
crusli) iinil xtiwriarc are synonymous. Thus those inhabitants
of Santiago who can speak Chiqchua nuxke frequent use of )id
in cases Avhere the Coyas inhabiting Bolivia say ih in Portuguese
= ;/" in llalian).
isi^xt as to the invei-siou of lettei-s and syllables. Does it
not happen sometimes that in speaking quickly we alter a word
by inverting its letters'? Now, this is instinctive and becomes
liabitual until certain words of one language sound ridiculous
to persons speaking a tongue akin lo it. Fur exanqile : tj/iir/a/ffti
(a wreath) is i/uirnd/i/d in Spanish ; lirilmif (a rutKan) becomes
hribnn = rirl>(>ni/!< ! in L;itin. J>ut to reach the climax of
exaggerated invei-sious we must go the Galli/iano dialect, two-
thirds of which are Portuguese and the re.-5t Spanish. Now,
these .Mattaccos likewise invert their words : melon, for instance,
ncluin, and so forth.
T
274 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
Tlie Mattacco language has many negatives, but they are
diversely used. On another occasion I may perhaps be able to
show an unexpected similarity in this with other languages
spoken by South American tribes who apparently are in no
way akin.
The principal of these negatives is ka = no, which is used
alone, and is also prefixed to adjectives, thus reversing their
meaning; for example : 7ndtt, tv\ie,kd-?natt, untrue. It is curious
that the Akkas, the apocryphal dwarfs of Africa, have the same
word for " no," if one may believe the statement of the Abate
Beltrame di Verona.
Another negative is tde, always placed at the end ; for
example : viatt, true, matti-tde, untrue. Note the addition of
i for the sake of euphony. These additions and withdrawals
of letters are one of the most desperate difficulties in the study
of this language, and, in truth, make one despair of mastering
it. Thus : nu-huen, I have ; hueni-tde^ I have not.
liText comes am, which is prefixed to verbs. For example :
n^amlmen or nanmhen, I have not ; then jack, interrogative and
imperative, and prefixed to the verb ; it is the Latin 7ie, but in
a different position. Then Idcha, which also means without.
Example : jach-l6n-nu, do not kill me ; jach-d-hemin-nuja ?
Dost thou wish me well 1 ldelia-ciecu6-ja, a widow, that is,
witlioid a husband.
Prepositions in this language, as in others, form in a great
measure the basis, and I may say, the philosophy of the
language. When united to a verb, they attribute to it a rela-
tive signification. They are, nevertheless, so undefined and so
unfixed, that a little while before writing these lines it seemed
to me, and I marvelled at it, that this language contained only
a very few. The contrary is the case in the Chiqchua lan-
guage, in which the prepositions are beautiful, melodious, de-
tached, and always in the same place, i.e. after the nominative
case, so that they should rather be called postpositions.
In Mattacco, likewise, the prepositions are postpositions, but
sometimes, instead of being placed after the noun, they are
placed after the verb, and then they may be mistaken, as
happened to me, for a form of the conjugation. At other times
they stand between the root of the verb and the inflection
expressing tense, or between the root of a noun and the in-
flection indicating number or case. One can imagine the
horrible state of confusion into which one is thrown on finding
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 275
in a perfectly new and stranj^e language a ninnber of expres-
sions inwhicli one and the same word seems to alter the sense; of
a sentence without the shadow of a reason. For my own part,
I must admit that for a long time I entirely failed to under-
stand it, and even now I must confess that I have only
mastered very few of the rules that are concealed in several
hundreds of sentences in ray possession.
For example: cw means ivifh ; nn-hcn is an altbreviatccl
form of m ; irifh U!< is rendered by nu-riii--]u'n.
There would certainly be no great ilifficulty in the matter
if you could ask an Indian for a single word and he could
answer you as simply ; but, in fact, he must always refer the
word to something else. Thus, if you ask him to name the
foot, he will answer mirroJu if he touches his own foot, accolo
if he touches yours, and fun-olo if he touches that of a third
])erson. iS'ext, the diflerence of construction is puzzling. For
example, take the case of nuruclitn : if you ask your teacher
which part of the word means loith, and which part means nn,
if he is a ladino, i.e. intelligent, and actiuainted with the
language, he will reply with great ingenuousness : 7mr means
u-if/i, nirlicn means us, turning the words, in fact, topsy-turvy.
Therefore the best plan is to go on by degrees, anil from the
known to the unknown, first asking for single Avords, then for
simple and clear phrases, then for others less simple but still
clear. After this it is well to repeat the same sentence,
changing only one of its words or one of its parts. Then, Ity
comparing and eliminating, there is a likelihood of an-iving at
a Avord-for-word translation. And even this is not enough !
because on account of the conditions I have indicated in the
language, of the great intellectual disparity between the two
interlocutors, and their diverse and mutually unintelligible
points of view, the unhappy learner suddenly finds a word
entirely changed without knowing why or wheiefore, and is left
in doubt as to which is the right version. He multiplies his
questions to his own greater perplexity and the whole thing
ends in a regular r)al)el.
Talking of ]'>abel, among the Vilela Indians the word for
" speak " is Mhabr/on !
B\it to return to our prepositions. I have said that they
modify the sense of the verb ; it would be tnier to say that
they complete it. For example : iol/ contains the idea of
motion. "When used alone it may mean iu sprmit ; the grass
T 2
276 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
sprouts, will be, the grass toll; with ca after it, it means to
come frrnn ; with jipe after it, it means to fall. There are
other words expressing the same thing, but if you wish to use
the word toll, you must add the aforesaid particles which are
placed as postpositions to the substantives.
When these are placed after the verbs, it might seem that
they are in reality prepositions placed before the direct case ;
but although there are some true prepositions, nevertheless in
the ease I have mentioned they are postpositions with regard to
the verbs also, because they modify their terminations so as to
agree with the sound, because the verl) thus modified can stand
alone, and because between it and its preposition and the direct
case other words may be interpolated ; thus proving it to be
bound to the verb.
The principal particles used like our prepositions, or at least
those with which 1 am acquainted, are, cc/n'a, until; tamennech,
wherefore ; ajip*^, pe or ppe, upon ; icchio, under ; cue, chie,
jcrlte, ccrhc, ech, with (these are probably modifications of the
same word for the sake of euphony) ; nuith or uuitd, and c-hija
also meaning with, that are placed as prepositions, but are rather
cumulative conjunctions ; op or oh, hot. Mot, by, for — I have
only met with these last as equivalents of why or because ; for
example : op-toch, because (through this) ; op-chi-ld, why 1 mean-
ing, for what object 1 while in order to say iclty, meaning, for
wli;it motive 1 atihlcjcrhp ? is used. This word is composed of
aide, how? what? and yVvr//^^, with. Then there is a postposi-
tion ei, which is like the Italian da and the French cliez, and is
used to express movement to or from a place ; it is often omitted
and is variously placed. This ei or iei forms an extremely
gracious verbal expression, viz. mi-ei =z vai-p>er, composed of
moh or mmoh, signifying vai, and of ei, with one of the number-
less variations that bring me to despair over this language.
Thus in order to say, " Go and fetch me some fire " {itoch,
fire) ; they say, Miei itoch, or " Go for fire," just as the verb to
go is used in elegant Italian. At first, and for a long time I
mistook this for an inflection.
Another important postposition is ca, meaning 0/ and /ro7W.
It is placed after verlis and substantives. Together with these
it forms a kind of genitive, but it is seldom used and only with
proper names. Added to personal pronouns it forms the posses-
sive pronouns my, tltij, his, which are genitives, it' I may say so,
in this language, and follow the same rule as in ours, in which
OF THE ARGENTINK REPUBLIC. 2/7
we may say either my or '/ iiv. Thus from nu (the abbreviated
form of iioc/i/tiiii, I) we get nucli-cd, my; ah-cd, thy; and Ink-
rd, lii.s, of him.
Tliere arc otlicr propositions besides, viz. cqui, within ; Idcha,
meaning without, and i)laced before the word it governs, but
this is rather to be considered as a negative, beeausi' I have
always found it before winds, the termination of wliich indicates
possession, which is thus negatived by tdr/ia. For example :
without a wife, is IdcJia ccqv6-jd, that is, unwived.
'J'hcrc are very many others that I do not recollect.
The wonls that exi)ress loitli (ach, jc-chu, &c.), lead me to
think that some prepositions govern certain cases, and that
their apparent alteration is due to the different terminations of
those cases. For example : vip. is nuja ; with mr- is najucche ;
it is easy to perceivo here a rational alteration of nuja-ech.
2/8 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
CHAPTER III.
THE USE OF POSTPOSITIONS INSTEAD OF PREPOSITIONS WAS
PERHAPS GENERAL IN THE ARYAN LANGUAGES AND THE IN-
DIGENOUS LANGUAGES OF SOUTH AMERICA — LOGICAL PRIORITY
OF SOME OVER OTHERS AND OF CONVENTION OVER ALL
^YHY THE CHIQCnUA IS A TYPICAL LANGUAGE — CONJUNC-
TIONS — ANALOGY BETWEEN MATTACCO WORDS AND OUR OWN.
The reader will not fail to observe that iii Mattacco the position
of the preposition is the exact reverse of what it is with us ;
and our custom should seem the most remarkable to liim,
because that of placing prepositive particles after the noun or
verb must be looked upon as a characteristic that at one epoch
was probably universal in all languages.
In German and in English, especially in the former, the
transposition of the preposition is very frequent, and constitutes
an element in the language as conducive to its elegance as to
the difficulty with which it is acquired and spoken by those
whose mother-tongue is one of the so-called Latin sisters. This
was the case at least with me after allowing for the dissimilarity
of words. It is the same in the Slavonic languages and in
other languages belonging to the Aryan family.
Further ; in Latin, which is said to be our mother, but is not
so, except as to polish, in the absence of some grammatical
forms and of some parts of speech ; in Latin, I say, Ave find
examples of the transposition of prepositions in vohiscam,
nohiscum, tecum, mecum, and in the varying places of others
either before or after the noun, as for example, versus towards,
may be indifferently, I go Romam versus, or versus Romam.
Conjunctions follow the same rule ; whence I can say, Senatus
atque (and) Pojpulus Romanus, or Senatus Populusque Romanus,
the famous motto that is now used by the municipality of
Rome.
In the Italian language meco and teco is used in place of con
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 279
m<', con tc (witli me, with thee). The Spanish seem to liave
lost siglit of the etymology of migo and tign, for they all make
use of the pleonasm con vivjo, con tigo. Mhjo and tigo are of
course no other than the Italian mi'co and /wo, the c being
changed into 7, as in amhjo and ainii-o (friend). Other examples
of this may he found in Italy, at least in Tuscany, in the
vernacular. They are eloquent of one of the greatest factors
in the transformation of languages, i.e. whenever the origin and
the sense of a certain exceptional form is lost sight of, it comes
to he treated under the general rules. Thus also, when foreign
Avords are introduced in their full force into another language,
that is to say, when they are pronounced and written as in the
tongau; to which they belong, after the lapse of little more than
one generation they become assimilated in every way with their
new family. The lower orders, especially, who are ignorant of
the genealogy of their guest, alter the word at once and treat
it as one of their own. Hence those well-known Gallicisms,
Teutonisms, and I know not what besides, that so often break
the hearts of purists, ])ut which are in truth a real manna
raining down and enriching the language that adopts them :
for my part I should welcome such rain every day, in spite of
any opposition — provided indeed there were national reciprocity
in the matter.
]Nreanwhile, the examples I have adduced may be looked
upon as the remains of pre-existing forms.
In the native languages of South America, postpositions are
employed commonly in \)\i\ce of prepositions ; the contrary is
the exception, at any rate in Chi(ichuan and Guarany, which
j)ossess postpositions only, and in Araucan, which jiossesses both.
These tribes, with the ^Mattaccos and the wild Indiadas of the
Clwxco and the centre, occupy the whole of South America.
]\Iay not this grammatical form be superior to oui-s, and
hasten the perception of ideas by suddenly fixing the termina-
tions of words on which the relation expressed by the particle
is to lie thrown ? Certainly one of these particles cannot greatly
retard the jierception of the relation between the terminations
and the relative object ; but if we revert to the epoch when
language or languages were formed, does it not seem more natuml
to name the objects in the tirst jdace and then to express their
inter-relation'? It is probaV)le also that the phonetic symbol
expressing relation was of later growth and was due to the
progress of intelligence, and still more to practice in the use of
280 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
the instrument, if I may call it so, that had been adopted, the
speakers being helped at first by a conventional collocation of
words, or by modulation, or in some other way. In such an
order of ideas the preposition would seem to be of later date
than the postposition in the genesis of language ; and the post-
position would be later again than modulation. Modern
languages, nevertheless continually make use of both con-
ventional arrangement and of modulations in order to dis-
tinguish relations.
The declension of words, while complicating grammatical forms,
is a great aid to clearness ; and this superiority is possessed by
the Spanish language, in which the accusative is pointed out
by the preposition a, and by the French language also with its
nominative qui and acci;sative que. But is this an absolute
progress, and more especially is the process anterior or posterior
to the declension of substantives 1 To discuss this would carry
us too far. I will limit myself to stating that in my opinion,
the simplest language, if equally expressive with others, is the
best, and that, on the other hand, certain individualized forms
that are necessary for what I will call a material intelligence,
gave way probably to simpler forms owing their strength to the
relative positions of words, when intelligence had become more
capable of apprehending such relations and of apprehending
syntheses.
MeanAvhile a language that is characterized by fornudating
by means of symbols that which we express by means of rela-
tive positions and by modulation, is the Chiqchua, in which we
have the declension of nouns and the enfeoffment of particles
expressly for the interrogative form. viz. riii after a verb, and
tach after a noun. Examples: wilt iliov, \» mimdnchi ; wafer
(ace.) is jaentfa ; Wilt thou have water 1 is Mundnehieciu ja-
ciitta? tJiou caJIest thyself, is sidicchi ; hoir, is ima. How
called thou tlujself? is Imdtaeh suticchi ? Modulation is thus
avoided, as also the sign of interrogation in writing.
It must be observed that in Chiqchua all particles are
placed after conjunctions, prepositions, interrogations, and de-
clensions. Thus it is an exceptionally typical language.
I have not met with any disjunctive conjunctions in Mat-
tacco, such as or, neither, &c.
Instead of or they seem to use if not. For example : Give
me water if you have not wine, instead of, Give me water or
OF THE ARGENTINE KEI'UHLIC. 28 1
Avinc, Ami instead of saying nfltlwr, tln-y repeat the verh.
For example: I haiw no water, I haca ')i() uum- ; instead of, I
liave neither wine nor water.
])Ut they liave many words to express the copidative con-
junetions, and, also, &c., whicli as with us are placed
he fore the direct case. The following are the principal words :
unlth, or nuitli and r-lojn, which they use also for our ir/'f/i, as
we have seen ; and utcwi, isir/tii^i, fdriii, for, and. T(h'ni is
especially used for interrogation ; for example : / tmi 'johitj, arc
you ? Nn-jirhc tilnii-om ?
It is curious that as to conjunctions ^fattacco is the reverse
of Chi(ichua, which has no word fta- and, instead of which they
use nifli placed after the subject or object ; whereas they have
or, placing the particle ciu, which expresses it, after one of the
two alternatives presented.
The following analogies approaching to iut the French also make use of a/l-ihii/s, toujours, to ex-
press /c^y ever ; therefore they express an intletinite and infinite
idea by means of a word signifying a limited time, viz. day.
I take the opportunity of remarking that the particles ncu-he
and nmna, of which the latter is sometimes changed in the
second or tliird syllable, and the vowel altered from e to /, fonu
two tenses of tlie verljs ; narlie being used for the Perfect
Tense, and nenna for the Imperfect. For example : to return,
is tcqnl ; I Tetmned, fajnlla'-Iie ; and I was returning, tapil-U
(the second I is in place of?/, for the reason already given).
For noon, they say irudla irfini, which in my opinion means
the mn is hieing asked in the second person. This proves how necessary
it is to establish clearly the circumstances of time and person
before writing down the reply.
Though I fear to weary the reader by dwelling too long on
the Mattacco language, yet I feel bound to impart the little I
have learnt; for I devoted the short leisure I could snatch
from my professional duties to studies, often prolonged to the
small hours of the night. And if in order not to weary him,
I begin to digress, I am afraid of being too discursive, while
if I keep strictly to the thread of the narrative, he may
find it too dry. I am puzzled. Will a^y one suggest a way
out of the difficulty 1 Xo one 1 Then I must remain as
I am. But then, my reader, if indeed at this time there
still exists one for me, be compassionate to me and nw poor
book ! I ask it for the sake of the affection I feel towards
you, and the desire I have for reciprocity ! for the sake of the
hours I refused to Morpheus while thinking of you, and en-
deavouring to disentangle the hitherto inviolate tongue of
Mattacco ! For the sake of the ridicule that I feel already I
am destined to encounter for omitting the exact mathematical
root, in this uncertain philology ! And then there is some
possible gain for you, if you ever care to study, in whatever
degree you please, the prehistoric history of this South American
population, for with the light shed by philology we might well
try to discover if the Redskins were once as closely related to
each other as ourselves and the Croatians at the least. And
if this does not suffice thee, have pity at least on an unfor-
tunate author plunged in a slough of difficulties whence the
strength of Hercules would be needed to extricate him !
I am still confronted by adjectives, comparatives, superla-
tives, numbers, declensions, and verbs. I know not which to
select first, but I will begin with the first-named.
Adjectives seem to have resembled isolated buds, needing
but a touch to open them. But such is not the case. There
are many with roots and intricate branches, that we must accept
in order to understand them.
But as for hypotheses, I give due Avarning that we must clear
them with a jump.
There are a goodly number of adjectives of which I can tell
neither whence they come nor whither they go, and these per-
haps are the majority. But there are others of which the
derivation is obvious. Among these are the possessive adjec-
OF THE ARGl'.NTIXE KKrUULIC. 285
tives foi'in('(l from the root of tlic jtrononu with tlic addition of
the jmrticle ca, of, wliich is also a genitive jjostpo.sition, aiul nt^
which must be considered as a variation of ra. Jiesides ro and
rrt, they also make use of lo in possessive adjeetives, Init ju'in-
cipally, 1 think, witli iinj and /////. J///, tlierefore, is mu'li-rd,
iiurlt-cu^ and iiurh-lo ; tltij, is a'vJ and al-li>.
Anotlier way is with tzw. Example ; fear is nai or Imdi ; fright-
ened, is Itudintuicli. And another form is with jd. ]>ut this
would seem ratiier to be a present particiiile. Example : Nn-
huul-jd, I am frightened, I am afraid ; accccuoja, tliou who hast
a wife, or a husband.
Another way is by adding the proposition ech to tlie sult-
stantive. Example : hunger, iia-iii-lo, hungered, va-in-ln nrdi,
i.e. with hunger; now, cchia, fresh, iww, cc/iid-Jf'ch, i.e. with or
of now. (Such forms as these are rational, surely, and reveal a
process of agglutination.
Ccnnparatives and superlatives proceed likewise by aggluti-
nation, JxiDi or cJiov), meaning more, being placed before the
word, and ta'-Ji, expressing suix-riority, after it. 'i'he comi)ara-
tive, however, is not followed by f/iai/, as fur example : Peter
is handsomer t/inu Paul, is rendered even with agglutination,
" Peter is handsomer, as is not Paul." It is a .somewhat odd
form, but 1 tind it repeated very often in my notes. The j)ar-
ticley« fretpiently follows comparatives, for which it seems to
me there are other laws which, however, I have not di.scovered.
As superlative they use nforq, most, as is the ciise in juany
other languages, and sometiiues the .sound is prolonged by a
syllable, Eor instance, far, is foi/u/-j ; very far, is toqw'rj ; the
word being accompanied by a gesture. This form is al.>iii, which is the .suae as
j(i'-Ji-r/iouf, i.e. not more. The agglutinative form must be
noted here ; it is common to all these adjectival forms. This
language seems to nu' extremely logical, and once having taken
a certain direction goes on to the end. The ditHculty is to
grasp it at lirst, and then not to be bewildered by its .sudden
lunis.
286 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
While on this subject let me observe that almost all adjectives
expressing the opposite of a good quality, are composed of the
adjective expressing that quality and of a negative particle
either preceding or folloAving it. For example: true, matt ;
false, Im-matt or mattide, i.e. untrue. Good and fine, hiss and
tzi ; ugly, ka-tzia and tzitde ; far, tocuej ; near, tocuei-tde ; in-
stead of the last word, ca-tu-ta may be used ; now catu means
the elbow, and metaphorically, a bend or curve, &c. This form
extends sometimes to substantives. For example : a remedy
is eJcid, a poison is ha-ckici. We find the same forms in our
own languages when we say uncertain for not certain, scortese,
de^rvrtrs in Spanish for courteous, discourteous, &c.
It may seem, nevertheless, that these Eedskins lack certain
shades of meaning that are possessed by our language, m which,
for example, there is a formal distinction between false and
untrue, betAveen far and not near.
It may be so ; nevertheless they do possess certain shades of
meaning, such as a distinction between foreigner and stranger ;
the first being achhi-tdch chle-le, that is, one who comes from a
great distance ; and the second, icchiom chle-le, that is, one who
comes from lower down. With regard to these Mattaccos.
strangers do, in fact, live lower down, near the mouth of the
river and of the Paraguay. Above them dwell the Christians,
whom they call Chiguele.
Whence this name of Chiguele ? !N"ot from their colour, h^-
causG preldch means white, and jaccatde means yellow, i.e. not-
black, showing that to them the opposite of black is yellow.
They have no word for blue or green, and it may be they are
so far colour blind. And if they intended to call us red, which
is icchiott, there seems to be a wide gap between that word and
the word Chiguele. Therefore 1
I have it ! Cliiguele means "fine men !" Chi, as I have already
said, is the same as tzi, and would be the same as chj. Now tzi
is a root found in katzia and in tzi-tde, meaning ugly, not hand-
some, as we see in the word tzilatdcli, also called chilatdch ; thus
the Christians, having partly corrupted the former word, pro-
nounce it childtta and catchia. Chilatdch is composed in the first
place of tach, an augmentative particle, and of chila. In chila
la is a particle that, as we have seen in the case of la, ca, and co,
forms adjectives when placed after the root. Chi, therefore, is
the root giving signification to chilatdch ; but chilatdch means
fine or handsome in a high degree, therefore chi expresses beauty.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 287
We have seen that the patronymic word chlural. Ex :
ruin, foot, coloi, feet; hucntii:, l)ird, //?«'«/^'/, birds. Wt)rds end-
ing \\\ aril, ehange tlie clt into .svs* .• all the augmentatives in
wh and diminutives in cliiark follow this rule. Ex : it/iidarli,
moon, montli, u/ut'/aA'^, months; jelatadi, horse, Jr/ a fa,-'!^, hoi-ses.
"Words ending in 71 take an /, which is pronounced by placing
the tip of the tongue against the palate, and sounds almost
like il. Ex : camm, a needle, catmi/l (almost cannuil),
needles. Those ending in /, in nr/i, and other letters, change
tliem into ^v.s'. Ex : jdhscf, a tish, jdrJisrfi's.<, fislies ; tilorh, hide
or skin, fdor/ir.in, hides. Those ending in / often take it<,t, and
sometimes drop the I. Ex : tzct, paunch, t.y/ifft, paunches ;
Jrl, a sick man, j'iss (or Jetit'-f), sick men. This last is a good
specimen of alteration.
There are many exceptions anil probably other rules that I
omit for the sake of brevity.
I am doubtful as to whether they have the dual number like
the ^Vraucans anil the Guaranys, and like the Greeks among
ourselves, but I am not certain. Yet I have noted : the Inind,
rhiif'i, both hands, linirjai ; we, i^orh amil, we two, norhlmndfii ,•
you, auiil, you two, (Uik\kx ; but I repeat, I am luicertain
whether it is a dual form.
When numerals are usetl, the nouns following them are in-
dilferently in the singidar or plural. Adjectives seem to me
294 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
to remain in the singular, and they, are placed after the
noun.
I have not met with sufficient examples to authorize me in
attributing declension to cases also, unless indeed we may thus
denominate the occasional addition of ca in the genitive. For
example : Peter's people, Peilo-ca Uicchj. Their method of
using prepositions may suffice instead of cases.
The personal pronouns /and tliou, however, at any rate in
the singular, are declined, while only toch, these, seems to have
an accusative in tocha.
The declension of pronouns- is as follows : —
Singular. Singular.
Nom. I, 7ioch-lam, mi,, no, ni. Nom. Thou, dm or ham, and a.
Gen. Oi n\e, nucJi-cd. Gen. Of thee, ac/i-ca.
Dat. To me, ntiho. Dat. To thee, dmu or Jidmu.
Ace. Me, ni'cja, nu. Ace. Thee, ama and di.
Abl. With me, nujech. Abl. With thee, dmech or dnicluc.
Plural. Plural.
Nom. We, nochlam-il, 7id, and Nom. You two, amass, a.
indt.
Nom. Wetwo, iioc/tZamassaud Nom. Yon, amil, a.
inamdss.
The finals I and il, may be due to an alteration of the word
el, other, originally used to express the plural ; it Avould there-
fore be merely an ancient form, agglutinated, set aside and
varied by successive changes.
The apostrophe is much used in this language, for the sake
of harmony most likely ; but by altering and confusing the
words, it leads to mistakes and to difficulty in securing the
right word. Example : Dost thou wish me well ] jdchdemin nnja;
(i.e. jach-a-heiidn nnJa) ; I wish thee well, nai (i.e. nu ia),
lie I II in.
In the formation of nouns, as in that of verbs, they make use,
as I have already said, of the possessive particles ?r«, a, hi,
my, thy, his, which are placed before most substantives. In
asking a question, therefore, one must determine exactly the nu
which refers to the person speaking, who, if asked the word
for house, will reply: nuhauet or nu-hpp2^i i-^- "my house."
And thus with the apostrophe, which is easily hidden in na, vr,
vi, no, nu, and is mistaken for the root letter, with consequent
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 295
iiiisappri'liciisiDu and confusion wlu'n the sanin word roappears
in an altered iorni in other or identical expressions.
I draw attention to this because it is not iniprobahle that
the same rule may exist in other languages. The knowledge
might lie useful to some other traveller who may chance to
lead my notes. In Guarany nouns arc preceded by cic or ccp,
my ; by vdf, thy ; and various particles for his.
The Vilelas have many words with hrj^p in the centre, ex-
pressive of some relation no doubt ; but I have not sufficient
materials from which to form a judgment.
So far for America !
I see in the Abate Beltrame's Smjgio Grammatical', on tlie
language of the African Akkas, that all their verbal infinitives
begin with Ic. It is morally impossible that this letter can be
a root. It must therefore express a relation. Hut which ?
I'roliably a pronominal one. Guided by this idea, I find on
examining the personal pronouns, that the third person j)lural
is kae, those. I have no doubt that the h of the infinitives
comes thence ; their root mu.st be sought therefore in words
without the Ic.
The substantives do not seem to me to have genders ; but
iri the pronouns and demonstrative adjectives I have remarked
sometimes certain changes which led me to suspect a distinction
of gender. ]Jut the suspicion is of the slightest.
The names of female animals, however, are followed by tzind,
meaning female ; tlie word for woman is used by itself. For
example: a m.xrc, jrla-tdck-t~ind : and for males, the names are
sumelimes followed by at^narh, which means male.
There are common names, already inclutling an idea of ab-
straction, as we have seen with regard to bird, fish, tree, for
which they use words that I have found applied to the species.
And it is noteworthy that they possess also abstract names,
beeaueo, besides nevi'i- and aticai/K, they have others, such, for
•xample, as fear, udi, with which they also express trembling.
\n earth(|uake is kuiidf uai, i.a. "earth-trembling," as in the
Spanish tittiihlor (hi tirrra. For these Mattaccos therefore are
fear and trembling the same thing ? And were not our abstract
expressions for the most part formed in a similar way, i.e. by
taking a part for the whole] Now, trembling is the most
'•ommon manifestation of fear.
I contend that the.se Indians possess to the full, the intel-
lectual faculties of man, and his power of reasoning, and in so
296 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
liigh a degree tliat tliey are like ourselves both as to ability and
antiquity. The distance between us is tliat of the actual world
of facts and of the ideas relating to them, but it is dispropor-
tionate to their faculties and ours. This is intelligible. For
long ages there have been numberless individuals among ns
enjoying the intellectual advantages of a scientitic, moral, and
polite education. Yet they are few indeed in comparison with
those of ancient history or with mankind at large. The in-
fluences therefore of hereditary physiology must have had little
or no effect on mankind throughout the world, during the period
of barbarism. It is by overlooking these considerations that
the public in general is led to wonder at the relative inferiority
of the wild races.
The very small intellectiial and moral distance between them
and us, is an eloquent proof of the immense antiquity of man,
necessary to bring him from the state of rational anthroponiui-
phism into that of the existing savage.
OF Till-: ARGEXTIXr: RKPUDLIC. 297
CifAiTE]; vir.
CURIOUS EXAMPLES ()!•' THE FORMATION OF KEW WORDS — ETY-
MOLOGY OF iucrmU, TOBACCO HAIR, WOOL, LEAVES — THE
TREE AND ITS FRUIT NAMES OP KINDRED — ANALOGIES
REMARKS — DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS — INTELLECTUAL HAR-
MONIES — NO, NOTHING, NOBODY COMPOSITE NAMES FOR
OFFICES VERBS — DIFFICULTIES THEY OFFER — EXAMPLES.
Tt i.s interesting to note how tliese tribes form words in tlieir
language to express some new object. Observation is the
great teaclier. For instance, for bell, they say spiiler-paunch,
rhiu-Ind-t::ti ; for musket they say, as did our forefathers, arque-
buse, i.e. fire-bow, itorh-h-tzcdi, from /VoV-/^, fire, and Ictzt'-rh, bow ;
ammunition is, as in Italian, little balls, i.e. c-loqiiaxH, from c-U,
a balla, antl qnuwh, a diminutive ; a steel for striking a light, that
they had never seen before, nor had they seen the other under-
mentioned (i])jects, they call itorh-crJiia, i.e. "a means or instru-
ment for tire;'' Hint is icn-thr, a stone; a match is Horh-b'fK,
from Ms>-, bundle, union ; family is c-Io-hi, from c-lo, a ball, and
///, a particle expressing holding or containing; a mirror is
/nj/t'-i'dr/i hi, tt)])f'Jarh meaning image and shadow ; a stocking is
rrolu-buth, from ccolo, foot, and li/iut, a bung or cover — in short,
a covering. A shoe, on the contrary, they call 7iissut or sot. i.e.
a cone, indicating that they already knew of shoes, and in fact
they sometimes wear a kind of sandal like the ^wv/rt.s worn by
the inhabitants of the campo, and made of a piece of leather for
the sole, and two strips of the same that, after passing between
the great toe and the toe next to it, are fastened at the ankle.
A huifer match is ?7Cx.sa.N>', an abbreviation of Hix-h-quanit, mean-
ing small tires, and the match-box is itoch-hi-huass, i.e. the care-
laker of matches, or match-guard.
(3ne word has always awakened my curiosity as to its ety-
mology, viz. iuiruciti, tobacco, which does not exist in the Chaco ;
I believe I am not mistaken in deriving it from it'/, burned, and
298 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
ruas, to bite, to tear, to sting. Xow in those two actions consist
tlie manner of using tobacco, ami its effects.
Another analogy as to power of judging, in addition to what avc
may deduce from the foregoing words, is found in the use of tci
Loth for eyes and for countenance, just as in Italian poetry and
in accordance with the etymology of the Latin vims, which means
eyesight.
The doorway is lilappi'-bhut, i.e. the door-cover, a clearer and
more precise expression than ours.
The same word, hiwlei, preceded by the name of the object
to which it refers, is used for fleece, wool, and hair.
They use the same word for foliage, showing that they look
upon the leaves as the hair of the plant ; and this is no forced
analogy, if we remember that mimosas with deeply indentated
leaves predominate in these parts. The botanical term for these
indentations is pinnated or hipinnated (feathered), thus justifying
the Mattacco expression.
Their manner of distinguishing between the plant and the
fruit by means of flexure is worthy of remark. Example : mistol
(jujube-tree), oho-jucclie, the fruit of the mistol, ohSjdche ; the
vinal, atfeeche, the fruit, attache; the black algarrobo, uossot-
etzuche, the fruit, riossot-etzdche, &c. Here we see the u repeatedly
changed into a.
Names of kindred vary according to sex. This is not sur-
prising, for have we not ourselves father and mother, brother
and sister, &c. ? It is curioiis that all languages are alike in
this matter, and the American are no exception to the rule.
In these latter the names of kindred vary, not only according
to the sex of the person addressed or spoken of, but also wdth
the sex of the speaker. For example : in Araucano the father
calls his son fotum, and his daughter gnahue ; but the mother
calls her son cogfii Ituenthu, and her daughter ro(/r«' fto?«o — coijni
meaning offspring generally in the mouth of the mother. In
Chiqchua the father calls his son criuri, and his daughter ususi ;
the mother calls her guagua.
In the Chinese language, according to the teaching of my
interpreter, Ajao of Pekin, whom I -engaged lately for two
francs an hour, son is Tsae, and daughter Pnoe ; father is Lu-
tao, mother Loximuu, brother ghoo-sei-lou, and sister tta-i-tzi e.
In Mattacco we find the following names : father, chia :
mother, ceo ; son, locse or lotse ; daughter, lectzd ; brother-in-
law, quajenecclie ; sister-in-law', ticclde ; brother, lecchiila, or
OF THE ARGFXTIXE REPUBLIC. 299
ri-liuld ; sister, crhiinii/) ; uncle, uifor ; aunt, uiilnrhr ; TU'jihrw',
hochiii-ioA, an aljbreviation probably of " the son of the brother;"
niece, cchuiio ; father-in-law, rkioH ; raother-in-law, rati'la :
cousin, Imorld. I remark, moreover, that for son-in-law ami
tlau,L;hter-in-law, they use the same words as for brother and
sister-in-law, and for brother-in-law the same word also is used
as for sou-in-Iaw ; which, however, I am sure is au error.
The ditlt'rent words employed to express the same degree of
kiuilred, according to the sex of the speaker, are due in my
opinion to the method of aggregation originally adopted to
determine that degree, although subsequent changes liave
obscured etymological origin. It is clear that in the case of
huslxind and wife a nephew will be the son of a brother of the
one and of a brother-in-law of the other, or of a sister and
sister-in-law.
I>y agglutinating or aggregating the words exyn-essive of these
diverse relationships, we shall secure the same degree of kindred,
a nei)hew, in four different Avays.
An equally interesting form is tliat of the demonstrative pro-
nouns, which resemble the French because they are formed by
the pronoun toch, these (in French rrx), lirw', those (yonder), and
fpfii and /a/ii for those (near you). There are others besides,
among which is tzi, these ; fzi is the same as rri and rclij, and
is of importance because we meet with it in Araucano. The.se
words, when used as demonstrative adjectives, are divided : tarh
is placed before the substantive, and It'nir, laf::i, tzi, &c., are
placed alter it, remaining indeclinable, while AW/, on the con-
trary, is declined. 2sow, is not this just the same with French
demonstrative adjectives — (■'''■i, nhi, for example, which in the
plural are reux-ci, reiix-ld, and can be divided ?
Do not these forms reveal a grand harmony in the human
intellect, which makes use of the same means, among widely
separated races, of expressing similar steps of relationship 1
The following genesis, which reveals an order of things,
deserves special mention. N<> is hit, nothing is hid, nobody is
Icidi ; here we see the root clearly and constantly shown.
And what can be more elegant or methodical in philology
th'in the Mattacco words expressing posses.sion, capacity for
holding, and the accomplishment or execution of an office?
The letter h (h with a dot beneath is i)ronounced nasally)
iijipears in a very great nural)er of words, if not in all, expressing
to have, or to hold. Now, we have Jii and fiiiii, expressive of that
300 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
which contains, and possesses, and does a thing ; and we have
hw'it, meaning house, a place containmg things. For example : a
lish, jdcset ; a fish-pond, jdcsette-ld ; shoes, nissohhs ; a shoe-
maker, one who sells shoes, nissoMsse-lii ; shoemaker, one Avho
makes them, nissohesse-liun ; a shoemaker's shop, nissolihse-
liW't. The same plan is followed in all similar cases. In what
respect are other languages superior %
But the verbs are a serious matter, and I must confess my
ignorance. I am not able to give one infinitive ; one, that is,
that I could conscientiously so describe. I might be able to
find some, had I leisure for the necessary study, but at present
this is not the case. In justice to myself, however, I must say
that the fault does not lie entirely in my want of intelligence;
the greater number have all the intricacy of this language,
joined to a complete absence of the least glimmering of intuitive
grammatical form in my Indian interpreters. If I asked them,
for instance, how to say " to eat," they would either not know
how to answer me, or would give me each time a different
answer. It was needful to say to them, " How do you say, * I
wish to eat ' % " and " How do you say, ' Let us eat ' % " and so
on. And then one falls at once into the difficulties of the
language, because the two ideas of eating and wishing to eat
will be included in one special form, and so forth.
I^ext come the various forms and dictions. For example :
" I have," may be translated with the French form, " il est a
moi," or the corresponding Latin form, " id est milii." Thus
one incurs the danger of mistaking est for hcur. Xow these
people appear to possess some of these forms.
And if I were to say that I have not even discovered the
plurals of the verbs ? The particle en or hen, according to the
termination of the preceding word, certainly expresses the plural ;
but I do not know whether it is pronominal, or whether, on the
contrary, it is a real plural inflection of the voice of the verb.
Example: "Dance thou!" catiti ;" Dance je \" cafinen. One
might succeed at last, were it always like this, but let us see.
" Let us dance," indt-catiji ; the en has already disappeared ;
inat means " us." Yet it will reappear in another similar case.
Example : " Strike up (thou)! " Mn-chie ; " Let us strike up !"
inenhecliien. Here there is plainly a change for the sake of har-
mony and for convenience, yet it is easy to discern the en that
vanished from " Let us dance ! " Still this would be com-
paratively nothing— it might only imply two forms of plural
OF THE ARGENTINE REPURLIC. 30I
The ml) lies hnv.; tliat, complicating the example with the sub-
ject aiul the ubjeet, it would seem thatA^'H or <^*m agreed with the
object and not with the subject, although we lind no passive or
neuter furm in the verb, as in certain Latin verbs, videor, /oqitoi;
&c. Example : " Kill the sheep ! " is //6ii tzonafarh ! Hon is kill,
tzDuatach is sheep. " Tictro has killed the sheep," will be, Pictro
ilm tzonatarh. " Pietro has killed the sheep " (plural), will be,
Pirtro ilonen tzonatass. AVhere now is the meaning introduced
by the ni in "Dance ye ! " " Let us dance," &c.? — and we meet
with siu;h difficulties by the dozen.
AV'ith regard io en or Jt/:n, liovvever, I may say that this particle
is found mostly in the plural. 1 say mostly, because it is not
always the case. Example : " The Christians have killed the
sheep," will be, To-ir/u/'fe Hon izonatdrli. This plural furm en is
a[iparently only used in the verb, either when the object suti'ering
the action is plural, or the i)lunil subject itself performs it, as in
" to dance."
302 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
CHAPTER VIIL
CONJUGATIONS — VARIOUS FORMS OP . PAST TENSES — REFLECTIVE
VERBS — RETENTION OP THE ROOTS — POSTPOSITIONS AND
VERBS VERBAL POSSESSIVE FORM — THE VERB TO BE — TABLE
OF AN INDICATIVE MOOD — PASSIVE VERBS.
Judging from the heap of verbs before rae, I think I may affirm
that there are sundry conjugations in this language. In this
respect it resembles Guarani, which has a very great number,
and is unlike Araucano, with its one conjugation for its many
thousand verbs ; and Chiqchna, that in like manner has but one,
albeit extremely complicated in the compound tenses.
From the preceding pages the reader will understand that I
am unable to offer him one or more models of verbal conjuga-
tions on account of my own ignorance. But I can give some
of the forms of various tenses.
One of the most precise is the Future Tense, which consists
of the Present Tense augmented by the syllable Id. Example :
He returns, tapil ; he will return, tajnl-Id. This is the Future
Absolute, for there is another, that I will call Doubtful, phije,
" perhaps," being added at the end of the sentence.
The Past Tense is formed by the addition of an e preceded
by a repetition of the last letter of the Present form — double
letters being in the nature of this language, as in the Italian and
many others, excepting the Spanish. Example : " He arrives,"
jurn ; "he aTnyed," jonmie.
The Eemote Past, however, is formed by adding to the Present
the adverb of time, ndche or ndcJii, and changing the n into
another letter, especially into I, when the ear requires it. Ex-
ample : "He kills," 'il67i ; "he killed" (Remote Past), ilonnache.
Sometimes ache is used. Example : " He eats," thcurque ; "he
ale," theuq^idcJie.
Another form of past time, resembling the Imperfect Tense,
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 303
is by adding the word iinind, eitliex" vliolu, or one of its t\ro
syllables, according to taste.
These two words, ndrhe and ivund, are the same that we
have seen \ised in " yesterday " irudki-ndr]n-^ and " to-day,"
iriMla-mund ; so that these savages are logical.
It would seem from the above examples that there are no
terminations to the verbs according to ivrson^ although there
are some depending on number that have the addition of m.
^Nevertheless, either from a casual difference of pronunciation,
L-r intentionally, I remark that in the first person singular of
the ]iast tenses the v is changed into i in the following ex-
amples : " I arrived,",/*/?/'//'/; "I returned," /rt^^Hi / "I ate"
(Remote), tdrurqudchi. However, it is not necessary, since eacli
voice of the verb is preceded by the pronominal particle nn, d,
/(>, inat, " I, thou, they, we," with various changes such as, wi
and 7ii, lu and //, hme, and I forget the rest.
In the negative, however, which is formed by adding t'h',
"no," to the root, it may seem that the word sutlers a flexure ;
but this is due merely to euphony. Example: "I see," nu-
ll umit ; "I do not see," nu-liiwuni-tiU, \ns,icixd. oi nuliuefiJitde ;
" I cut," nu-ixsi't or nissH ; " I do not cut," 7iu-jissti-i(U, instead,
of nuissnttdr. " Is he dead V Jdrh-iil ; " he is not dead/'y/;/7i.
Some reflective verbs seem to be formed by the addition of
ddain to tlie active verb. For example : " Pietro killed him-
self," would be, Pcild tilonne ch-ldm. Can this rldain l>e the
Latin ////-/, and the Italian dexno (self) 1 In that case the per-
sonal i)ronoun, no-rldain, might be i'ljoiiut, I myself, tlius har-
monizing with the other pronouns. I must observe tliat when
I (juote Latin, either on this or on other occasions, I have no
intention of establishing any analogy ; I do it merely by way
of explanation.
304 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
It is to be remarked that certain verbs retain their common
root, while their signification is modified. Example : To go,
opil ; to return, tdjnl ; to come, 7iom ; to arrive, jdrn ; to die,
iil; to kill, Hon ; to cry, or shont, or say, ohn, hon ; to speak,
Jton-cMe, i.e. to say with, just as we say, to con-verse ; — all this
shows both acnteness and logic, to my mind. These expressions
may give us the key of the modifying power of some particles,
to the advantage of the philosophy of the language, as in Iwn-
chui, and to that of comparative philology, as in ta-pil, in which
ta represents a repeated action, such as " returning " after
'• going," and we meet with it again in the same sense in the
Araucano language.
Postpositions, however, are the great means in the manufac-
ture of verbs. 1 have already noted, for instance, toll cd, to
come i'rom ; toll-j^e, to fall from ; toll iechiof, to fall ; in which
toll, expressing movement, is the comiuon root. And I feel
sure that if, in accordance with this rule, I were to say to these
Indians, toll-cltie {chie = with), meaning, " to accompany," they
would understand me. Here are some further examples :
" Pietro is dying of hunger," Peilo ill-ech na-in-l6 ; ecJi meaning
u-ilh, the instrument. That ecli in this case is prohably a pre-
position before namlo, hunger, we may see by the following
example : '"The Indians are dying of hunger," Uicchj jil ecltien
7iaiul6, that is, j ill-ech- e?i ; ech standing before the e?« signify-
ing the plural number of the verb, Avhich is therefore attached
to and placed after ech, and not placed before the substantive ;
hence it is not a preposition, as Ave have already said, when
speaking of prepositions.
Tins same use of postpositions, together with the other changes
I have already deplored, are not the least causes of confusion
and difficulty in the study of the verbs. For what action can
in fact be expressed without a verb for signification of the
principal idea, and a postparticle to define rekationship 1 Very
few, surely. Very few, too, will be the words free from one
of these disguised wedges, either on one side or the other, and
in various shapes, according to the requirements of the ear,
without the slightest consideration for the student, who remains
astounded and confused before certain inexplicable alterations.
One verbal form for actions including possession is the ad-
dition oijd to the word denoting the object possessed. Example :
AVife, cieqna ; to have a wife, ciequaja ; fear, hudi ; to have fear,
hudja.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIci ^' 305
They omit the verb to he. Example : " I am ugly," w?r-#a*-W^ /
that is, " I handsome no."
I will conclude the weary subject of verbs — as wearisome
to the reader, I imagine, as to myself — with an attempt to set
out a model of the Indicative Mood of a verb. I do not guarantee
the details, for reasons already explained, but it will serve to
sum up my ideas.
Il6n, to kill. We have killed, &c., inat, hd,
tocliess-ilonnehe'n.
Indicative Mood.
Present Tense. Remote Past.
I kill, nii-iloii,. I killed, nu-ilon-nucke.
Thou killcst, h&-il6n. Thou killedst, /id-j7o7i-nac/ie.
He kills, li-lon and tHoa. He killed, l-ilon-ndche.
We kill, indt-ildn-e'n. We killed, indt-ilonnachien.
You kill, hd-ildn-en. You killed, ha-ilonnachien.
They kill, tochess-ilon-en. They killed, tochess-ilonnachi^n.
Imperfect. Future.
I was killing, &c., nu, hd, l-ilon- I shall kill, &c., nu, ha, l-ilon-Ui.
nenna.
We were killing, in&t, hd, tocheas' We shall kill, &o., indt, l\a, tochess-
ilonnennaJien. ilon-ld-hen.
Perfect. Imperative.
I have killed, nu, ha, l-ilonn^. Kill (thou), lion.
It must be remarked, however, that the remote form with
nar/ie is very seldom used, and that with w««a still more
rarely.
Have these people a passive form of verb ] I cannot solve
this question. I have observed, however, that many of their
verbs when formulated in Italian can be reduced to an active,
or at least an intransitive form. For example: "Paul was
killed by Fliny," can be formulated thus, " Pliny died by means
of Paul," or even, "Pliny killed Paul."
After all, I do not consider this an inferiority.
The model conjugation I have set forth must not lead us to
attribute simplicity to the verbs of this language. The reverse
of this is the case, and therefore I cannot give other moods
or tenses, for they seem to me so complicated that hitherto
I have not been able to grasp their laws.
306 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
CHAPTEK IX.
THE T OF THE MATTACCOS AND OTHER INDIANS LABIALS AND
THE I, ua, ue, ui, &c. — articulation of the mattaccos
AND THE CHINESE CURIOUS ANALOGIES PREDOMINATING
SOUNDS IN THE TWO LANGUAGES MATTACCO ALPHABET
Onomatojjeiche words — resemblance between mattacco
AND ARYAN WORDS 1 TAKE LEAVE OP THE READER.
Among the peculiarities of this language we must note the
complete absence of words with r ; it is a letter, in fact, which
the Mattaccos can only pronounce with great effort and imper-
fectly.
Their neighbours — Tobas, Ciulupos, and Ciriguans — however,
possess this letter. The Mocovitos are the link between, as it
were, pronouncing the r, like the French, in the throat, almost
gh-r.
To many persons, perhaps, the French pronunciation appears
rather an exaggeration of the r than a suppression ; but I am
of a contrary opinion, and it is confirmed when I see that a
Mattacco succeeds more easily in saying Peghro than Pero (for
Pietro, Peter), and Peilo than Pegliro. In any case the ability
to pronounce the letter more or less correctly proves that the
absence of the r in Mattacco is not owing to an innate
physiological defect in the vocal apparatus, but to conventionality,
or, at least, to a tendency in the language. The fact of not
using this letter during the lapse of ages is the reason that the
vocal organs have, by physiological heredity, become inapt to
produce the sound of r, and by degrees the power of doing so
may be entirely lost.
Yet it may be attributed to the ear, which, being unaccus-
tomed to the nasal sound, cannot seize upon it, and hence there
is a sympathetic difficulty in reproduction on the part of the
vocal organs. Every one has experienced this on beginning
the study of a foreign language.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 307
Nevertheless they can pronounce d with clearness, althougli
they have many words with approximating' sounds, but only at
the beginning of words, and with a resemblance to the English
th. Example : How ? t(U hate ? He eats, thmcque ; tirador
(venfrii-ra), iilaluL
I have yet to hear a !Mattacco pronounce h, d, /, ;/, j},
f, joined with /, or with r. A great alteration 'in words is
consequently occasioned. They become, in fact, unrecognizable ;
tlius : ccaild instead of cobra (a she-goat), Pailo for Pablo,
III mo for fri'uo (a bit), huHlo for puMo (people, country).
Another peculiarity is that they cannot sound a labial before
Wrt, 111', 111, u6, lu'i, in one syllable, and substitute an h aspirate.
This defect or deviation is also found among the people of the
Campo in this Argentine Republic. Tlius, in place of bueno
(good), they say humo, and in like manner huxjo instead of
fiu'ijo (hre).
While on the subject of articulate sound it is curious that,
according to the pronunciation of my Chinese master, Ajao, a
most intelligent cook, who can write Chinese, his countrymen
not only have, as is well known, no r, but are unable to pro-
nounce the very same combination of letters that are found
insuperable by the ]\[attaccos ; they cannot even pronounce (/,
besides so many others. It often happened to me when I was
discoursing with Ajao, that I forgot I was not talking with a
Mattacco, so alike are they in colouring, oblique eyes, hair, and
flattened nose. Thus, for adiox (adieu) my Chinese says alio ;
for iri'A (three), /A>' ; for praprio (own), lopio ; for mnora,
srnola ; for tiairo (theatre), tntrlo. It is often impossible for
me to understand the Spanish word he is endeavouruig to pro-
nounce — as, for instance, tech'lo for teatro, otMialo for orrja
(ear), lidlio for diario {(\ia.Ty), pooli- iov jKibn:, hwlodid for hiieri
dia (good-day), luci'ladorhc for bwna norhc (good-night). I
note that an immense nmnber of Chinese words end in lo. It
is also noteworthy, in my opinion, that / is the letter generally
found replacing the r and the other combinations of letters
that are of ditlicult pronunciation. But with regi\rd to the
Chinese r, I have found one word among the 200 I had in my
collection containing aii r. The position of this letter, therefore,
may make its pronunciation more or less possible, as is the
case with the ^lattacco '/. The word to which I refer is tai-
hi-ru (theatre), in which the h is so sounded that it takes away
much of the energy of the r — which is the alien ?
X 2
308 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
But if certain sounds are wanting to the Mattaccos, others
are abounding. Among these the most prominent are Md, hie.
Mi, hid and kiu, ckia, ckie, &c., and are so frequently used
with others of similar sound that one remains in doubt whether
it may not be the same syllable repeated over and over again
with different meanings. We have already seen that hid, hie, &c.,
change into hi and tze, into cliia or tcia and tcie, &c. They are also
added to the augmentative tach and to lo or la to form adjectives.
I do not Avant to make absurd comparisons, but, as a curiosity,
I may remark that in Chinese we find the folloAving syllables
predominating : tzid, tzie, &c. ; scid, scie, &c. ; tzd, tze, &c. ;
ttai or tai, meaning large, and lo, of the meaning of which I
am ignorant, but which I always find in the root.
These facts, combined with an almost identical pronunciation,
may be worthy of the serious consideration of linguists.
In studying these languages, and in making use of the
sounds 1 of our five vowels for the pronunciation, it Avill be
seen that the diphthong, or coupling of two or more vocal sounds
in one simultaneous utterance, is inevitable. E"atural diphthongs
are those Avhich, if we imagine them to have been fixed in
writing, would give way, when time had caused inevitable
changes in pronunciation, to conventional diphthongs, like the
French ou, the Latin oe and ae, and the German eu. I note,
however, that in a Avritten language diphthongs must be con-
sidered as symbols of a former different phonetic expression.
In these studies we become aware also of the insufficiency
of a single alphabet, which has to alter according to the various
languages, unless Ave adopt a rigmarole of letters as long as a
litany. Our Italian alphabet is besides one of the poorest,
especially in the absence of a guttural symbol and of an aspi-
rate, representing sounds that are exceedingly common in most
of the languages of the world.
If we want to write Mattacco with our alphabet, we must
use the foUoAvmg modifications, which will apply in general to
most other languages. Gh, as in German ; /, the Spanish cota
Avould serve also, but would be confounded with our Italian j ;
ail aspirated h, as in some French words, and at the beginning
of German words ; a sign to express the lengthening of a vocal
sound, but not the doubling of the consonant— /i might be suf-
ficient for this, as in German, for the prolongation seems to
correspond with the physical act of pronouncing the h ; an
1 This refers to the Italian language.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 309
English fit, but with a sound between t and <1 — this would Ije
a consonant diphthong ; a diphthong ou, the a not pronounced,
as in French, but both vowels rapidly soundeil ; the diph-
tliongs di'u and /«, pronounced as they are spoken ; an aspirated
and nasal h, that I distinguish by a dot undi'rneath ; and an /,
so uttered as to sound almost like il. Vin' rrrm ; al)olish
'■) 'If /. f^i and almost b, which never occurs Init in diphthong
with 2^ >' and ^; singly, which occurs only witli b, or as convey-
ing a special sound which can be approximately rendered by
the addition of //, so as to form the diphthong 7;/^
In this manner, and without introducing foreign characters
dilHcuIt of retention, and having to be learned beforehand, I
have written down specimens of Mattacco, Guarany, Chiqchua,
Aimara, Mocovito, Ciulupi, Toba, and Chinese. I substituted,
however, as I was writing in Spanish (when I made my notes),
/ for ch, and // iov j. These letters are sufficiently well known
for us (1 mean, the reader and me, who are not learned in lan-
guages) to be able to read the words without any marked
difference in pronunciation, and thus we can satisfy the curious,
if not the scientific.
I must draw to a conclusion, if I would not sicken my
reader with American langniages ; I will merely complete some
details on Mattacco, concluding them, against the usual gram-
matical order (for who, indeed, would have hail time to write
a grammar, and Avho the patience to read it 1), with a few
native words that Ave may consider as onovaatopeichi'^ i.e.
imitating natural sounds — an action to which some thinkers
attribute the origin of language, afterwards developed by
human intelligence.
To shout, to call, 61in ; light, elilepp ; dumb, Imo-lia/) ; a cougli,
crocorhfdss ; a cricket chirping, li-i::i.l ; him, a kind of paiTot ;
quri'i-hir, pelican, vulgarly rria-rd, and a kind of large, wild
turkey, tzd-corh — in both cases from the noise they make.
There are very many other words of a like nature.
I will conclude with some Mattacco words resembling others
belonging to European languages.
Hii; Mattacco ; ys, English ; .««', Italian ; ja, German ; tfid,
Italian. No, ka, ^lattacco ; crlo', Tuscan ; h'in, none, German ;
{hi'', Akka). Son, tfc or .>w', ^fattacco ; fzi', Boemo {tza^ and
/-'', Chinese). Ill, iill andy'''//, Mattacco. 0^>, Mattacco; ob, Latin
— 1} and b being frequently substituted, the one for the other, in
all languages. The country, or campo, achlu, Mattacco ; ayro.
310 EIGHT MONTHS ON THE GRAN CHACO
Latin and Italian — note that the Mattaccos use 1 instead of r ;
thus acldu might be achrii. Dog, si?ioch, Mattacco ; kinos, in
Greek — inversion of letters, as in melon and neloni. Cock, huh
or cuh, Mattacco ; cofj, French. Grasshopper, U-tzil, Mattacco ;
zillo, Tuscan — some crickets and birds are so called from
their cry. House, Jiauet, Mattacco ; haus, German ; (huasi,
Chiccina). With, uuitd, Mattacco. And, utquei, Mattacco;
atque, Latin.
These are all I recollect.
In the formation of compound words they follow the German
and English manner. For example : gloves, hand-schuhe, in
German, meaning, shoes for the hand ; in Mattacco, cquei-phut,
meaning, hand-cover. And similarly as to negatives. Example :
"I do not see," Ich sehe nicht, in German, and in Mattacco,
nuihenni-lde, that is, / see no ; a construction frequently used
by the Milanese.
We have already noted other analogous constructions.
And here I pause for the present and take leave of the
reader. My hope is that as a practical, though indirect, result
of our studies, pursued with difficulty and interruption, he will
be convinced that mankind is potentially the same in every
corner of the earth. We behold man mastering with singular
ability the complicated instrument of speech, and showing him-
self to be the possessor of every quality corresponding with the
most able intellectual development, provided circumstances
will admit of civilization, as it is understood at the present
day.
If the modern Indians rebel against civilized society, they
do so as individuals, on account of habits acquired during the
individual life of each ; but they possess the natural aptitude, as
is clearly shown by their children when brought up in our
midst. These children grow up with abilities fully equal to
those of our own offspring, as might have been inferred by any
one who had dwelt among savages.
Yet I have no wish to deny the effects of heredity, or to
assert that man is born into the world armed at all points, like
Minerva. On the contrary, I contend that in the series of
evolutions by which man has reached his present condition, so-
called civilization represents an imperceptible atom, both by the
short time (the few thousand years) that it has existed in any
part of the globe, and the limitations of the individuals and
nations enjoying it.
OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 3 II
It follows from this point of view also, that we must date the
origin of man from that remote period already indicated to us
by the science of geology, a period measuring a greater number
of years than we can measure days between ourselves and the
Adam of Scripture.
THE END.
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