An Account of the Abipones: An Equestrian People of Paraguay, Volume 2J. Murray, 1822 - Abipon Indians |
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Common terms and phrases
Abiponian alfaroba Americans amongst the Abipones animals arms arrows arts attack battle beasts blood body Cacique captain captives CHAPTER Chig clothes colonies colour Cordoba Corrientes countrymen danger dead death disease dogs dreaded drink drinking-party ears enemy Europeans eyes Father fear feet fight fire flesh gnats gourds grandfather Guaranies Guaycurus hair hands head heat honour hordes hordesmen horses Iago Indians inhabitants innu insects Jesuits journey jugglers kill kind labour language lives maize manner Massinissa medicine Mocobios mournful nation never night occasions old woman pain Paraguay Paraguayrian pelota persons physicians plain Pleiades poison pones remedies rendered riding rivers savages scarce serpents sick skin slain slaughter small-pox soldiers sometimes Spaniards Spanish spear suck surprize swimming thing thou tiger tion toads Tobas tongue town trees various verb victory whilst whole women woods words worms wound
Popular passages
Page 67 - Those who aspire to the office of juggler are said to sit upon an aged willow, overhanging some lake, and to abstain from food for several days, till they begin to see into futurity.
Page 212 - Indians, yet the Abipones, instructed by nature and the example of their ancestors, abhor the very thought of marrying any one related to them by the most distant tie of relationship.
Page 67 - credit their medicine-men with power to inflict disease and death, to cure all disorders, to make known distant and future events; to cause rain, hail, and tempest; to call up the shades of the dead and consult them concerning hidden matters...
Page 204 - Hence it is that our vocabularies are so full of blots, occasioned by our having such frequent occasion to obliterate interdicted words, and insert new ones. Add to this another thing which increases the difficulty of learning the language of the Abipones. Persons promoted to the rank of nobles are called Hecheri, and Nelereycate, and are distinguished from the common people even by their language. They generally use the same words, but so transformed by the interposition, or addition of other letters,...
Page 77 - You daily kill tigers in the plain without dread,' said the missionary ; ' why then should you weakly fear a false imaginary tiger in the town ? ' ' You fathers don't understand these matters,' they reply with a smile. ' We never fear, but kill tigers in the plain, because we can see them. Artificial tigers we do fear, because they can neither be seen nor killed by us.
Page 21 - ... marked according to custom. She reclines her head upon the lap of an old woman and is pricked. Thorns are used for a pencil, and ashes mixed with blood for paint. The old woman, sticking the points of the thorns deep into the flesh, describes various figures till the whole face streams with blood. The first day she is sent home with her face half pricked with the thorns, and is recalled the next, and the next after that, to have the rest of her face, the breast, and the arms pricked in like manner.
Page 77 - Look, his nails are growing," the fearstruck women exclaim, although they cannot see the rogue, who is concealed within his tent; but that distracted fear presents things to their eyes which have no real existence. It was scarce possible to persuade them out of their absurd terrors. " You daily kill tigers in the plain," said I, " without dread, why then should you weakly fear a false imaginary tiger in the town ?" " You Fathers don't understand these matters," they reply, with a smile. " We never...
Page 20 - As soon as a young woman is of age to be married she is ordered to be marked according to custom. She reclines her head upon the lap of an old woman and is pricked. Thorns are used for a pencil, and ashes mixed with blood for paint.
Page 57 - Theologians agree in denying that any man in possession of his reason can, without a crime, remain ignorant of God for any length of time. This opinion I warmly defended in the University of Cordoba, where I finished the four years' course of theology begun at Gratz, in Styria. But what was my astonishment when, on removing from thence to a colony of Abipones, I found that the whole language of these savages does not contain a single word which expresses God or a divinity. To instruct them in religion,...
Page 207 - Among the Abipones, a man on choosing a wife bargains with the parents about the price. But " it frequently happens that the girl rescinds what has been agreed upon between the parents and the bridegroom, obstinately rejecting the very mention of marriage.