580 THE PARAGUAY INDIANS. 



nations or tribes, with at least forty distinct languages, and 

 with different customs. Some of them lived by fishing, but 

 the greater number depended for their subsistence on the 

 wild horses and cattle, and must therefore have had different 

 habits before the discovery of America by the Europeans. 

 Their principal arms were long spears, clubs, and bows and 

 arrows. Some tribes, however, as, for instance, those of the 

 Pampas, do not use bows and arrows, but prefer the bolas. 

 In war, the Indians of Paraguay gave no quarter to men, but 

 spared only the women and children. 



Their houses, if we can call them so, were of the simplest 

 character ; they cut three or four boughs, stuck the two ends 

 into the ground, and threw over them a cow-skin. Their bed 

 consisted of another skin ; they had no chairs or tables, or 

 any kind of furniture. The men seldom wore any clothes ; 

 the dress of the women consisted usually of a poncho, although 

 among some of the tribes, as the Nalicuegas, even this was 

 dispensed with. The art of washing seems to have been 

 entirely unknown, though Azara admits that in very hot 

 weather they used sometimes to bathe, rather, however, as it 

 would appear, for coolness, than for cleanliness. It is unne- 

 cessary therefore to say that they were excessively filthy. 

 They had no domestic animals, nor any idea of agriculture. 

 Their doctors had but one remedy, which they applied in all 

 cases, and which had at least the great merit of being harm- 

 less since it consisted "a sucer avec beaucoup de force 

 1'estomac du patient, pour en tirer le mal."* 



Many of the tribes painted their bodies in various ways, 

 and it was usual to pierce the under-lip and insert a piece 

 of wood, about four or five inches long, which they never 

 removed. 



They had no established form of government, nor, accord- 



* Azara, 1. c. p. 25. Dobritzhoffer's History of the Abipones, vol. ii. 

 p. 251. 



