708 NATIVES. 



for many a long league are marshy and impassable. It is 

 the district of the Esteros, as these flooded lands are called. 

 Beyond them, in the wet season, immense shallow lakes are 

 formed ; but when they are dried up in the hot weather, a gray 

 dusty soil, full of cracks, and covered with wiry grass and 

 low shrubs, is left. Nothing can be more dreary than the 

 appearance of the country when the river is high ; the water 

 extending far and wide beyond its crumbling banks, with 

 rows of melancholy palms standing as landmarks above the 

 flood. These districts are, however, valuable for grazing 

 purposes ; and before the war were covered by vast herds of 

 cattle, now swept away. Above the Tebiquari the country is 

 higher and more diversified. Vast woods, increasing in breadth 

 and density, appear, with ranges of distant hills beyond them. 



NATIVES. 



It is remarkable that the Guarani language, among the 

 peasantry, has almost superseded that of their Spanish in- 

 vaders. 



The natives, with their Indian blood, have inherited small 

 hands and feet, and coarse black hair. The women when 

 young, with their long tresses of jetty blackness, are often 

 pretty ; and some, probably descended from Biscayans, are 

 noted for their remarkable fairness. Rubias, they are termed, 

 with blue eyes and auburn hair. The men wear dresses 

 similar to that of the Gauchos. That of the women is pictur- 

 esque : a long cotton chemise cut low at the neck, with a deep 

 border of embroidery ; loose lace sleeves ; and a skirt of 

 muslin, or silk, fastened round the waist by a broad sash. 

 Very few wear shoes. Their hair is sometimes arranged in 

 two long plaits, or formed in a wreath round the head, or rolled 



