THE PAEAGUAYANS. 



313 



mitting to a war of extermination imposed on them by a bloodthirsty tyrant, the 

 survivors maintain a passive attitude while being deprived of their very lands 

 by legal chicanery. The national diet, so different from that of the Argentines, 

 must certainly contribute in some measure to give the Paraguay people such a 

 meek, almost cringing, temperament. Many never touch meat, manoic and 

 oranges constituting their chief food. The wife, who works the field, also controls 

 the household. Hers is the ruling spirit, and when the temporary unions are 

 dissolved, the children always follow the mother. Such unions are for the most 



Fisr. 131.— Old Jesitit Chttech ;^t Pipayu. 



part deprived of legal or religious sanction, a strange reaction from the severe 

 discipline of the reductions, where the least levity was punished by heavy 

 penalties. 



Topography. 



In Paraguay scarcely any centres of population deserve the name of towns, and 

 the right (Paraguayan) side of the Parana is almost uninhabited. Little is seen 

 except a few ranchos in the forest glades frequented mainly by the maté gatherers. 

 Such are Goycocheas, at the head of the steam navigation, and lower down Tacuru 

 Paru, future terminus of a railway, which is to reach the Parana about 18 miles 

 above the confluence of the Brazilian Iguazu. Then follows Guayarros, formerly 



