CHIQUITENOS. 



165 



their wives and children from an attack while at prayers. The church 

 bell is a signal to the savage, but he takes occasion at times to commit 

 murder under its calling. 



Their houses are very small, with but one entrance, so narrow and 

 low that it is supposed the country was called Chiquitos, because of the 

 little door-ways. When first the traveller peeps into the house all is 

 darkness ; on entering, the light from the hole he came through shines 

 against a few earthen pots made by the women, an axe, macheta or cut- 

 lass, bows and arrows, pretty Indian girls, and dogs without number. 

 The boys are rambling about ; the old Indian and his wife are cultiva- 

 ting the chacra. Their great ambition seems to be celebrating the feast 

 days of the church, playing ball, drinking chicha, and making love to 

 the women. 



These Indians are great musicians, playing upon the violin and tam- 

 borine, while the women sing and dance with grace. Few of them 

 quarrel ; should a difficulty take place, seldom more than three or four 

 blows are struck. They all carry knives, but these are not often drawn. 

 If one man kills another, his shame, compunction, and fear in after life 

 is much worse than death, I am told. 



The Chiquitenos are very apt in learning to read, write, and calculate. 

 They have intelligence enough to know that knowledge is valuable to 

 them, and the children speak Spanish with great ease. 



Lime and plaster of Paris are found among the hilly portions of the 

 province. Salt from the lakes is of great value where cattle are raised. 

 There is a market for it in the Argentine republic, Paraguay, and in the 

 Brazilian district of Matto Grosso. In all parts of this province saltpetre 

 is found, of which the aborigines manufacture powder, to make fire- 

 works for the churches. The rockets, they send up towards the heavens, 

 under the dark shade of night, light the wilderness around, and was 

 one means used by the Jesuits to attract the attention of the wild man 

 to seek religion. The Chiquitenos are a peaceful race ; their gunpowder 

 is only used for the purpose of lighting the way towards Heaven — a 

 lesson to civilized men who sometimes employ it too freely for the de- 

 struction of their fellows on the earth, of which they form a hell ! 



The Indians cast church bells. Brass, copper, and zinc are sent by 

 the Aymara Indians from the Titicaca basin in exchange for sugar and 

 wax. They are unacquainted with thetprocess of casting cannon, or 

 the art of making the brass armor of olden times. 



The Indian of Chiquitos, like the Creole of Santa Cruz, has" his full 

 share of the delights of this earth, which he enjoys in his own way. 

 When he takes a fancy to wear striped trousers, he plants a row of 



