528 DOCTOR MONARDUS-ARAUCANA. teniendo solo por remedio el cielo se sumen dentro, y quedan enterrados en las agudas puntas estacados." Araucana, canto 1. then they went and propounded their mat- | alli los indiscretos corredores [Advantage of a Position in War.] “SEÑALADO el lugar, hecha la traza, de poderosos arboles labrados cercan una quadrada y ancha plaza en valientes estacas afirmados, que a los defuera impide y embaraza la entrada y combatir, porque guardados del muro los de dentro, facilmente de mucha se defiende poca gente. "Solian antiguamente de tablones hacer dentro del fuerte otro apartado, puestos de trecho en trecho unos troncones en los quales el muro iba fijado: con quatro levantados torreones a caballero del primer cercado, de pequeñas troneras lleno el muro para jugar sin miedo y mas seguro. "Entorne desta plaza pocho trecho cercan de espesos hoyos por defuera, qual es largo, qual ancho, qual estrecho, y asi van sin faltar desta manera ; par el incanto mozo que de hecho apresura el caballo en la carrera tras el astuto barbaro enganoso que le mete en el cerco peligroso. "Tambien suelen hacer hoyos mayores con estacas agudas en el suelo cubiertos de carrizo, hierba y flores, porque puedan picar mas sin recelo; [Araucan Armament.] "CADA Soldado una arma solamente ha de aprender, y en ella egercitarse, y es aquella a que mas naturalmente en la niñez mostrare aficionarse : desta sola procura diestramente saberse aprovechar, y no empacherse en jugar de la pica el que es flechero, ni de la maza y flechas el piquero."— Ibid. - PULTENEY-VOLNEY. [Geronimo de Aguilar.] 529 "AND then he began to speake in the Spanish tongue in thys wise, Maisters, are ye Christians?' 'Yea,' quoth they, and of the Spanish nation.' Then he rejoyced so much, that the teares fell from his eyes, and demaunded of them what day it was, although he had a Primer wherein he dayly prayed. "He then besought them earnestlye to assist him with their prayers and thanksgiving unto God for his delivery, and kneling devoutly downe uppon his knees, holding up his handes, his eyes toward heaven, and his face bathed with teares, made his humble prayer unto God, giving most hartie thankes that it hadde pleased hym to deliver him out of the power of infidels and infernal creatures, and to place hym among Christians, and men of his owne nation."-Conquest of the Weast India. [Araucan Lance.] "CON audacia, desden y confianza Lautaro contra el Fuerte caminaba, siguele atras la gente en ordenanza, y el con gracioso termino arrastraba una larga, ñudosa y gruesa lanza, que ayroso poco a poco la terciaba, y tanto por el cuento la blandia que juntar los estremos parecia." Ibid. Canto 9. [Destruction of Rein Deer Fawns by the Estrus.] A THIRD of the rein deer fawns are said sometimes to perish in consequence of the Estrus Rangiferinus, which is bred under the skin on their backs.-PULTENEY'S View of Linnæus, p. 203. [American Tatars.] A SIMILAR change is taking place in North America. "Within these five and of the Climate and Soil of America, p. 29), twenty or thirty years," says VOLNEY (View "the Nihicawa, or Nadowessee savages, who form ten or twelve tribes settled between the Cedar Lick and the Missouri, have got possession of Spanish horses, which they have taken from the savannahs of the North of Mexico. In less than half a century these new Tatars may become very troublesome neighbours on the frontier of the United States, and the scheme of colo M M 530 DEPONS - ACOSTA — STEDMAN. nizing the borders of the Missouri and Mississippi experience difficulties unknown to the interior countries of the Confederation." [Theft of a Tamaraca.] THEVET stole a Tamaraca, which he brought home and gave to Nicolas de Nicolai, geographer to the King of France. [Peruvian Custom of Chewing the Coca: similar Custom whether as a Preventative against Hunger, or a Luxury.] THE Peruvians chew the leaves of a plant called Coca, which are dried in the sun. All over the Indies some practice of this kind prevailed. Among the ruder tribes it was invented to render them less sensible of hunger, among the more improved retained as a luxury. [No Deformed Persons among the Native Indians.] Ir is remarkable that though no deformed persons are ever seen among the natives in their wild state, ULLOA says of those about Quito, "more natural defects are to be observed among them than in the other classes of the human species: some are remarkably short, some idiots, dumb and blind, and others deficient in some of their limbs."Book 5, c. 5. [Spanish Views of Emigration to their American Colonies.] THE Spaniards have not suffered any individual, since 1584, to emigrate to their American colonies, unless he could produce unequivocal testimonies of good character. -DEPONS' Travels in the Caraccas. 1 HERRERA, 5. 3. 15. [Destructiveness of the Ant Tribe.] "THE only way possibly to keep the ants from the refined sugar, is by hanging the loaf to the ceiling on a nail, and making a ring of dry chalk around it, very thick, which crumbles down the moment they attempt to pass it. I imagined that placing my sugar-boxes in the middle of a tub and on stone, surrounded with deep water, would have kept back this formidable enemy, but to no purpose; whole armies of the lighter sort, to my astonishment, marched over the surface, and but a very few of them were drowned. The main body constantly scaled the rock, and in spite of all my efforts made their entry through the key holes; after which the only way to clear the garrison is to expose it to a hot sun, which the invaders cannot bear, and all march off in a few minutes."-STEDMAN, vol. 1, p. 374. 2 The Camelus Vacuna-whence is obtained the Vigogne wool. 3 I think H. N. Coleridge had occasion to observe that in the West Indies the Formique Acid prevented the ants from passing over chalk with impunity. J. W. W. TIMBERLAKE - HERRERA · The Tlascallans. "THESE Indians were great braggers, and sayde among themselves, what madde people are these that threatneth us, and yet knoweth us not. But if they will be so bolde to invade our countrey without our licence, let us not sette upon them so soone; it is meete they have a little reste, for we have tyme inough to take and binde them. Let us also sende them meate, for they are commen with empty stomackes; and againe they shall not say that we do apprehende them with wearinesse and hunger. Whereupon they sent unto the Christians three hundreth gynnea cockes, and two hundreth baskets of bread called Centli. The whiche present was a great sucker for the neede that they stoode in, and soone after, quoth they, nowe let us goe and sette upon them, for by this time they have eaten their meate, and nowe wee will eate them, and so shall they pay us the victuals that we sent." -Conquest of the Weast India. Tabasco. "THIS town doth containe neare five and twentye thousand houses, as some say; but as every house standeth by himselfe like an iland, it seemeth much bigger than it is in deede. The houses are great, made of lime stone and bricke: others there are made of mood-wal and rafters and covered with straw or bordes. Their dwelling is in the upper part of the house, for the greate moystnesse of the rivers and lakes, and for fear of fier they have theyr houses seperated the one from the other. Without the towne they have more fairer houses than wythin for their recreation and pleasure."—Ibid. dish, and renew the fire upon the whole, under which the bread bakes to as great perfection as in any European oven." TIMBERLAKE, Memoirs of his accompanying the three Cherokee Indians to England in 1762, &c. [Burning of an Indian Chief in the District of Castilla del Oro.] "IN that part of the country which the Spaniards called Castilla del Oro, they burnt the body of their chief after he had been dead a year, and with it food such as he was wont to eat, his arms, and his canoe, saying that the smoke ascended to the place where his soul abode."-HERRERA, 4. 1. 11. [Tree-Eaters.] ACCORDING to ROGER WILLIAMS there are a race of cannibals called Mihtukmechakick, tree-eaters, because they live on the bark of chesnut and walnut and other large trees, and set no corn; they dry and eat this bark with the fat of beasts, and sometimes of men. These people are the terror of the neighbour natives. [Prodigious Strength of Diego Hernandez.] DIEGO HERNANDEZ, a sawyer, who served with Cortes, was of such prodigious strength that it is said when he threw a stone as big as an orange against the enemy, it did as much execution as if it had been shot from one of their pieces of artillery.” — HERRERA, 3. 1. 18. Good Friday. The Spaniards on their Way to attack New Mexico. "MANDO el Governador que se hiziesse, De poderosos arboles y troncos, Una grande capilla muy bien hecha, Toda con sus doseles bien colgada; Y en medio della un triste Monumento 532 GASPAR DE VILLAGRA-DOBRIZHOFFER - HERRERA. Donde la vida universal del mundo Con mucha escolta, y guarda de soldados, De bien tan importante y saludable, Historia de la Nueva Mexico, del [Humming Bird Feathers used by the Wives of the Incas.] “THE humming bird, called in Peru Picasar, Vicsilin, or Quende, is there believed to die for six months and then revive again. The Collas, or wives of the Incas, adorned themselves with its feathers."-MER. PERNANS. No. 286. Mules. "Incudem inter et malleum hæreo," says DOBRIZHOFFER (tom. 1, p. 272) upon this subject. "Verecundus esse dum laboro, obscurus fio; malo tamen dici obscurus, quam esse parum cautus. Cujus interest penitius ista nosse, me consulut. Multa in aurem dici possunt prudentibus, quæ nefas sit typis in lucem edere." [Ants used as Food.] SOME of the Panches of the N. Reyno de Granada made their main food of ants; they crushed them into cakes. HERRERA (6. 5. 6.) says they kept them in yards and reared them. [Termites-delicious Food!] “THE negroes skim off with calibashes those termites which at the time of swarming, or rather of emigration, fall into the neighbouring waters, and bring large kettles full of them to their habitations, and parch them in iron pots over a gentle fire, stirring them about as is usually done in roasting coffee. In that state, without sauce or any other addition, they serve them as delicious food, and they put them by handfuls into their mouths, as we do comfits. "I have eat them," says DR. WINTERBOTTOM, "dressed this way several times, and think them both delicate, nourishing and wholesome."—Vol. 1, p. 314, note. |