BEES' HONEY.
Throughout the whole of Paraguay you see none of those beehives the keeping of which is so troublesome in Europe, because the various species of bees deposit their excellent and copious honey either in hollow trees, in the caverns of the earth, or in the open plain; especially in those territories which enjoy a mild climate, and are near to flowery plains. Honey differs both in name and taste according to the different bees that produce it, and the different times and places in which it is produced. That which is concealed under ground the Abipones call nahérek. In some places it is rather acid, in others very sweet. A quantity sufficient to fill many jugs is often dug out of one cave. That which is taken at the beginning of spring from the tops of shrubs or high grass is called by the Spaniards lechiguana. The materials of which the cells of this honey consist are very like blotting-paper, and are often of such extent and circumference that you can hardly embrace them with both arms. The honeycombs which certain wasps build in Europe are constructed in much the same way. The excellence of the lechiguana honey you may ascribe to its being made of the first spring flowers, and if it remains untouched for some months, and escapes the eyes and hands of passers by, it hardens of itself, like sugar, which it excels in sweetness. Moreover it has no admixture of wax. Though various kinds of honey are found under the earth, and in the plain, yet the principal storehouses of the bees are the hollow trunks of lofty trees. The Spaniards of St. Iago prefer to every other kind that found on the cardones. With the Guaranies, and all just estimators, the first place is given to the eỹrobáña, the sweetest and most transparent of all honey, which, when poured into a glass, could not be distinguished from water. The same honey, if found on the fragrant wood of the tree ybir̂apayè is then decidedly the best, and excels all other honey as the sun does the lesser stars. In Paraguay, in the winter months the Abipones think honey extremely unwholesome, and carefully abstain from eating it. The Spaniards of St. Iago go out in crowds to seek honey and wax in distant woods; and after whitening it with immense labour in the sun, sell it to the people of Peru and Chili, with hardly moderate profits. To discover and rifle the beehives concealed in the woods is a matter of little difficulty to the Abipones, who, when the sky is clear, and the sun bright, ride out on horseback into the country. Being possessed of wonderfully quick eyesight, they perceive the bees flying about, and leaving their horse at the bank of a river, pursue them on foot till they see what tree they enter: this they climb with all the agility of apes, open a hole by way of a door, and as a mark of the hive, take out the honey and wax into a leathern bag, and carry it home, where their friends, wives, and children soon consume these adventitious sweets, either by eating them like ambrosia, or drinking them like nectar. But if a general drinking-party be appointed on any occasion, the honey they bring is mixed with cold water, and stirred for a little while with a stick; when, without addition of any other ferment, it effervesces, froths, and becomes wine in the space of some hours, and taken even in small quantities intoxicates the Indians like very pure wine: for we have found two or three cups sufficient to upset their naturally imbecile minds. Wax is scarce ever used amongst the Indians: for the fire, which is always kept alive on the floor of the hut, serves to dress the food by day, and supplies the place of a candle by night.
SALT.
From honey let us proceed to salt, which is in great request both amongst the savages and almost all beasts, though they are scarce ever able to procure it: for notwithstanding that some parts of Paraguay abound in salt either natural, or artificial, yet none of either kind can be obtained throughout immense tracts of land, unless it be brought at a great expense from other places. All the Guarany towns are destitute of chalk, and salt, both of which are forced to be conveyed in ships, or waggons, from the remote colonies of the Spaniards, are often purchased at an exorbitant price, often not to be procured. In the Cordoban territories, and elsewhere, the lakes which have been exhausted by a long drought do indeed afford coagulated salt; but during time of drought it is very difficult to reach those lakes, as the plains, through which you must pass, deny water both to the carriers, and to the oxen, by whom the salt is conveyed in waggons to the cities. In rainy seasons, when those lakes are full, no salt is coagulated, which being frequently the case, salt is in consequence often scarce and dear. In many places under the jurisdiction of the cities Asumpcion, and St. Iago, nitre collected in the plains, or salt water boiled in small pans, is converted into salt. At the town of Concepcion the salt boiled in the little town of Sta. Lucia was sometimes too bitter to be eaten: that salt made in the Indian town Lambare, and in Cochinoco where it borders on Peru, is much esteemed, because it is hard as a stone, very white, and fit for medicinal purposes. The people of Buenos-Ayres sometimes convey salt in ships by the South Sea, sometimes in waggons by land from the lakes, where there is an immense accumulation of native salt, and of snow. These lakes, as they are situated towards the straits of Magellan, many days' journey from the city, can never be reached without much expense, and seldom without some danger. Great troops of Spaniards were often cruelly murdered on the way by the southern savages, who scarce left one alive to announce the massacre to the city. On considering these difficulties you will not much wonder that salt is generally scarce in Paraguay, and often not to be procured. The Guaranies eat their meat and all their other provisions without a grain of salt; but a single spoonful was given on Sundays by the free bounty of the priest, to every father of a family, to last the whole week: yet even this little portion was expensive to the towns, of which some contained a thousand inhabitants, others seven or eight hundred. For as an arroba (a Spanish weight of twenty-five pounds) of salt often cost four crowns, or eight Austrian florens, a pound was worth about twenty of our cruitzers. The savages who live in hidden wilds generally eat their food without salt, as there are no salt-pits there; and this is, in my opinion, the reason that so many of them are afflicted with cutaneous disorders. Others burn a shrub which the Spaniards call la vidriera, the ashes of which they used instead of salt, to season their meat with and to prepare medicines.
CORO.
This plant closely resembles tobacco in its leaf, its pungency, and property of exciting saliva.
When should I ever have done writing, were I to mention the names of all the other shrubs and plants? In certain Guarany towns you find immense woods of rosemary, rue, artemisia or mugwort, golden-rod, mint, and wormwood. I was acquainted with three different kinds of sage, varying in appearance, but endued with the same virtues. That which the Spaniards call royal sage is scarce, because seldom cultivated. Borage, plantane, mallows, bastard marjoram, garden-nasturtium, bugloss, vervain, fumitory, purslain, liquorice, and three kinds of pepper, that is, common pepper, which the Guaranies call gỹ; cumbarỹ, which has a small grain, but is remarkably pungent; and aji, which we call Turkish pepper: all these, which grow in Europe, are seen here in some places; but not every where. Ginger grows abundantly when planted. Throughout many tracts of land I could discover none of the nettles of our country. Liberal nature has bestowed on the soil of Paraguay innumerable herbs useful to physicians, such as contrayerva, &c. It may be proper to give some little account of the grains which compose the chief part of the support of the Indians.
MAIZE.
That grain, which the Spaniards call mayz, is the principal provisions of the Americans. It bears grains of divers colours. The Guaranies sow various kinds of it. Those best known to me are the abati hatâ, composed of very hard grains, the abati morotî, which consists of very soft and white ones, the abati mir̂i, which ripens in one month, but has very small dwarfish grains, and bisingallo, the most famous of all, the grains of which are angular and pointed: when pounded in a wooden mortar, they yield a sweet and very wholesome flour, and drunk with water, either alone, or mixed with honey or sugar, quickly allay hunger and the most burning thirst. This flour is the delicious food of the soldiers of St. Iago, when they pursue the fugitive savages, and by its aid they often accomplish long and arduous excursions in a few days, without ever being obliged to light a fire to cook their victuals. This flour was likewise a great relief to myself in calamitous journeys under a burning sun. Of the grains of each kind of maize, either whole, or pounded in a mortar, the Indian women make various sorts of food, and even a thin bread, dressed on the hot coals, which, however, hunger alone would render palatable to a European. The Spanish ladies, of maize flour, carefully strained through a sieve, make a white bread, which, while new, has an agreeable flavour, and is to my taste preferable to wheaten bread. The grains of maize, when pounded in a mortar, and sprinkled with water, ferment in a few hours, and frequently afford the lower orders of Spaniards, and still oftener certain Indians, a fermented liquor called chicha or aloja. The Abipones, who abound in honey and the alfaroba, though very fond of maize, never use it in that manner. Many and great are the advantages of maize, for it does not require a very rich soil. One grain often yields the cultivator more than a thousand-fold. The ears, when young and milky, are much relished both by Europeans and Americans, either roasted or boiled with meat. The Indians find this grain, however prepared, highly useful in strengthening the body, increasing the blood, and lengthening life. Neither could we discover any thing better for fattening hens and other animals.