So far the Carib performed the part of a good parent; but superstition exerted her gloomy powers, and the cruelties inflicted on the young Carib by the being from whom he derived his existence, exhibits a mournful and sanguinary picture, capable of harrowing up the deepest feelings of the soul. The dawn of manhood was the hour in which these trials were to be endured; and at this time the young warrior changed his infant name for one of greater importance and more significant in expression. With regard to their female children, but little fatherly attention was paid them; their education devolved upon their mothers, who taught them to cull the cotton and weave the cloth, and, in a word, instructed them in all the duties necessary to the comfort of their future lords and tyrants. If very handsome, they were reserved to grace the triumph of some successful warrior, while those of less beauty were allotted to men of inferior worth.
The principal occupation of the Carib, the one, as before remarked, which absorbed the greatest portion of his time and attention, was war. The study of his life was to render himself an adept in those arts which would enable him to capture a greater number of his enemies, and spread desolation wherever he went. When not thus engaged, his days were passed in listless apathy. Enveloped in his mantle, and stretched upon his hemack beneath the shade of some luxuriant tree, he enjoyed the breeze of his native isle without alloy; and unless the calls of hunger aroused him, or his weapon or canoe required repair, he seldom or ever stirred. But when the war-cry arose, when an expedition against the Arrowawks was intended, or when his countrymen invited him “to seize his war-club,” and avenge the death of some friend, whose bones lay whitening on another shore, he started from his repose, and grasped his spear; while the fire emanating from his dark eyes, his black hair streaming in the blast, his strong form vibrating from the intensity of his ardour, conspired to render him what he wished to be—the formidable-looking warrior.
But although the Carib was generally during peace fond of indolence, yet when he chose to exert his powers, his arts and manufactures displayed a degree of ingenuity surpassing what could have been expected from his tools. His canoe was formed of the trunk of large trees, principally that of the ceibar, or silk cotton, as being more substantial, and of larger bulk. His bow and arrows were fabricated with a degree of nicety almost unequalled; some of them inlaid with pieces of tortoiseshell, or the bones of fish finely polished. His cottage was also built with some degree of taste, and neatly thatched with plaited cocoa-nut leaves; and was situated in some of the loveliest spots. They also possessed the art of fabricating vessels for cookery, and other domestic uses, from the clay of the island, which is still in use in Antigua, the negroes making pots for boiling their victuals, yubbas, (or frying-pans,) water-jars, and several other utensils. Of this clay it is said excellent bricks might be made; and there are several waste spots of land belonging to government, which might be turned into extensive brickfields: the bricks used in the island are all imported.
But to return to our subject: while the men were thus employed, the women were far from idle: they wove the cloth from the cotton and bark of trees, and stained it of various colours. Of this cloth, which was very substantial, they made their beds, which were suspended from posts by the two ends, and obtained the name of hemacks, from being made by the southern islanders of the rind of a tree of that name. Columbus was so pleased with them, that he took the pattern, and used them for the bedding of his crew. They are still used at the present day under the appellation of hammocks. Of the leaves of the cocoa-nut and palmetto they also made baskets; while the fibres were twisted into ropes. The negroes also follow them in this particular, making rope, and also baskets, which they call “catacous.”
The Caribs have often been likened to the ancient Jews in some of their customs; but they did not follow that peculiar people in abstaining from blood, as they frequently drank that of the Arrowawks in their inhuman festivals. It is true, they refrained from eating many kinds of flesh, which were generally reckoned luxuries by others; but “if it was from religious motives, we are nowhere sufficiently informed,” as Goldsmith justly observes. Their greatest treat, however, was human flesh, which they devoured with avidity whenever they could procure it. The Arrowawks, or inhabitants of Cuba, and the adjacent islands, as before remarked, were their principal prey. Sometimes they ate this horrible food raw; at other times they roasted or boiled it; but the fat was all preserved for the use of their children, both as food, and to anoint their bodies, in hopes of rendering them hardy and valiant; and for this reason they were also frequently immersed in a bath of blood.
Another of their viands, and indeed the principal part of their food, was fish. These they caught in nets, composed of the twisted fibres of the cocoa-nut; or else speared them at night as they rose to the surface of the water to breathe. A similar practice is still pursued in Scotland; and the dexterity consists in throwing a spear at the salmon as it springs from the water. A fuller account would be inconsistent with my present work; but I refer my readers to Sir W. Scott’s well known novel of “Guy Mannering,” where it is accurately and vividly described. To resume our subject:—Columbus mentions seeing some fishermen making use of very curious assistants in securing their finny prey, namely, decoy fish. These were a species of small fish, which abounded in these seas, called “reves.” Fastening a string round their tails, they were lowered into the water, and, made cunning by the hand which fed them, these tiny ensnarers encountered their brethren of the deep; and winding about them, all were drawn up together.
In looking over the accounts of different countries, everyone must be struck with the propensity man has of indulging in spirituous liquors. While the inhabitants of fruitful and sunny districts imbibe the luscious juice of the grape, the Kamtschadale ranges his barren and inhospitable clime in search of a species of grass, from which to obtain a supply of fermented drink. The Tartar, in his wild state, roaming from pasture to pasture, placing his whole wealth in his horses and cattle, silently enjoys the intoxicating qualities of his brandy procured from the milk of his mares, and sighs not for the richest cup ever quaffed by the lip of mortals. So likewise the Carib was not without his stimulants—his festive board was not without its cup. From the bark of the palm and cocoa-nut tree, they procured a liquor clear as crystal, which they allowed to ferment, and of which they were very fond; but their principal drink was mobby, made from the sweet potatoe, (a native of this island,) which they also drank in a fermented state. But still drunkenness was not one of their crimes; it was reserved for their conquerors to teach them that vice. We are told of an old Carib addressing a planter in the following manner—“Our people are become almost as bad as yours. We are so much altered since you came among us, that we hardly know ourselves; and we think it is owing to so melancholy a change that the hurricanes are more frequent than they were formerly. It is an evil spirit who has done all this; who has taken our best lands from us, and given us up to the dominion of the Christians.” Alas! poor Caribs, it was an evil spirit which had come among you—the evil spirit of lawless and unchristian men. Why was your country invaded and your rights trampled on? Why were your wives and children torn from you?—and you yourselves condemned to death?—yea, worse than death—to vile and endless slavery, till time, the end of all things, consigned you to your silent graves?—are questions which will arise, but whose answer can only be given in these words—“What is, is best.”
To resume our description of these ancient possessors of Antigua—these warlike Caribs. Vanity is a passion which to a greater or lesser degree pervades the breast of almost every mortal, and the savage in his native wilds feels the force of it in the same manner, although, perhaps, not to the same extent, as the giddy fair who whirls round the vortex of dissipation within the purlieus of May Fair. When first discovered by the Spaniards, the Caribs were habited in different fashions; some appeared in complete dresses of native cloth, stained of a dark red; others had only a cotton girdle rolled round their loins; while others, again, were arrayed in “Nature’s garb.” But although this plain and scanty dress forbid much fancy or variety, they were far from unadorned. Their hair was arranged in a thousand fantastic shapes; some had it braided with small pieces of gold, shells or shining stones; others decorated it with the teeth and bones of their enemies; and some, again, placed large bunches of parrots’ feathers upon the top of the head. Nor were all their decorations confined to their head-dresses; they stained their bodies with various colours, and in a variety of figures, and, as before alluded to, caused themselves much pain in thus ornamenting their persons, by their great propensity for altering their natural features. It does not appear if this was intended to heighten their beauty, and render them captivating in the eyes of the “nice-judging fair,” or if to make them more hideous in the sight of their enemies; but most probably it was for the latter purpose, although it has been said “that women always like the monsters!”
Their amusement, which has also been before observed, was war; nothing else seemed to please or interest them, it was “their gain, their glory, their delight!” They had their dances, but they were rather a serious ceremony than indulged in as a pastime. Their principal assemblies were held before starting upon a warlike expedition, when a leader or chief was elected with the barbarities before described; or upon the return of a victorious warrior, when these ceremonies concluded with a dance.
In the foregoing review, the character of the red Caribs, the aborigines of Antigua, has been described; but in different islands were found different tribes. Guadaloupe was inhabited by a race of Amazons, who, upon the first appearance of Columbus, rushed out of a wood, armed with bows and arrows, and attacked the crew with such determined fury, that he was obliged to open a fire upon them before they would disperse; that they were also cannibals was evident from the relics of their disgusting feasts found in their huts. Some of the other islands were inhabited by a similar race; but the people of Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and Porto Rico were decidedly of a different family—mild, temperate, and indolent, they were a certain prey to the ferocious cannibals.