Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/42

 to the country were contained in various manuscripts of simple recipes, written by Sigismund Asperger, a Hungarian priest, who spent (says Azara) forty years amongst the missions of La Plata, and who, after the expulsion of his order, died, aged 112. The Paraguayan is eminently a vegetarian, for beef is rare within this oxless land, and the Republic is no longer, as described by Dobrizhoffer, the "devouring grave as well as the seminary of cattle." He sickens under a meat diet; hence, to some extent, the terrible losses of the army in the field. Moreover, he holds with the Guacho, that "Carnero no es carne"—mutton is not meat. Living to him is cheap. He delights in masamora (maize hominy), in manioc, in the batata, or "Spanish potato" grown in Southern Europe; in various preparations of cow's milk, and in fruity especially oranges. Of course he loves sweetmeats, such as "mel," or boiled-down cane-juice, not the common drained treacle. His principal carbonaceous food is oil of "mani"—the Arachis, here the succedaneum for the olive—and the excellent fish of the Paraguay river: the latter aliment has of late years become an especial favourite, as the ready phosphorus-supplier to the brain, and "ohne phosphor keine gedenke." Concerning the Paraguayan character, authors greatly differ, though mostly agreeing that in some points it is singular and even unique. "He is brave because he is good," said Mr. Mansfield, overjoyed to find a man and yet a vegetarian, free, moreover, from the "disgusting vice of shopkeeping." "Un peuple vertueux et vaillant," endorses General Pacheco. "Paraguayo," is now applied by the Brazilian to a stubborn mule, to a kicking horse, or to a drunken man: the women give the name to their naughty children. On the other hand, the Spanish Paraguayans call the Brazilians "Rabilongos," the long-tailed (monkeys); and the Guarani speakers "Cambahis," or niggers. In