Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/44

 States, and that all who speak against her are actuated by mere envy and jealousy. A serf, the descendant of mere serfs—Yanaconas and Mitayos —a fervent patriot moreover, the only freedom to which he aspired was that of morals. Everywhere the woman of Guacho-land takes a most matter-of-fact view of a subject into which most peoples of the world attempt to infuse a something of poetry and romance. Love is with her as eating and sleeping—a purely corporeal necessity. Like Rahel Varnhagen, she is constant: she always loves some one, but not the same. As everywhere in South America, marriage is not the rule, and under Dr. Francia it was forbidden, or rather it was conceded under exceptional circumstances only; this would tend to make of the whole race one great household, and to do away with our modern limited idea of the family. Of course the women were faithful to the men as long as they loved them, and when that phase passed away they chose for themselves anew. Like the Brazilians, both sexes are personally clean, and the Paraguayan camps were exceptionally so, but the people do not keep their houses in Dutch order.

The Paraguayan soldier has shown in this war qualities which were hardly expected of him. He has, in fact, destroyed himself by his own heroism. Most foreigners are of opinion that two Paraguayans are quite a match for three Brazilians. The enemies of the Marshal President assert that he forces his subjects to fight; that the first line has orders to win or fall, the second to shoot or bayonet all fugitives, and so forth till finally the threads are gathered together in one remorseless hand—this idea of