Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/400

384 whereof you speak," said the cacique, "are there any Spaniards?" "Assuredly," answered the missionary, "but only good ones." "The best of them were good for nothing," replied Hatuey, "and I desire not to go where I may be in danger of meeting with one of that horrid tribe."

"Les grands mangeurs de viande sont en général cruels et féroces, plus que les autres hommes; cette observation est de tous les lieux," writes Rousseau, and the difference in the disposition of the Arrowauks and Caribs bears out the truth of the remark. The Arrowauks had little animal food, with the exception of fish, a few birds, reptiles, and insects; but the Carib larders were kept well furnished with human flesh, and even if an expedition had failed to bring back men prisoners for the table (women were not eaten), they had preserves of children taken in former raids, and fattened up till they were plump enough to be irresistible to any cannibal palate.

But though on festival occasions they no doubt gorged themselves both with meat and drink, as a rule, like Indians in general, they were very abstemious. Indeed, the Spaniards, although the most abstemious of Europeans, to the Indians—"whose abstemiousness," says an old writer, "exceeded that of the most mortified hermit"—appeared excessively voracious. So surprised were they at the appetites of the Spaniards—one of whom was supposed to consume as much as ten Indians—that the islanders were of opinion that the Spaniards must have come among them in quest of food, their own country not producing enough to satisfy such immoderate appetites—a conclusion which Carib manners and customs would certainly assist in forming.

Both Arrowauks and Caribs were fond of smoking. They intoxicated themselves with tobacco, which they called cohiba, drawing up the fumes by a tube through the nostrils. A dream coming during the ensuing intoxication was regarded as an inspiration.

Though usually shorter than the Arrowauks, the Caribs were strong and muscular, active and lithe. To our eyes their appearance would have been anything but pleasing. In their cheeks and ears they made deep incisions, which were rendered conspicuous by being stained black; their faces and bodies were painted red with annotto, and round their eyes they were distinguished by circles of black and white. Some of the greater dandies pierced the cartilage of the nose, and inserted therein the bone of a fish, a piece of tortoise shell, or a parrot's feather. Instead of shells they strung together the teeth of their enemies slain in battle, whenever such could be obtained, and wore them round their arms and legs. Their arrows were usually poisoned, and when attacking an enemy by night the arrows were often tipped with cotton dipped in oil and set alight, in