Some Of The Missionaries
Have Spent Ten Years In The Chaco, But Cannot Get The Savage To Teach
Them This Lesson Of Signs.
In some tribes the aged ones are just "left to die" sitting under a
palm-leaf mat.
All the members of the tribe move away and leave them
thus. Many are the terrible things my eyes have witnessed, but surely
the most pathetic was the sight of an old woman sitting under the
mat. I was one day riding alone, but had with me two horses, when I
caught sight of the palm-leaf erection and the solitary figure
sitting under it. Getting down from my horse, I approached the woman
and offered to take her to a place of safety, promising to feed her
and permit her to live as long as she chose. Would she come with me?
I begged and entreated, but the poor woman would not so much as lift
her eyes to mine. The law of her tribe had said she must die, and the
laws are to them unalterable. Most reluctantly, I left her to be
eaten later on by the wild beasts.
Terrible as this custom is, other tribes kill and eat their aged
parents "as a mark of respect." Another tribe will not permit one
member to go into the spirit world alone, so they hang another one,
in order that there may be two to enter together.
Whereas the Caingwas are a religious people, even attributing their
custom of piercing the lip to divine commandment, the Chaco
aborigines have no god and no religion.
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