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ABIPONES

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 65 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ABIPONES , a tribe of See also:

South See also:American See also:Indians of Guaycuran stock recently inhabiting the territory lying between See also:Santa Fe and St lago. They originally occupied the See also:Chaco See also:district of See also:Paraguay, but were driven thence by the hostility of the Spaniards. According to See also:Martin See also:Dobrizhoffer, a Jesuit missionary, who, towards the end of the 18th See also:century, lived among them for a See also:period of seven years, they'then numbered not more than 5000. They were a well-formed, handsome See also:people, with See also:black eyes and aquiline noses, thick black See also:hair, but no beards. The hair from the forehead to the See also:crown of the See also:head was pulled out, this constituting a tribal See also:mark. The faces, breasts and arms of the See also:women were covered with black figures of various designs made with thorns, the See also:tattooing paint being a mixture of ashes and See also:blood. The lips and ears of both sexes were pierced. The men were brave fighters, their See also:chief weapons being the See also:bow and See also:spear. No See also:child was without bow and arrows; the bow-strings were made of foxes' entrails. In See also:battle the Abipones wore an See also:armour of See also:tapir's hide over which a See also:jaguar's skin was sewn. They were excellent swimmers and See also:good horsemen. For five months in the See also:year when the floods were out they lived on islands or even in shelters built in the trees.

They seldom married before the See also:

age of See also:thirty, and were singularly chaste. " With the Abipones," says See also:Darwin, " when a See also:man chooses a wife, he bargains with the parents about the See also:price. But it frequently happens that the girl rescinds what has been agreed upon between the parents and bridegroom, obstinately rejecting the very mention of See also:marriage. She often runs away and hides herself, and thus eludes the bridegroom." See also:Infanticide was systematic, never more than two See also:children being reared in one See also:family, a See also:custom doubtless originating in the difficulty of subsistence. The See also:young were suckled for two years. The Abipones are now believed to be See also:extinct as a tribe. Martin Dobrizhoffer's Latin Historia de A biponibus (See also:Vienna, 1784) was translated into See also:English by Sara See also:Coleridge, at the See also:suggestion of See also:Southey, in 1822, under the See also:title of An See also:Account of the Abipones (3 vols.).

End of Article: ABIPONES

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