Complete Poetical Works of Robert Southey

by Robert Southey

  In your youth

  Ye have quaffed manly blood, that manly thoughts

  Might ripen in your hearts. — X. p. 55.

  In Florida, when a sick man was bled, women who were suckling a man-child drank the blood, if the patient were a brave or strong man, that it might strengthen their milk, and make the boys braver. Pregnant women also drank it. Le Moyne de Morgues.

  There is a more remarkable tale of kindred barbarity in Irish history. The royal family had been all cut off, except one girl; and the wise men of the country fed her upon children’s flesh to make her the sooner marriageable. I have not the book to refer to, and cannot therefore give the names; but the story is in Keating’s history.

  The spreading radii of the mystic wheel. — X. p. 56.

  This dance is described from Clavigero; from whom also the account of their musical instruments is taken.

  On the top

  Of yon magnolia, the loud turkey’s voice

  Is heralding the dawn. — XI. p. 59.

  “I was awakened in the morning early by the cheering converse of the wild turkey-cock (Meleagris occidentalis), saluting each other from the sun-brightened tops of-the lofty Cupressus disticha and Magnolia grandiflora. They begin at early dawn, and continue till sun-rise, from March to the last of April. The high forests ring with the noise, like the crowing of the domestic cock, of these social sentinels, the watchword being caught and repeated, from one to another, for hundreds of miles around; insomuch that the whole country is, for an hour or more, in an universal shout. A little after sun-rise, their crowing gradually ceases; they quit their high lodging places, and alight on the earth; where, expanding their silver-bordered train, they strut and dance round about the coy female, while the deep forests seem to tremble with their shrill noise.” — Bartram.

  His cowl was white. — XII. p. 67.

  “They wore large garments like surplices, which were white, and had hoods such as the canons wearl; their hair long and matted, so that it could not be parted, and now full of fresh blood from their ears, which they had that day sacrificed; and their nails very long.” — B. Diaz.

  Such is the description of the Mexican priests by one who had seen them.

  Tlalocan. — XII. p. 69.

  The Paradise of Tlaloc.

  “They distinguished three places for the souls when separated from the body: Those of soldiers who died in battle or in captivity among their enemies, and those of women who died in labor, went to the House of the Sun, whom they considered as the Prince of Glory, where they led a life of endless delight; where, every day, at the first appearance of the sun’s rays, they hailed his birth with rejoicings; and with dancing, and the music of instruments and of voices, attended him to his meridian: there they met the souls of the women, and with the same festivity accompanied him to his setting. They next supposed, that these spirits, after four years of that glorious life, went to animate clouds, and birds of beautiful feathers and of sweet song, but always at liberty to rise again to heaven, or to descend upon the earth to warble, and suck the flowers... The souls of those that were drowned, or struck by lightning, of those who died of dropsy, tumors, wounds, and other such diseases, went along with the souls of children, at least of those which were sacrificed to Tlaloc, the God of Water, to a cool and delightful place called Tlalocan, where that god resided, and where. they were to enjoy the most delicious repasts, with every other kind of pleasure. - Lastly, the third place allotted to the souls of those who suffered any other kind of death was Mictlan, or Hell, which they conceived to be a place of utter darkness, in which reigned a god called Mictlanteuctli, Lord of Hell, and a goddess named Miclancihuatl. I am of opinion that they believed hell to be a place in the centre of the earth; but they did not imagine that the souls underwent any other punishment there than what they suffered by the darkness of their abode. Siguenza thought the Mexicans placed hell in the northern part of the earth, as the word Mictlampa signifies towards both.” — Clavigero.

  When any person whose manner of death entitled him to a place in Tlalocan was buried (for they were never burnt), a rod or bough was laid in the grave with him,. that it might bud out again and flourish in that paradise. — Torquemada, L. 13, c. 48.

  The souls of all the children who had been offered to Tlaloc were believed to be present at all after-sacrifices, under the care of a large and beautiful serpent called Xiuhcoatl. — Torquemada, L. 8, c. 14. Green islets foat along. — XII. p. 700.

  Artificial islands are common in China as well as in Mexico.

  “The Chinese fishermen, having no houses on shore nor stationary abode, but moving about in their vessels upon the extensive lakes and rivers, have no inducement to cultivate patches of ground, which the pursuits of their profession plant their onions on rafts of bamboo, well interwoven with reeds and long grass, and covered with earth; and these floating gardens are towed after their boats.” — Barrow’s China.

  To Tlaloc it was hallow’d; and the stone

  Which closed its entrance never was remov’d,

  Save when the yearly festival return’d,

  And in its womb a child was sepulchred,

  The living victim. — XII. p. 72.

  There were three yearly sacrifices to Tlaloc. At the first, two children were drowned in the Lake of Mexico; but, in all the provinces, they were sacrificed on the mountains: they were a boy and a girl, from three to four years old. In this last case, the bodies were preserved in a stone chest, as relics, I suppose, says Torquemada, of persons whose hands were clean from actual sin, though their souls were foul with the original stain, of which they were neither cleansed nor purged; and therefore they went to the place appointed for all like them who perish unbaptized. — At the second, four children, from six to seven years of age, who were bought for the purpose, the price being contributed by the chiefs, were shut up in a cavern, and left to die with hunger. The cavern was not opened again till the next year’s sacrifice... The third continued. during the three rainy months, during all which time children were offered up on the mountains. These also were bought; the heart and blood were given in sacrifice; the bodies were feasted on by the chiefs and priests.” Torquemada, L. 7, c. 21.

  “In the country of the Mistecas was a cave sacred to the water god. Its entrance was concealed; for, though this idol was generally reverenced, this his temple was known to few. It was necessary to crawl the length of a musquet-shot; and then the way, sometimes open and sometimes narrow, extended for a mile before it reached the great dome, a place seventy feet long and forty wide, where were the idol and the altar. The idol was a rude column of stalactites, or incrustations, formed by a spring of petrifying water; and other fantastic figures had thus grown around it. The ways of the cave were so intricate, that sometimes those who had unwarily bewildered themselves there perished. The friar who discovered this idol destroyed it, and filled up the entrance.” — Padilla, p. 643.

  The Temple Serpents. — XIV. p. 82.

  “The head of a sacrificed person was strung up; the limbs eaten at the feast; the body given to the wild beasts which’ were kept within the temple circuits. Moreover, in that accursed house they kept vipers and venomous snakes, who had something at their tails which sounded like morris-bells; and they are the worst of all vipers. These were kept, in cradles and barrels and earthen vessels, upon feathers; and there they laid their eggs, and nursed up their snakelings; and they were fed with the bodies of the sacrificed, and with dogs’ flesh. We learnt for certain, that, after they had driven us from Mexico, and slain above eight hundred and fifty of our soldiers and of the men of Narvaez, these beasts and snakes, who had been offered to their cruel idol to be in his company, were supported upon their flesh for many days. When these lions and tigers roared, and the jackals and foxes howled, and the snakes hissed, it was a grim thing to hear them; and it seemed like hell.” — Bernal Diaz.

  He had been confin’d

  Where myriad insects on his nakedness

  Infix’
d their venomous anger, and no start,

  No shudder, shook his frame. — XIV. p. 83.

  Some of the Orinoco tribes required these severe probations, which are described by Gumilla, c. 35. The principle upon which they acted is strikingly stated by the Abbe Marigny in an Arabian anecdote.

  “All having been chosen by Nasser for Emir,-or general of his army, against Makan, being one day before this prince, whose orders he was receiving, made a convulsive motion with his whole body on feeling an acute bite. Nasser perceived it not. After receiving his orders, the Emir returned home, and, taking off his clothes to examine the bite, found the scorpion that had bitten him. Nasser, learning this adventure, when next he saw the Emir. reproved him for having sustained the evil without complaining at the moment, that it might have been remedied. ‘How, sir,’ replied the Emir, ‘should I be capable of braving the arrow’s point, and the sabre’s edge, at the head of your armies, and far from you, if in your presence I could not bear the bite of a scorpion!’”

  Rank in war, among savages, can only be procured by superior skill or strength.

  Y desade ninez al egercicio

  los apremian por fuerza y incitan,

  y en el belico extudio y duro oficio

  entrado en mas edad las egercitan;

  si alguno de flaqueza da un indicio

  del uso militar lo inhabilitan,

  y el que sale en las armas senalado

  conforme a su valor le dan el grado.

  Los cargos de la guerra y preeminencia

  no son por flacos medios proveidos,

  ni van por calidad, ni por herencia,

  ni por hacienda, y ser mejor nacidos;

  mas la virtud del brazo y la excelencia,

  esta hace los hombres perferidos,

  esta ilustra, habilita, perficiona,

  y quilata el valor de la persona. Araucana, I.

  From the slaughter’d brother of their King

  He stripped the slain, and form’d of it a drum,

  Whose sound affrighted armies. — XIV. p. 83.

  In some provinces they flayed the captives taken in war, and with their skills covered their drums, thinking with the sound of them to affright their enemies; for their opinion was, that, when the kindred of the slain heard the sound of these drums, they would immediately be seized with fear, and put to flight. Garcilaso de la Vega.

  “In the Palazzo Caprea, at Bologna, are several Turkish bucklers lined with human skin, dressed like leather: they told us it was that of the backs of Christian prisoners taken in battle; and the Turks esteem a buckler lined with it to be a particular security against the impression of an arrow or the stroke of a sabre.” — Lady Miller’s Letters from Italy.

  Should thine arm

  Subdue in battle six successive foes,

  Life, liberty, and honour will repay

  The noble conquest. — XIV. p. 84.

  Clavigero. One instance occurred, in which, after the captive had been victorious in all the actions, he was put to death, because they durst not venture to set at liberty so brave an enemy; but this is mentioned as a very dishonorable thing. I cannot turn to the authority, but can trust my memory for the fact.

  Often had he seen

  His gallant countrymen with naked breast

  Rush on their iron-coated enemies. — XIV. p. 85.

  Schyr Mawrice alsua the Berclay

  Fra the gret battaill held hys way,

  With a great rout off Walis men; Quahareuir thai yeid men mycht them ken,

  For thai wele ner all nakyt war,

  Or lynnyn clayths had but mar.

  The Bruce, B. 13, p. 147.

  And with the sound of sdnorous instruments,

  And with their shouts and screams and yells, drove back

  The Britons’ fainter war-cry. — XV. p. 94.

  Music seems to have been as soon applied to military as to religious uses.

  Con flautas, cuernos, roncos instrumentos,

  alto estruenudo, alaridos desdeniosos,

  salen los fieros barbaros sangrientos

  contra los Espalioles valerosos. Araucana, C. 4.

  “James Reid, who had acted as piper to a rebel regiment in the Rebellion, suffered death at York, on Nov. 15, 1746, as a rebel. On his trial, it was alleged in his defence, that he had not carried arms. But the court observed, that a Highland regiment never marched without a piper; and therefore his bagpipe, in the eye of the law, was an instrument of war.” — Walker’s Irish Bards.

  The construction was too much in the spirit of military law. Esop’s trumpeter should not have served as a precedent. Croxall’s fables have been made of much practical consequence: this poor piper was hung for not remembering one, and Gilbert Wakefield imprisoned for quoting another. A line of ample measure still retained

  The missile shaft. — XV. p. 137.

  A retractile weapon of tremendous effect was used by the Gothic tribes. Its use is thus described in a very interesting poem of the sixth century.

  At nonus pugnie Helmnod successit, et ipse

  Incertum triplici gestabat fune tridentem,

  Quem post terga quidem stantes socii tenuerunt;

  Consiliumque fuit, dum cuspes missa sederet

  In clypeo, cuncti pariter traxisse studerent,

  Ut vel sic hominem dejecissent furibundum,

  Atque sub hac certum sibi spe posuere triumphum.

  Nec mora; Dux, totes fundens in brachia vires,

  Misit in adversum magna cum voce triclentem,

  Et dicens, finis ferro tibi, calve, sub isto.

  Qui, ventos penetrans, jaculorum more coruscat;

  Quod genus aspidis, ex alta sese arbore, tanto

  Turbine demittit, quo cuncta obstantia vincat.

  Quid moror? umbonem scindit, peltaque resultat.

  Clamorem Franci tollunt, saltusque resultant.

  Obnixique trahunt restim simul atque vicissim;

  Nec dubitat princeps tali se aptare labori;

  Manarunt cunctis sudoris flumina membris:

  Sed tamen hic intra velut esculus astitit heros,

  Qui non plus petit astra comis, quam tartara fibris,

  Contemnens omnes ventorum, immota, fragores.

  De prima Expeditione Attile, Regis Hunnorum,

  in; Gallias, ac de Rebus Gestis Waltharii

  Aqitanorum Preicipis. Carmen epicum. This weapon, which is described by Suidas, Eustatius, and Agathias, was called Augo, and was a barbed trident. If it entered the body, it could not be extracted without certain death; and, if it only pierced the shield, the shield became unmanageable, and the enemy was left exposed.

  The Cataia, which Virgil mentions as a Teutonic weapon, was also retractile. This was a club of about a yard long, with a heavy end worked into four sharp points. To the thin end, or handle, a cord was fixed, which enabled a person, well trained, to throw it with great force and exactness, and then, by a jerk, to bring it back to his hand, either to renew his throw, or to use it in close combat. This weapon was called Cat and Catai. — Cambrian, Register.

  The Irish horsemen were attended by servants on foot, commonly called Deltini, armed only with darts or javelins, to which thongs of leather were fastened, wherewith to draw them back after they were cast. Sir James Ware’s Antiquities of Ireland.

  Paynalton. — XV. p. 97.

  When this name was pronounced, it was equivalent to a proclamation for rising in mass. Torquemada, L. 6, c. 22.

  The House of Arms. — XV. p. 97.

  The name of this Arsenal is a tolerable specimen of Mexican sesquipedalianism: Tlacochcalcoatlyacapan. Torquemada, L. 8, c. 13.

  Cortes consumed all the weapons of the arsenal in the infamous execution of Qualpopoca and his companions. — Herrera, 2, 8. 9. The ablution of the Stone of Sacrifice. — XV. p. 98.

  An old priest of the Tlatelucas, when they were at war with the Mexicans, advised them to drink the holy beverage before they went to battle: this was made by washing the Stone of Sacrifice. The king
drank first, and then all his Chiefs and soldiers in order: it made them eager and impatient for the fight. Torquemada, L. 2, c. 58.

  To physic soldiers before a campaign seems an odd way of raising their courage; yet this was done by one of the fiercest American tribes.

  “When the warriors among the Natchez had assembled in sufficient numbers for their expedition, the medicine of war was prepared in the chief’s cabin. This was an emetic, composed of a root boiled in water. The warriors, sometimes to the number of three hundred, seated themselves round the kettles or caldrons. About a gallon was served to each. The ceremony was to swallow it at one draught, and then discharge it again with such loud eructations and efforts as might be heard at a great distance.” — Heriot’s History of Canada.