Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/41

The Paraguayo—not Paragueno, as some travellers write the word—is, then, a Hispano-Guarani, and he is, as a rule, far more "Indian" than Spanish. Most of the prisoners with whom I conversed were in fact pure redskins. The figure is somewhat short and stout, but well put together, with neat, shapely, and remarkably small extremities. The brachycephalic head is covered with a long straight curtain of blue-black hair, whilst the beard and mustachios are rare, except in the case of mixed breeds. The face is full, flat, a ad circular; the cheekbones are high, and laterally salient; the forehead is low, remarkably contrasting with the broad, long, heavy, and highly-developed chin; and the eyes are often oblique, being raised at the exterior canthi, with light or dark-brown pupils, wellmarked eyebrows, and long, full, and curling lashes. The look is rather intelligent than otherwise, combined with an expression of reserve; it is soft in the women, but in both sexes it readily becomes that of the savage. The nose is neither heavy nor prominent, and in many cases besides being short and thin it is upturned. The masticatory apparatus is formidable, the mouth is large and wide, the jaws are strong, and the teeth are regular, white, and made for hard work. The coloration is a warm yellow lit up with red; the lips are also rosy. In the "Spaniards," the complexion, seen near that of the pure European, appears of that bleached- white with a soupçon of yellow which may be remarked in the highest caste Brahmans of Guzerat and Western Hindostan. The only popular deformity is the goitre, of which at Asuncion there is one in almost every family; the vulgar opinion is that all who suffer from it come from the uplands. Obesity is rare, yet the Paraguayan is ebrius as well as ebriosus, and his favourite "chicha" beer of maize or other grains, induces pinguefaction. Until the late war, he was usually in good health. The only medicines known