Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-02-27
COAl-BLACK INDIANS.
"A Strange Savage Tribe Found in North
western Nicaragua.


During the last seven months I have
visited all the five republics of Central
America. But the most interesting part
OF my work was the exploration of the
hitherto unknown country of the Sam
DOS, In Northwestern Nicaragua. 1t is
wild section, reached only by tortuous
Indian trails, covered with vast virgin
forests of mahogany and cedar, and I'M
der the dominion of the savage Sambos
who have never yet yielded to the au-
thorlty of any government but their
own, giving nominal allegiance to the
Mosquito King, the last remnant of
monarchy in the Western world. These
Sambos are as black as ebony. possess
ing some generic Identities with the
pure Congo. but widely differing from
him in other mental and physical feat
ures The origin of this tribe is traced
to the black Indians found upon the
1sthmuS when first visited by the daring
adventurer Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the
dlscoverer of the Pacific. They are
StllI IN barbarouS state, being without
any wearing apparel and observing a
religion that is a quaint admixture of
mythology and superstition. They en-
terrain blind faith in witchcraft, and
invest their sukiaS (successD with I'M
limited authority over temporal and
spiritual affairs.
The religion OF the Sambo and his
worship of the god Rushika has strong
similarity to Puzza, an old god OF the
japanese and Chinese. The Sambo be-
lieves that at certain seasons this god
goes into certain plants and animals, as
well as giving visible manifestations of
himself in the sun, moon and stars. As
consequence they have a great many
objects of veneration. The medicinal
plants are supposed to receive their Writ
ues and to have been given super
natural powers through the breath of
Rushika. The anaconda, which fur
nishes a superior oil for the cure of
rheumatism. swollen joints, etc, is VEN
Grated for the same reason and relim-
iously protected during the gcneratiye
season. They believe that all unusual
connections in nature, such as earth
quakeS and tOrnadOeS, are the visible
angry moods of Rushika, but that the
same can be appeased or warded off by
charms or even by physical force. For
instance, they think that the storm
cloud is supported by an evil meSSen-
ger, whom they can kill by discharging
their arrows into the approaching omi-
nous cloud.
The native doctors, or wise men,
among the Sambos occupy high places
in the estimation of the natives. They
use a few medicinal herbs in sickness
but rely mostly upon char rs and spells
TO drive away the demon of disease To
this end they carry with them certain
stones, seeds, teeth of wild animals or
the anaconda, and other things which
are concealed about the patient, has
blind faith in the curative virtues of
the charm The sukia does not en-
croach upon the domain of the doctors
in the power of healing, but as
SumeS by the exercise of the ''black
art to visit the direst calamities upon
any one that incurs her diSpleasure
One of these witches came near causing
the massacre of our entire party be-
cause of an inexplicable dislike she had
taken to one of the native guides. We
only escaped destruction by the prov
idential intervention of a thunder
storm, which was construed as the
anger of Rushika at the deed.-A. j.
Miller, in Atlanta Constitution.