AMONG SAVAGE RACES. 575 



Burmeister confirms this statement, and, in the list of the 

 principal tribes of the valley of the Amazons, published by 

 the Hakluyt Society, the Chunchos are stated "to have no 

 religion whatever," and we are told that the Curetus " have 

 no idea of a Supreme Being/' The Toupinambas of Brazil 

 had no religion. The South American Indians of the Gran 

 Chaco are said by the missionaries to have " no religious or 

 idolatrous belief or worship whatever; neither do they possess 

 any idea of God, or of a Supreme Being. They make no 

 distinction between right and wrong, and have, therefore, 

 neither fear nor hope of any present or future punishment or 

 reward, nor any mysterious terror of some supernatural power, 

 whom they might seek to assuage by sacrifices or superstitious 

 rites."* Bates-)- tells us "that none of the tribes on the 

 Upper Amazons have an idea of a Supreme Being, and con- 

 sequently have no word to express it in their languages." 

 Azara also makes the same statement as regards many of the 

 South American tribes visited by him.! 



Father Baegert, who lived as a missionary among the 

 Indians of California for seventeen years, affirms that " idols, 

 temples, religious worship, or ceremonies, were unknown to 

 them, and they neither believed in the true and only God, 

 nor adored false deities ;" and M. de la Perouse also says 

 that they " had no knowledge of a God, or of a future state/' 

 Golden, who had ample means of judging, assures us that the 

 celebrated "five nations" of Canada "had no public worship 

 nor any word for God;" and Hearne, who lived amongst the 

 Northern American Indians for years, and was perfectly 

 acquainted with their habits and language, says the same of 

 some tribes on Hudson's Bay. 



* Voice of Pity, vol. ix. p. 220. vol. ii. pp. 3, 14, 33, 51, 60, 76, 80, 



t Life in the Amazons, vol. ii. 81, 84, 90, 138, 1GO, 164, 166. 



p. 162. See Mr. Rau's translation, Smith- 



J Voyages dans 1'Amer. Merid. sonian Contrib. 1863-64, p. 390. 



