RECOLLECTIONS OF iiliAZlL. 305 



natives of some parts of Africa, the Indians of Brazil have neither 

 a systematic form of religion or priests. Whether they have any 

 notion of a Soul it is difficult to ascertain, but that they believe in ex- 

 istence after death is evident by the custom that prevails among some 

 of the tribes the Puris, Coroados, and Botocudos, of laying beside a 

 corpse game and other food, for its subsistence on the journey it is 

 about to make. The Paes, who in every horde rank next to the 

 chiefs, are considered to possess superhuman knowledge and power, 

 but they are only conjurors and doctors, who traffic in charms, with- 

 out practising any thing which, in the slightest degree, approaches 

 the ceremonies of religious worship. In fact, the Indians appear to 

 acknowledge no God, but only an evil principle which sometimes, 

 they say, crosses their path in the form of a lizard, of a crocodile, an 

 ounce, or some monstrous creation of their own imagination. But 

 the skill of these Paes in interpreting dreams, and well as their pre- 

 tended supernatural powers, gives them a high political importance. 

 No public resolution is ever taken without their consent ; they are 

 equally consulted in all private affairs, and are consequently acquainted 

 with the secrets of the whole community. Trained, from earliest in- 

 fancy, to the exercise of these distinguished functions, and tried by a 

 long noviciate of solitude, abstinence, and penance, they are at length 

 admitted, with certain solemn formalities, as duly qualified members 

 of the order. They boast of carrying on an intercourse with a supe- 

 rior agency, of having witches acting under their direction, and some- 

 times give out that they are guided by a supreme chief, whose sanctity 

 and spiritual perfection enables him to remain in the most inaccessi- 

 ble fortresses of the mountains, far from the abodes of men, where he 

 carries on an uninterrupted intercourse with the great spirit of evil. 

 But whoever is suspected of practising superhuman acts in order to 

 harm his neighbours, becomes an object of hatred to the whole tribe. 

 The Paes very frequently turn this horror of sorcery to their own ad- 

 vantage, by imputing its effects to their rivals, as for instance when 

 disease obstinately resists the conjurations of one of these doctors^ he 

 gives his patient to understand that he is bewitched by the charms of 

 some rival juggler, and the supposed culprit is almost certain to be 

 assassinated either by the friends of the sick person, or by an imme- 

 diate order from the chief. 



With the exception of the Mouras, a wandering tribe, and who 

 may be considered as the aboriginal gipsies of Brazil, there is not a 

 single horde who can be said to be entirely ignorant of the art of 

 agriculture. Each tribe has its own hunting territory well de" 

 by conventional limits, known to all. Wherever a tribe or fi 

 takes up their abode for a time, they have their fields which are c 

 tivated by the women, for the benefit of the community. Their huts 

 are built upon the bare ground, supported by four posts, twelve or 

 fifteen feet high, and from thirty to forty long ; the walls are formed 

 of thin laths, covered with leaves, or sometimes plastered with clay, 

 opening on both sides with moveable doors, made of polen leaves, 

 with which material the roof is also covered. The huts and their 

 utensils are considered as private property, but certain ideas of a 

 common possession prevails even for these objects, as a single hut is 



M. M. No. 93. 2 R 



