6 1 8 Voyage of the Novara. 



melancholy to think that these excellent people should be 

 without the blessings of Christianity. To our great amaze- 

 ment, however, we learned that the natives themselves 

 strenuously opposed the settlement in their midst of any 

 missionaries of any Christian denomination, — "Because," said 

 they, '' all their Kai-kai (i. e. their food) would belong to the 

 missionaries." This naive reply reminds us of a similar 

 remark on the part of the Quiche Indians, which we once 

 overheard in the highlands of Guatemala, in whose language 

 a missionary or priest is known as Ki-sol-re-le-ak-uch, which 

 being interpreted means '' devourer of all hens !" And just 

 as among the Mormons every care is taken to keep certain 

 professions out of their community, as, for instance, the 

 physician, in order to prevent illness, or the lawyer, with 

 the intent to keep away law-suits, thus in their simplicity 

 the natives of Sikayana have fallen into the error of viewing 

 the missionary, that moral physician, as only of importance 

 or of necessity in those places where there are really spiiitual 

 and moral evils to cure ! 



The liquors of Europe are as yet but little known to tlie 

 inhabitants of Sikayana. In none of the huts could we discern 

 any sort of spirituous fluids, nor was any offered to us. Even 

 during the trading, amid the demands for every sort of article, 

 no desu'e was expressed for them, not a question even was asked 

 respecting them, whereas hitherto all the wild or semi-savage 

 races with which we came in contact at once clamoured for 

 " Brandy," and not seldom presented themselves in a riotous 



