EELIGION OF AMERICAN INDIANS. 



60 



pulp of the fruits of the Arnatto, or by the leaves of the 

 Bignouia Chica, is the favourite colour, with which sorae tribes 

 only besmear their faces, while others, who command a greater 

 ? abundance of the material, not only paint their whole bodies, 

 but even their canoes, their stools, and other articles of furni- 

 ture. Ked, yellow, and black are sometimes disposed in stripes, 

 or in regular patterns, which it requires much time and 

 patience to draw. The labour bestowed upon these paintings 

 is the more to be wondered at, as a strong rain suffices to 

 efface them. Some nations only paint when they are about to 

 celebrate a festival, others are thus decorated the whole year 

 round, and would be as ashamed to be seen unpainted as a 

 European to appear unclothed. 



The use of ornaments and trinkets of various kinds is 

 almost confined to the men. A circlet of parrot and other 

 gaudily-coloured feathers is worn round the head, but gene- 

 rally only on festive occasions. Tattooing is not so general 

 or so elaborate as among the nations of the Malayan race, or 

 the wild aboriginals of Australia. 



The religion of the American Indians, if such it may be 

 called, is of the lowest description. Some tribes, indeed, ac- 

 knowledge a good principle, called Cachimana, who rules the 

 seasons and causes the fruits of the earth to ripen ; but, thankless 

 for the benefits they enjoy, they pay far greater reverence to 

 the evil principle, Tolokiamo, who, though not so powerful, 

 is more cunning and active. The forest-Indians can hardly 

 understand church and image worship. ' Your Grod,' they say 

 to the Catholic missionaries, ' shuts himself up in a house as if 

 he were old and infirm ; ours is in the forest, in the fields, in 

 the mountains whence comes the rain.' 



The moon is universally considered as the abode of the 

 blessed, as the land of abundance. The Esquimo, for whom a 

 plank thrown by the current on his treeless shore is a treasure, 

 sees in the moon extensive plains covered with forests, while 

 the Indian of the Orinoco perceives in its shining orb grassy 

 savannahs, exempt from all insect plagues. ' How pleasant it 

 must be to live in the moon,' said a Salina-Indian to Father 

 Gumilla ; ' she is so beautiful and bright that surely no mos- 

 quitos can be there.' Thus man is always disposed to transfer 



