CRUZ DAS almas: a BRAZILIAN VILLAGE' — PIERSON 



181 



Some of those people can scarcely even read. But they 

 look at the Bible a little and then they go and try to 

 explain it like they were padres who had studied a lot. 



A fellow I know turned EvangcUstu in order to change 

 liis habits and soon after that he hit his wife with a stick 

 so liard she nearly died. 



They say tlieir religion is good because it does not 

 expect them to drink, smoke, or gamble. But I've never 

 seen any religion that expected those things. 



The Evangelistas talk more about religion than anybody 

 else. If you give them a chance, they'll drive you crazy. 

 They say their religion is the best in the world because 

 they have the power to see the Holy Gliost. As if they 

 could see him ! 



The Evangelistas take so much pleasure in talking about 

 their religion ! They say the Catholics live in darkness 

 but they themselves live in light because they are on the 

 way to heaven. They say that everyone else will go to 

 hell. When I meet an Evangelista I don't like to talk very 

 long witli him because they're always going on about their 

 religion. 



All Evangelistas were once Catholics. But they didn't 

 ?o to Mass as they should. In fact, they really weren't 

 anything. And so, with a little talk, they could be led 

 anywhere. 



I think one couldn't ask for a better religion than the 

 Catholic, if you follow its teachings. It's like the padre 

 says : if you do exactly what you are told to do, you will 

 oecome a santo. 



When a person belongs to one religion, he ought not to 

 jhange. I'm a Catholic and why should I leave my religion 

 to follow another, I may then want to leave that one. 



The Catholic religion is the oldest there is. It was 1,500 

 (rears old when the Evangelistas began. The man who 

 started the religion of the Evangelistas was a padre who 

 didn't want to fulfill his obligations and went around 

 talking against the Catholic Church. 



It isn't necessary to talk against another man's religion. 

 When one of those people says something to you, all .vou 

 have to do is to pretend you didn't hear it and that's the 

 and of it. 



Occasionally, a group of people of one religion will get 

 into a discussion with a group of i)eople from another 

 religion. But that doesn't get them anywhere. Each man 

 should be allowed to think as he wishes. 



They can follow their religion and I'll follow mine. 

 They think their religion is good and I think mine is 

 better. 



These religions are each a different way of thinking. 

 Some people profess one religion and think it is the only 

 one ; others follow another, and think it also is very good. 



Religion is like politics. There are many parties. The 

 largest party is the one that dominates. In religion that's 

 the Catholic. It's also the oldest. 



Although some religions are absurd, they are all alike 

 n one thing : tJiey never teach anyone to do anything bad. 



It must not be a bad reUgion. They speak of God. 

 The "brethren" are closely united. Not even a heavy 

 rain will keep them from meeting together. Sometimes 

 they arrive at church completely soaked. I went to hear 

 the songs the other day. They were not bad. 



The Evangelistas claim the Bible says that when the 

 end of the world is about to come, the Evangelistas will 

 go around preaching in the four corners of the world. 

 That's what seems to be happening. 



Each of the new cults is carried on with a sim- 

 plicity and directness that is appreciated by the 

 calpira. Much of the language used by the fadre 

 in the rituals of the church is not understood by the 

 people, while all rituals of the new cults are not 

 only conducted in the Brazilian language but, 

 since the ritual is carried on largely by laymen, in 

 the actual dialect which the caipira best under- 

 stands. The emphasis laid upon participation in 

 such rituals as reading the Bible and singing, de- 

 velops in the individual a satisfying sense of per- 

 sonal woith and of belonging. The invocation of 

 the Holy Ghost, made in the ceremonies of one of 

 these sects, in a dramatic and impressive manner, 

 readily develops in the more credulous a positive 

 certainty of the actual presence of supernatural 

 beings. The development of a measure of skepti- 

 cism in the community with reference to the older 

 sect (see Skepticism, p. 182) puts at least a few in- 

 dividuals in a more receptive frame of mind with 

 reference to the new cult.^*" 



"When I first came here about G years ago, re- 

 marked a villager, "there were only a few Evan- 

 gelistas in the whole community. Perhaps three 

 or four who live near the old chapel and three 

 or four others who lived this side of there. But 

 now there are several more." "These people are 

 increasing in numbers," remarked another vil- 

 lager. "They hold their religious ceremonies them- 

 selves, they treat everyone well and they never 

 talk about money. If a new person goes to their 

 cult, and there's no place to sit, someone will 

 get up and give him his chair. They don't charge 

 you anything to be baptized, nor anything to be 

 married. They are simple people and you can 

 see they believe very much in what they are doing." 



The various Protestant sects, however, are also 

 in conflict with each other. "We follow the gos- 

 pel," said a member of one sect. "All the others 

 say they do but they don't. Christ was baptized 



=<»Tlus is equally true whether the sect be religious or political. 



