COOK] BORORO INDIANS OF MATTO GROSSO, BRAZIL 55 



priesthood seems to lie largely in the ability to throw themselves at 

 will into a savage ecstacy. 



When a Bororo is ill, a priest is called to determine whether he 

 will recover or die. On entering the hut and looking at his sick 

 tribesman and concluding that he will probably die or should die, 

 he will count his fingers, and each time he touches one finger will 

 repeat, " Meri, meri, meri, meri, meri, bi," meaning that the sick 

 man will see five suns, five days, and die, or he may say, " Nadua, 

 nadua, nadua," etc., "bi," meaning sleep, sleep, etc., five days, 

 and die. If at the end of this time he still lives, the executioner, 

 sent of course by the priest, will suddenly appear in the hut, sit 

 astride his stomach, and strangle him to death, for the reputation of 

 the priest must be maintained. The priests are probably responsible 

 for not a few deaths. They are the bane of life in the tribe. They 

 must nurture the delusion that they can communicate with and have 

 influence in the other world and power to avert or cause evils and 

 calamities. They are therefore on the alert to take advantage of 

 any propitious occasion to prey upon the superstitious fears of their 

 fellow-tribesmen. They are freely supplied with food by their 

 tribesmen in order to retain their good will. 



The Bororo seem to have no idea of God as the Christian under- 

 stands Him. They consider the sun as the fountain head of majesty 

 and power and even of beneficence, and as the abode of the great 

 priests who have passed to the spirit world and fear him. Bope 

 means spirit or disembodied soul, but they seem to have no idea of 

 a good spirit. The bope, who are evil spirits, must therefore not 

 be offended though they must be driven away. To drive the spirits 

 off, they use a bull-roarer, a peculiar instrument made of a slab of 

 wood about half an inch thick, shaped something like a fish, and of 

 varying size, hung by a long cord from the end of a stick like a 

 fishing rod, and swung round and round through the air. As it 

 swings and rapidly revolves, it sends forth loud sounds to a sur- 

 prising distance, pitched from a sepulchral moan to an unearthly 

 shriek, the wail rising and descending the scale according to the 

 rapidity of the swing or the size of the instrument. To hear several 

 of these roarers at once certainly produces most unusual sensations, 

 particularly when operated, as we heard them, during a tropical 

 storm amid the play of the lightning, the crash and roar of thunder, 

 the falling floods, and dismal gloom. No female is allowed to see 

 this instrument under pain of death. New ones are made as occa- 

 sion demands, and they are burned immediately after their need has 

 passed. We entered the baehytu as some of these roarers were 



