1875.] ^^'^ [Gabb. 



Some of the peojile looked very serious and shaking their heads, said I 

 would see before long, that somebody would pay for it. Two or three 

 weeks after, a fine little Indian boy whom I had with me as a servant, 

 poisoned himself by eating excessively of a kind of wild almond called 

 variously the" bri-bri," or " eboe " nut. There was not an Indian in that 

 party but who firmly believed that it was the bu-ku-ru' of the blow-guns 

 that killed him. From all the foregoing, it would seem that bu-ku ru' is 

 a sort of evil spirit that takes possession of the objects, and resents being 

 disturbed; but I hive never been able to learn from t'le Indians that they 

 consider it so. They seem to think of it as a property the object acqaires. 

 But the worst bu-ku-ru' of all, is that of a young woman in her first 

 pregnancy. She infects the whole neighborhood. Persons going from the 

 house where she lives, carry the infection with them to a distance, and all 

 the deaths or other serious misfortunes in the vicinity are laid to her charge. 

 In the old times, when the savage laws and customs were in full force, it 

 was not an uncommoa thing for the husband of such a woman to be 

 obliged to isay damages for casualties thus caused by his unfortunate wife. 

 Nya (literally filth) is a much less serious affair. As soon as the woman 

 is delivered of her child, she ceases to be bu-ku-ru', but becomes nya and 

 has to be purified in the manner already described. All the objects that 

 have been in contact with a person just dead, are nya and must be either 

 thrown away, destroyed, or purified by a 'doctor.' He can handle them, 

 but must purify himself afterwards. The persons who assist in prepar- 

 ing the corpse, who carry it to the temporary resting-place, or who even 

 accidentally touch it or the unclean things, are all nya and must be 

 purified. 



Purification from this latter uncleanness is a simple matter. The per- 

 son washes his hands in a calabash of warm water, the "doctor" blows a 

 few whiffs of tobacco-smoke over him, and the thing is done. But the 

 former is much more serious. For three days the patient eats no salt in 

 his food, drinks no chocolate, uses no tobacco, and if a married man, 

 sleeps apart from his wife. At the expiration of that time, the warm 

 water and tobacco smoke are called into requisition and the cleansing is 

 complete. 



Of Gods, deities, spirits, or devils, there are as follows ; the " great 

 spirit " or principal superhuman being is called Si-bu' by the Bri-bris and 

 by the Cabecars ; by the Tiribis he is called Zi-bo', by the Terrabas Zu-bo' 

 and by the Borucas, Si'-buh. A good spirit, from whom nothing is to be 

 feared, he receives a sort of passive respect, but no adoration or worship. 

 He is rather looked on as the chief of the good country, of the future 

 state, but as not troubling himself much about mundane matters. It 

 will be seen, therefore, that in their theology, the entire family of tribes is 

 essentially monotheistic, although they have taken the first insensible 

 step towards a plurality of gods; in the manner so admirably indicated 

 by Max Miiller, in his " Chips from a German Workshop." They believe 

 in but one God, and assert his unity with an emphasis worthy of Moslems 



