SCIENCE.-SUPPLEMENT. 



FEIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1886. 



THE RELIGION OF THE UAPE. 



Henri Coudreau, whose geographical work in 

 South America has won deserved tribute, gives an 

 interesting account of the beliefs and observances 

 of religion among the Uape. We have already on 

 various occasions referred to his notes on the man- 

 ners and customs of this primitive Brazilian people. 

 Only recently has any thing been definitely known 

 of then- mythology, a subject upon which they 

 maintain a resolute silence to the whites. The 

 orgies called • dabucuri ' were known to have a 

 religious significance, but beyond this little was 

 understood of their spiritual character, if, indeed, 

 such an adjective may be applied to them. 



The Uape religion differs, according to Coudreau, 

 from that of any of the adjacent people. There 

 are for them two deities, — Tupan (from Tupci, 

 ' thunder ') and Jurupary. The former is good or 

 inactive, universal, vague, representing, as much 

 as may be, the general idea of deity ; while Juru- 

 pary, active, terrible, the progenitor, is the par- 

 ticular god of the Uape, as Yahveh was to the 

 ancient Hebrews. Tupan created Jurupary, who 

 is in some sort his minister of evil. There is, 

 however, no antagonism between them. When 

 Tupan visits the earth, and especially the Uape 

 country, Jurupary accompanies him as his guide. 

 Once upon a time there was a virgin, but with no 

 external attributes of her sex. The people were 

 much troubled about her, and the shamans met at 

 her lodge, smoked, and drank the sacred liquor of 

 a fruit called ipadii. Then they left her. She 

 drank much of that which remained, and thus 

 conceived the deity. At the proper time the 

 infant was released by the intervention of a fish. 

 When born, the shamans put the uncanny babe 

 into the forest, where he grew rapidly. Light 

 issued from his body, and when he rubbed his 

 fingers together, sounds like thunder startled 

 everybody. 



A feast was made, at which he appeared and 

 ordered that all should fast, or he would kill the 

 men and boys. Some children a little later ate of 

 fallen fruit, notwithstanding the warning. In- 

 dignant at this, Jurupary killed and ate the chil- 

 dren. The men came together, made a feast with 

 a great quantity of fermented fruit-juice, made 

 the god drunk, and threw him in the fire. From 

 his ashes grew the palms from which are made 



the ' j)axiuba,' or trumps, with which his devotees 

 make their religious noises, for the sounds cannot 

 be called music by any stretch of courtesy. Dur- 

 ing the night of his incineration, the spirit of 

 Jurupary was able to reach heaven by the miracu- 

 lous' growth of the palm. Before morning, in 

 order that the women should see no living relic of 

 Jurupary, the men cut down the tree, and fashioned 

 of it the first sacred pipes and other implements. 

 The sound of them, when properly prepared, is his 

 voice. When living on earth, he dressed in a 

 monkey's skin : therefore the sacred mantle (to 

 see which is death for any female) is made of 

 monkey-skins (hence its name ' macacaraua '), and 

 is the especial symbol of Jurupary. At first the 

 women sounded the paxiuba and evoked the god ; 

 but one day he pursued a priestess and deprived 

 her of the insignia of office, and ever since, death 

 by poison in this world, and the nethermost hell 

 in the other, has been the portion of the unfortu- 

 nate woman, who, willingly or otherwise, set eyes 

 on the insignia of the priesthood. All these events 

 are inscribed at large on the stones of Arapapa, at 

 Papuri. 



After this time the god revealed through the 

 shamans his regulations for the solemn exercise 

 of his rehgion in feasts and flagellations, fasts and 

 dances. The sacred mantle is made of monkey 

 skin or hair, mixed with the hair of young girls, 

 woven with a particular fibre. It is without 

 sleeves, and reaches to the waist. A truncate- 

 conical hood, with eye and mouth holes, serves as 

 a mask. It is surmounted by a coronet of feathers, 

 and diversely ornamented. The sacred garment 

 is securely hidden in the shamanic repository. A 

 profane or secular robe, sometimes called by the 

 same name, consists of a tunic of fantastically 

 colored bark surmounted by a casque attached at 

 the neck. These are common, but of the other 

 only one or two are in existence in any single 

 community. 



The paxiubas are six feet long, four inches in 

 diameter, hollow, with a lateral aperture sur- 

 rounded with leaves, which rustle when the instru- 

 ment is blown through. They are painted black, 

 and the sound they emit resembles the roaring of 

 a bull. They are not held so important as the 

 mantle, being kept in running water near the vil- 

 lage, where the women must often see them. 

 This is not spoken of, and the shamans ignore it 

 if they chance to know it. But the sentence of 

 death is formal on any woman who sees the 



