438 



SGWN'CE. 



[Vol. VUL. No. 197 



mantle. The shamans administer ' taya,' which 

 infaUibly kills the culprit, either directly or 

 within a few weeks, or even months, a point under 

 the control of the poisoner. Naturally the Uape 

 women regard Jurupary and his mantle with be- 

 coming terror, which centres about the celebra- 

 tions called ' dabucm-i,' at which the mantle is ex- 

 hibited to the males of the community. 



These occasions are prepared for by a fast of 

 two or three days. There are six dabucuri in the 

 year, each determined by the ripening of a certain 

 fruit, of which an intoxicating drink is made. 

 They come in January, February, March, May, 

 July, and November. The ceremonies last three 

 days, and people come from fifty miles around to 

 attend. 



The time come, the adults paint themselves with 

 black and red, and sing monotonous and dismal 

 chants ; and the shamans perform, for those desir- 

 ing such service, the marriage rites, which seem 

 to much resemble the civil rites of European 

 maiTiage. 



Later all the women are sent into the forest, 

 and watched by a keeper. At the end of an hour, 

 after the paxiuba has been sounded by men in fes- 

 tal attire, two or three shamans dressed as Juru- 

 pary, and covered with the sacred mantle, with 

 thumbs and two toes on each foot hidden, the 

 other fingers and toes fitted with long claws like 

 the legendary god, appear in the feast-house, 

 jumping on all fours, and striking with a stick, 

 right and left, blows on the spectators, which are 

 not returned. All this takes place in perfect 

 silence, and terminates by the disappearance of the 

 shamans. After sounding the paxiuba for a quar- 

 ter of an hour, the women are recalled. All carry 

 rods, with which the men and women whip each 

 other. If a white man arrives, he may be admit- 

 ted provided he will consent to receive a few blows, 

 which he may afterward return with usury. After 

 the flagellation, the women form concentric circles, 

 and the men a large circle, each with the right 

 hand on the shoulder of the one in front of him. 

 Each dancer has a shrill flute, which he sounds, 

 and moves up and down, right and left, by action 

 of the lips. They move with measured step, at 

 first slowly, afterward according to their state of 

 excitement. The dancers drink the intoxicating 

 beverage prepared for the occasion, and soon be- 

 gin to jump, gesticulate, and act as if possessed 

 by some frenzy ; the shamans calling on Jurvipary 

 to present himself, which, through them, he ex- 

 cuses himself from doing on the ground that the 

 women would become changed into, or would give 

 birth to, serpents. The dress of the dancers is at 

 first as usual ; but, as the saturnalia progresses, 

 it is gradually dropped as incommodious. Pro- 



miscuous intercourse between the sexes follows, 

 with intervals of flagellation and inebriety, until 

 exhaustion or daylight closes the performance for 

 the time. 



These horrible orgies are supposed to have been 

 directed and planned by Jurupary himself, and to 

 represent the character of the heaven to which 

 his faithful devotees will be translated after death. 

 The fasts by which they are preceded are rigid and 

 painful, well adapted to produce hallunci nations 

 and visions. Men who have adored the god will 

 reach him after death : those who have not will 

 lose themselves on the long and difficult way. 

 Halfway is the abode of Bishiu, an inferior spirit, 

 where are detained the souls of those women who 

 have unintentionally gazed upon the sacred 

 mantle, — a sort of purgatory, — or, according to 

 others, they are turned into serpents or caimans. 

 There is also an ill-defined inferno at the bottom 

 of the earth, where the worst people bring up, 

 after being lost on the way to heaven. Here they 

 suffer frightfully, and are controlled by a sort of 

 demon. 



Although Coudreau rejects the idea of a civil- 

 ized origin for these myths and practices, it must 

 be allowed that there is a decided flavor of medi- 

 aeval Europe in the virgin mother of the god, 

 the sacrifice of the god himself by men, the pur- 

 •gatory, hell, and heaven, and even in the fasts 

 and flagellations. It is much what might be ex- 

 pected from the reception at a distant period of 

 some ill-understood and misconceived notions of 

 Christianity, befouled, modified, and mixed with 

 native myth ; especially if we suppose that the 

 reception of the original attempt at instruction 

 was separated from the present time, as it must 

 have been, if there were such, by a long period of 

 non-intercourse with missionaries or civilization. 

 This seems to us the most natural explanation of 

 an isolated development, such as these myths are 

 represented to be ; and as such it would form a 

 most interesting chapter in the history of the evo- 

 lution of religions. 



ANOTHER FEATURE OF THE RECENT 

 EARTHQUAKE. 



Some remarkable features of the recent earth- 

 quake on our southern seaboard were illustrated 

 and described in Science of Sept. 24. Through 

 the kindness of the Railroad gazette we are 

 enabled to present a view of the effect of the same 

 earthquake upon a section of railroad-track. The 

 view is an exact reproduction of a photograph 

 taken near Ten-Mile Hill, on the South Carolina 

 railroad, after the earthquake of Aug. 31. 



According to the statements of persons familiar 



