The Aborigines of Brazil, 309 



ethnographical and historical knowledge have the least indi- 

 cation. But this very circumstance is calculated to increase 

 the interest of the European scientific world in that past 

 condition of medical knowledge. 



I must before going further remark, that the Indian doctor 

 applies in every case remedies, which to him as well as to his 

 patient are secrets. Of the nature of these remedies, of the 

 way in which they operate and cure, he has certainly no clear or 

 distinct idea. On this account his practice is always undecid- 

 ed, his prognosis is uncertain, and the result doubtful. He is 

 not led to the choice of a particular remedy by any regular 

 induction from well-known analogies, by the result of experi- 

 ence, or even by any truth, which he may have learnt by 

 tradition. He possesses but a confused idea of the efficacy 

 of remedies, or perhaps only a superstitious dread of their 

 power. We therefore consider the medical practice of the 

 Indian to be a kind of magic. 



Magic or Sorcery. 



We may assume that the essence of magic is an attempt 

 to call in the aid of unknown powers (spirits), to enclose 

 them within certain bounds (the Magic circle), to keep them 

 there, and to apply them. This must happen by severing the 

 unknown power from its usual connections, and by fixing and 

 isolating it within a certain circle. The sorcerer therefore, 

 who tries to overturn the order of nature, appears as a being 

 inimical and hostile to the established state of things, and 

 as having a certain power to disturb it ; accordingly he is an 

 object of fear to many, and is often banished from the social 

 union. It was in this point of view that I always regarded the 

 processes of the Indian Paje, and if we are to appreciate truly 

 the savage as physician and worker of miracles, we must 

 descend to the depths of those black processes, in which 

 man works with diabolical powers, whose source is unknown 

 to him. Of all the Indians with whom I have spoken on 

 this subject, old Tubixaba, of the race of Coerunas, was far the 



