The Aborigines of Brazil. 315 



been attacked by fever.* The common practice among the 

 Indians of staying at home during the lying-in season in place 

 of the woman, and apart from her, has its foundation in a 

 similar idea. The child at the breast is according to them 

 so intimately connected with the mother, that even a pinch 

 of snuff taken by the father, is supposed to be injurious to it. 



From the same idea they will not in some diseases, eat the 

 female of an animal, for instance, of the ape or tapir. In cold 

 fevers again, they consider the penis and the clitoris of the 

 ape, powerful remedies. Their belief in the antagonistic 

 powers of different animals, has led them to various other 

 remedies, of the positive efficacy of which I cannot talk from 

 personal experience, but of which I have very often heard 

 favorable accounts. Thus they observe that poisonous snakes 

 will never remain in the neighbourhood of the Dasy-procta, 

 (like a hare) . Whenever they are bitten, they try to procure 

 a living Dasy-procta. They scarify the wound with its teeth, 

 and drink their warm blood. The like is the case with the 

 Falco Degener, the Palamedea Cornuta (a large water bird, 

 bigger than a goose,) and the Parra Jacana (a marsh bird). 

 They pound the beaks, the talons and the spurs of these birds, 

 and drink them in an infusion of certain herbs. 



They also believe in similar antagonisms and friendships 

 between certain plants, between plants and animals, and be- 

 tween different parts of the same plant. The Anana bush is 

 supposed to have a friendship for the rattle-snake ; the Man- 

 diocca plant an enmity against the Mais. The prejudicial 

 effects of the poisonous Mandiocca root are supposed to be 

 removed by the expressed juice of the Mais. 



The belief in the injurious influence of certain stars on man, 

 especially when he is sick, is universally prevalent. The 

 most injurious effects are ascribed to the moon, especially at 

 new and full moon. Moon-light, striking directly on wounds, 



doisou. 



* She is also in certain cases a counter-p< 



2 T 



