The Aborigines of Brazil, 317 



they have a good general idea of its structure, by the imita- 

 tions of the brain with coloured cotton, which some races, 

 such as the Mauhes and Mandrucus, make to adorn the dried 

 skulls of the enemies slain by them. I may add, that they 

 cut up game with much precision and quickness. 



Pathology and Nosology, 



We should be surprised if the Indians had made any pro- 

 gress in these sciences, in which results are only obtained by 

 enlightened, rational, and unprejudiced observation. The 

 Indian distinguishes but few conditions of disease, and has 

 only a dark notion of its essential symptoms. He knows a 

 certain condition, which he names fever. He describes a 

 few kinds of cutaneous eruptions, which he knows by certain 

 sensible characters. He has for certain affections separate 

 names, commonly derived from the part of the body in which 

 they are observed. But his special nosology is confined 

 within these narrow limits. 



In like manner he has only the crudest notions about the 

 nature of disease, and its exciting and predisposing causes. 

 Besides having a confused idea of the periodicity of certain 

 diseases being connected with the phases of the moon, he 

 seeks for the causes of his ailments in the circumstances 

 which appear nearest to him, in the wind, the sun, the rain, 

 certain foods, infection by white men or negroes, the former 

 of whom he dreads especially as conveying certain diseases. 

 He next looks to witchcraft as a cause : in fact, the Indian in 

 his idea of nature thinks exclusively of a selfish strife of op- 

 posing beings and powers. He says in the sense of Aristotle, 

 H (pvcrig Sac/iovia, aXX' 6v Qua I " Nature is dsemoniacal, not 

 divine." 



This belief in the daemoniacal nature of disease develops 

 another one, which has at times some influence on the treatment 

 and management of the sick. If the cause of his ailments 

 be not quite plain, the patient is regarded as a changed 



