%$$ ■ ' OT.THE M0EDERERS 



::|iiitin the latter and lefs fuTpici- 



ous fhape. The firft fyllable ^24^ 



J ifcertains the point of theircon- 



.-j^h .ho' . nexioo with Maya wf, whil ft from 



theterttiination «r, which figni- 



iies a to\^n or village, they Wduldl 



•: ' appear to a ftmnger to be cnquir- 



mg only about fomeparticSikif 



place. 



^IP'hansiga RS bring up all their male children t-O'iheprofeffion, tin- 

 fiefs bodily defers prevent them from following it. The method ob« 

 ferved in initialing a boy, is very gradual. At the age of tenor twelve 

 yeariJj he is firil permitted to accompany a party of Fhdnjfgars. One 

 of the gang, generally a near relation, becomes his ^ad or tutor 5 

 whom the child is taught to regard with great "refpe^l, and "whom he 

 ufua^ly ferves in a menial capacity, carrying a bundle, ^and dreteng 

 food for him. Frequently the father a^s as the preceptor to his foo. 

 In the event of being quellioned by travellers whom he may meet, the 

 boy is enjoined to give no information further, than that they are pro- 

 -ceeding from- fome one^place to another. 1 He is- inftruifted ^to ■■ corifider 

 bis intered as oppofed to t^at of fociety in general ; and to deprive a 

 human being of life, tis reprefented as an a6l merely analogous and 

 equivalent to that of killing a fowl or a iheep. At firft, while a mur- 

 der is committing, the boy is fent to fome diftance from the fcenej 

 along with one of the watchers: then allowed to fee only the dead bo- 

 dy : afterwards more ^nd more of the fecret is imparted to him*— and, 

 at length, the v/hole is difclofed. In the mean time, a (hare of the booty 

 is ufually aflignsd to him. He is allowed afterwards to affift in mat- 

 ters of minor importance, while the murder is perpetrating : but, it is 

 not until he has a tained the a^e of 18, 20, or 22 years, according co the 

 bodily ftrcngth he may have acquired, and the prudence and refolutioia 



