162 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



use of the lancet. I never saw an idiot amongst them, 

 nor could I perceive any that were deformed from their 

 birth. Their women never perish in childbed, owing, 

 no doubt, to their never wearing stays. 



They have no public relicrious ceremony. 



Religious J r ... 



customs and They acknowledge two superior bemgs, — a 

 good one and a bad one. They pray to the 

 latter not to hurt them, and they are of opinion that 

 the former is too good to do them an injury. I suspect, 

 if the truth were known, the individuals of the village 

 never offer up a single prayer or ejaculation. They 

 have a kind of priest, called a Pee-ay-nian, who is an 

 enchanter. He finds out things lost. He mutters 

 prayers to the evil spirit over them and their children 

 when they are sick. If a fever be in the village, the 

 Pee-ay-man goes about all night long, howling and 

 making dreadful noises, and begs the bad spirit to 

 depart. But he has very seldom to perform this part 

 of his duty, as fevers seldom visit the Indian hamlets. 

 However, when a fever does come, and his incantations 

 are of no avail, which I imagine is most commonly the 

 case, they abandon the place for ever, and make a new 

 settlement elsewhere. They consider the owl and the 

 goatsucker as familiars of the evil spirit, and never 

 destroy them. 



I could find no monuments or marks of antiquity 

 amongst these Indians ; so that after penetrating to 

 the Eio Eranco, from the shores of the Western Ocean, 

 had anybody questioned me on this subject, I should 

 have answered, I have seen nothing amongst these 

 Indians which tells me that they have existed here 

 for a century ; though, for aught I know to the con- 

 trary, they may have been here before the Eedemption ; 



