Cap. XXII . The C2tibby-Iilands. 



in procefs of time they come to be expert in thatexercife.. An- 

 cient Hiftories tell us of other people, who not-differing much 

 from thisCuftom of. the Caribbians^ obliged their Children to 

 fling down their meat from the place where they fet it. 



They commonly defign all their Sons to bear Arms, and to 

 revenge them of their Enemies, in imitation of their Prede- 

 cefTors.* But before they are ranked among thofe who may 

 go to the wars, they are to be declared Souldiers in the pre- 

 sence of all their kindred and friends, who are invited to be 

 prefent at fo folemn a Ceremony : The manner of it is 'thus 5 

 The Father, who had before got all his Friends together, 

 caufes his Son to fit on a. low ftool, which is placed in the midft 

 of the Hut, or mtheCarbet 5 and after he hath reprefented to 

 him the whole duty of a generous Caribbean Soldier, and 

 made him promife that he will never do any thing which may 

 derogate from the glory of his Predeceffors, and that he will 

 to the utmoft of his power revenge the ancient quarrel of his 

 Nation , he takes by the feet a certain Bird of prey, which 

 they call Mansfennis in their language, and which had been 

 prepared long before for that purpofe, and with that he di£ 

 charges feveral blows on his Son, till fuch time as the bird is 

 killed, and the head of it cruflhed to pieces.* After this rough 

 treatment, which puts the young man as it were into a maze, he 

 fcarifies his whole body with the tooth of an Agonty^ and to 

 cure the wounds he hath made, he puts the dead bird into an 

 infufion of Pyman-feeds 0 and he rubs all the wounded parts 

 therewith, which caufes an extraordinary pain to the poor Pa- 

 tient 5 but it is requifiteheihould fuffer all this with a cheer- 

 ful countenance, without the leaft difcovery of pain : Then 

 they make him eat the heart of the.bird and toclofe the Ce- 

 remony, he is laid into a kind of Amac^ where he is to conti- 

 nue ftretched out to his full length, till his ftrength be in a man- 

 ner fpent, by reafon of much fatting : That done, he is acknow- 

 ledged by all to be a Souldier *, he is admitted into the Aflem- 

 blies of the Carbet. and may go along with the reft in all their 

 military Expeditions which they undertake againft their 

 Enemies. 



Befides the exercifes of war, which are common to all the 

 young Caribbians who would live in any efteem among the 

 Bravos of their Nation, their Fathers do many times defign 

 themtobeE^es, that is Magicians, and Phyfitians : To that 

 end they fend them to fome one of the beft skill'd in that dam- 

 nable profeffion, that is, one who hath the reputation of in- 

 vocating the evil Spirits, infcructing people how to be re- 

 venged of their enemies by forceries, and in curing divers dif- 

 eafes whereto thofe of that Nation are fubject : But it is re- 

 quisite that the young man who is prefented to the Boyez to be 

 inftrufted in his Art, ftiould be confecrated thereto from his 



child- 



