264 



INDIAN AND OTHER 



tume of the pleasing subjedt of this engraving, taken from the 

 representation, on canvas, of a modern Indian festival, may 

 be deemed corre61:, if an analogical reasoning can be founded 

 on the care the Indians have taken, in various other particu- 

 lars, to hand dov^n the customs and usages of their nation. 



ACCOUNT OP THE COSTUMES, SUPERSTITIONS, AND EXERCISES, OP THE 

 INDIANS OP THE PAMPA DEL SACRAMENTO, AND ANDES MOUNTAINS 

 OF PERU. 



\ ■ 



Of the three classes of men who exist in the universe, 

 destined to invent fables, and to obtrude them- on the credu- 

 lity of their fellow-creatures, it is uncertain which has been 

 the boldest and most fertile in inventing them, or the most 

 successful in inducing their belief. They have all of them in- 

 undated the earth with visions, and have alike gained over 

 proselytes. These are, the poets, the philosophers, and the 

 travellers. The first insinuate falsehood even into the heavens, 

 and cause it to be adored by stupid mortals : the second dis- 

 pose tyrannically of Nature and her magnificent works, and 

 draw into their lures the republic of the learned : the third 

 feign marvels at their will, and impress with a belief of them, 

 both the monarch and the minister of state. 



With the conquest of the Americas, such a swarm of the 

 latter description was raised in the western continent, that if 

 all the empires and opulent cities of which they dreamed had 

 been real, the planet of the earth would not have contained 

 them, and it would have been necessary to place a part of 

 them in that of the moon. In those times, Manoa was the 



first 



