INHABITANTS OP PERU. 



285 



defy the tiger, or any other ferocious animal*. They insult 

 him, and calmly wait his attack, entertaining so firm a per- 

 suasion of the violence of the poison, as to be satisfied that, 

 on the infli6lion of a wound with one of their arrows, still 

 more terrible than those of Hercules, when dipped in the blood 

 of the hydra of Lerne, the most powerful quadruped must fall 

 dead-f. They have an equal address in fishing, wounding the 

 large fishes in the head with their arrows, as soon as they perceive 

 them, and employing nets, and hooks made of bones, for the 

 smaller ones. From the age of five years, both males and fe- 

 males are accustomed to the canoes^ ; and they are accordingly 

 very powerful as well as skilful in the management of them. They 

 navigate and stop alternately, one of them being stationed at 

 the stern, with an oar which supplies the place of a rudder, 

 and the other at the prow, to discover, as the canoe proceeds, 

 the shelves which are wont to be formed by the large trees 

 swept along by the rivers. 



But the ruling passion, the objedl of their rejoicings, of 

 their pleasures, and of their greatest felicity, is war. To un- 

 dertake it, a general congress of all the nation, presided either 

 by the cacique, or by the individual who is to command the 



* The Conivos, in their festivals, amuse themselves with hunting the wild boar, 

 for whicli purpose the animal is brought into an enclosed space, where they first ren- 

 der him furious, and then kill him with great address. 



t It is deserving of notice, that these Indians never employ poisoned weapons 

 in their combats ; and that we, who have recourse to a thousand artifices destrudtive 

 of the human race, and compel both iron and fire to serve against their destinies, 

 call them barbarians ! 



% In the travels of the missionaries, a particular description of these canoes will be 

 given. 



warlike 



