TRAVELS OF THE MISSIONARIES. 



433 



where the parties landed, the savages surrounding father Girbal, and tendering 

 to him their arms and their poor viands. Not satisfied with the information of 

 the eyes, they touched with the hands every part of his face, more particularly 

 the women, who formed a part of the group. An adl of this nature appears to 

 be a mechanical movement, inspired by admiration and delight. Our soul being 

 moved by these two passions, in the presence of a rare,, or wished for obje£l, 

 doubts the possession, fancying it an illusion of the eyes ; and calls for the 

 information of the touch, which, united to the former sense, constitutes the sure 

 criterion that distinguishes real bodies from phantoms *. 



The above assemblage was composed of Indians belonging to the tribe of Co- 

 nlvos, who, under command of their Cacique, were on their way to Omaguas, 

 provided with bed coverings and resins, for the purpose of bartering them, if it 

 should be possible, for working tools, of which they stand so much in need, that 

 a hatchet generally costs them a canoe, in the construction of which they have 

 toiled many days f . 



Among their slaves they had several belonging to the Mayoruna nation, inhabit- 

 ing the forests that border on the river Tapichi, at its remote sources. They 

 are otherwise named hatf'budos (bearded), because they have bushy beards, similar 

 to those of the Spaniards. They derive their descent from the soldiers who 

 were dispersed in the above forests, at the time when their captain, Pedro dc 

 Ursoa, was assassinated by Diego Lope de Aguirre. The method to which they 

 have recourse to rid themselves of their beards, is very singular, and cannot fail to 

 be extremely painful : they take two shells, whicli they employ as if they were 

 pincers ; and passing them precipitately, drag out hair after hair, making such 

 contortions and grimaces as provoke laughter, at the same time that they excite 



* A sensibus esse creatam 

 Notitiam veri, neque sensus posse refelli. LncR. lib. iv. 



\ They are accustomed to spend a whole year in tonstru(Sing one of from sixteen to twenty yards In 

 length, and from a yard and a quarter to a yard and three quarters in breadth, all of one piece. They 

 begin by felling a large tree with their stone hatchets; with which, and with fire, they deprive it of all 

 its branches, and bring it to the dimensions they need. They then, by the means of a slow fire, form 

 the cavity, scraping away the incinerated wood with flints. When, on the plane and sides, there remains 

 a thickness equal to the breadth of three or four fingers only, they fill the concave trunk with water, 

 applying dried palm leaves withoutside, and keeping up a slow fire. By this process the breadth of the 

 concavity is dilated ; and to prevent it from again closing, cross pieces of wood of a firm texture are 

 placed from distance to distance. The poop forms a square ; and the prow represents a pyramidal 

 point. 



3 K compassion. 



