TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



77 



inches long The hair upon the temples and 

 thence round the head is shorn, like that of the 

 Franciscans. Among them too, the Payes, who 

 are met with in all the Indian tribes in Brazil, and 

 are called in their language Viinageneto, are 

 greatly respected. These latter are physicians, 

 conjurers, and exorcists of the evil principle, which 

 they call Nanigogigo. Their cures of the sick are 

 very simple, and consist principally in fumigating 

 or in sucking the part affected, on which the Paye 

 spits into a pit, as if he would give back the evil 

 principle which he has sucked out, to the earth 

 and bury it. The Guaycurus differ from most of 

 the Indians of South America, in not burying their 

 dead near the abode of each individual, but in 

 common burying grounds. The accounts of the 

 number of this tribe are in general exaggerated. 

 It is certain, that the whole nation does not at 

 present consist of more than twelve thousand per- 

 sons, and this number daily diminishes from the 

 unnatural custom of the women, who till they have 

 attained the thirtieth year, procure abortion, to free 

 themselves from the privations of pregnancy, and 

 the trouble of bringing up children. 



The third powerful nation, the Payagoas, who 

 at the time of the discovery of the country were 

 particularly formidable to the Paulistas by their 

 fleets, are now rare in the waters of Upper Para- 

 guay, i. e, above the narrow part of the river, at 

 the mountains Feixe dos Morros. As constant 

 rivals and enemies of the Guaycurus, they did not 



