244 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



a dark tempestuous night.* Certain animals, for 

 instance, a kind of goat-sucker, and the scream- 

 ing kinds of vulture, caracarai and caoha, are mes- 

 sengers from the dead to the paje, and therefore 

 highly respected by every body. The Indian also 

 wears round his neck strings of the eye-teeth of 

 ounces and of monkeys, of certain roots, fruits, 

 shells, and stones, which he thinks will protect him 

 against the attacks of wild beasts and against dis- 

 eases. The paje administers many medicines, 

 which are often prepared with magical ceremonies, 

 practises a kind of exorcism by fumigation, and 

 maintains the fear of the Indians for spirits by su- 

 perstitious customs and narratives ; but the mis- 

 fortunes, sickness, and death of the neighbours are 

 often ascribed to his sorceries, and he then atones 

 for his practices with his life. The paje, however, 

 has as little influence over the will of the multitude 

 as any other, for they live without any bond of 

 social union, neither under a republican nor a patri- 

 archal form of government. Even family ties are very 

 loose among them : it is very seldom that the head 



* A Portuguese of the presidio of S. Joao Baptista told us, 

 that he was once an unobserved witness in a forest, of an 

 assembly of the Coroados, who wished to learn, through their 

 paje, where they should hunt. The old man went alone into 

 the thicket, speaking in a loud and pathetic tone, falling down 

 several times. Whenever the wind rustled through the trees a 

 piercing whistle was heard, by which the paj^ affirmed he was 

 made acquainted with the spot appointed by the demon. 



