TRAVELS IN BRAZIL, 



251 



to me, that they believe in its existence, after death. 

 Thus, from a sort of fear of spirits, they leave the 

 huts in which they have buried their relations ; give 

 food to the corpse, as it were, to subsist upon by the 

 way ; and avoid disturbing the repository of the 

 dead, for fear they should appear to them and tor- 

 ment them.* The general belief in an evil princi- 

 ple, which is announced by a positive term in all 

 the languages of the Indians, may be considered as 

 a proof that they distinguish, however obscurely, 

 between what is spiritual and what is corporeal in 

 nature. We shall have occasion to speak more 

 particularly on this subject in the course of our 

 narrative, and to show that the idea of the metemp- 

 sychosis generally prevails among them. 



Abandoned by tradition, history, or historical 

 documents, the enquirer has nothing left him but to 

 observe the external form of these people, their cus- 

 toms, and especially their language, in order, from 

 those particulars, to determine physically and psy- 

 chologically their rank among the other races, and 

 the general degree of their civilisation. We, there- 

 fore, took great pains in investigating the languages 

 of the tribes living about the presidio. But unfor- 

 tunately the Indian is so unaccustomed to exercise 

 his intellectual faculties, that it is very difficult to 

 obtain satisfactory information from him. Scarcely 



^' A Coroado told us that one of his wives, who had died a 

 short time before, had often appeared to him in the night, but 

 constantly avoided his embrace. 



