394 A V O Y A G E T O Book VI. 



former lived in villages under fome kind of govern- 

 ment, peacefully obeying their curacas or chiefs. 

 They vv^ere lefs barbarous •, their manners lefs turbu' 

 lent and corrupt than thofe of moft other Indians. 

 The Yurimaguas formed a kind of republic and 

 had fome laws which were ftridtly obferved, and the 

 breach of them punifhed in an exemplary manner. 

 But in police the preference doubtlefs belongs to the 

 Omaguas : for, befides living in fociety, there was 

 an appearance of decency among them, their nudi- 

 ties being covered, which by others were totally neg- 

 leded. This difpofition in thofe two nations for 

 making approaches, however fmall, to civil cuitoms 

 and a rational life, not a little contributed to thefpeedy 

 progrefs of their converfion. They were more eafily 

 convinced, from the light of nature, of the truth and 

 propriety of the dodrines preached by the niifTiona- 

 ries and were convinced, that happinefs, both pub- 

 lic and private, was intimately conne6led with an 

 uniform obfervance of fuch precepts, infi:ead of the 

 innumerable evils refulting from the manner of living 

 hitherto preached by them. 



Among the variety of fmgular cuiloms prevailing 

 in thefe nations, one cannot help being furprized at 

 rlie odd tafte of the Omaguas, a people otherwiie 

 fo fenfible, who, to render their children what they 

 call beautiful, flat the fore and hind parts of the head, 

 which gives them a monftrous appearance; for the 

 forehead grows upwards in proportion as it is flatted, 

 fo that the diftance from the rifing of the nofe, to the 

 beginning of the hair, exceeds that from the lower 

 part of the nofe to the bottom of the chin : and the 

 fame is obfervabie in the back part of the head. 

 The fldes alfo are very narrow, from a natural confe- 

 quence of the preflure ; as thus the parts preffed, in- 

 ilead of fpreading, conformable to the common courfe 

 of nature, grow upw^ards. This pradice is of great 

 antiquity among them j and kept up fo ftridly, that 



they 



