SOUTH AMERICA. 191 

 perceive any that were deformed from their birth. Their Third 



Journey. 



women never perish in child -bed, owing, no donbt, to 



their never wearing stays. 



They have no pnblic religions ceremony. They ac- i^ei'gious 



customs 



knowledge two superior beings, — a good one, and a bad ^"'^ 



monies. 



one. They pray to the latter not to hurt them, and they 

 are of opinion that the former is too good to do them an 

 injury. I suspect, if the truth were known, the individuals 

 of the village never olfer up a single prayer or ejaculation. 

 They have a kind of a priest called a Pee -ay-man, who is 

 an enchanter. He finds out things lost. He mutters 

 prayers to the evil spirit over them and their children 

 when they are sick. If a fever be in the village, the 

 Pee-ay-man goes about all night long, howling, and 

 making dreadful noises, and begs the bad spirit to de- 

 part. But he has very seldom to perform this part of his 

 duty, as fevers seldom visit the Indian hamlets. How- 

 ever, when a fever does come, and his incantations are of 

 no avail, which I imagine is most commonly the case, 

 they abandon the place for ever, and make a new settle- 

 ment elsewhere. They consider the owl and the goat- 

 sucker as familiars of the evil spirit, and never destroy 

 them. 



I could find no monuments or marks of antiquity 

 amongst these Indians, so that after penetrating to the 

 Rio Branco, from the shores of the Western Ocean, had 

 any body questioned me on this subject, I should have 

 answered, I have seen nothing amongst these Indians 



