SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY &C. 155 



opposite directions. At Para, he saw the French academician 

 M. Condamine, and communicated to him a map of his route, 

 and a sketch of his journal ; but no separate account of his in- 

 teresting excursion was ever laid before the European public. 

 Solitary journies of this kind are unwise; the amusement 

 would be doubled, and the toil halved, by the society of 

 friendship ; and accident would be less able to intercept the 

 reputation and the fruits of discovery. It seems probable that 

 the great lake, called Parima by the geographers, may supply 

 streams both to the Essequebo and to the Rionegro. In this 

 case, it must be adapted to become the main reservoir and 

 center of traffic for a most extensive inland navigation. 



I have hitherto been describing those things which distin- 

 guish one tribe from another; I now come to those which are 

 common to them all. The natives of Guyana believe in one - 

 God, who is the cause of all the good which occurs in the 

 world, and in a race of malevolent beings, of inferior power, 

 called yowahoos, who are the authors of all the evils which 

 befal them. To the former they offer up no prayers, but they 

 supplicate the latter whenever they are oppressed by any mis- 

 fortune. Each family has a priest, or peii, who performs the 

 twofold office of priest and physician, and who is supposed to 

 have great influence over the minds of the yowahoos, both in 

 averting evils from some, and in calling them down upon the 

 heads of others. If an Indian becomes sick, the peii repairs 



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