42 



savages of North America. The young chiefs, 

 like the youths who are desirous of marrying, 

 are subjected to the most extraordinary fasts 

 and penances. They are purged with the fruit 

 of some of the euphorbiacese ; are sweated in 

 stoves ; and take medicines prepared by the 

 marirris or Piaches, which are called in the 

 transalleghanian countries war-physick. The 

 Caribbee marirris are the most celebrated of all : 

 at once priests, jugglers, and physicians, they 

 transmit to their successors their doctrine, their 

 artifices, and the remedies they employ. The 

 latter are accompanied with laying on of hands, 

 and certain gestures and mysterious practices, 

 which appear to be connected with the most 

 anciently known processes of animal magnetism. 

 Although I had opportunities of seeing many 

 persons, who had closely observed the confed- 

 erated Caribbees, I could not learn whether 

 the marirris belong to a particular cast. It is 

 observed in North America, that, among the 

 Shawanese*, divided into several tribes, the 

 priests, who preside at the sacrifices, must be 

 (as among the Hebrews) of one particular tribe, 

 that of the Mequachakes. Whatever may be 

 hereafter discovered in America respecting a 



* People that came from Florida, or from the South (sha- 

 watoeuj, toward the North. (Archceol. Amer., vol. i, p. 275 j 

 Histor. Trans, of Phil., vol. i, p. 28, 69, 77, 83). 



