273 



favors the harvests. By the side of Cachimana 

 there is an evil principle, Iolokiamo, less power- 

 ful, but more artful, and in particular more 

 active. The Indians of the forest, when they 

 visit occasionally the missions, conceive with 

 difficulty the idea of a temple or an image. 

 "These good people,*' said the missionary, like 

 tc only processions in the open air. When I last 

 celebrated the patron festival of my village, 

 that of San Antonio, the Indians of Inirida were 

 present at mass. ' Your God,' said they to me, 

 c keeps himself shut up in a house, as if he were 

 old and infirm; ours is in the forest, in the 

 fields, and on the mountains of Sipapu, whence 

 the rains come.' " Among the more numerous 

 and on this account less barbarous tribes, reli- 

 gious societies of a singular kind are formed. 

 Some old Indians pretend, to be better instruct- 

 ed than others in what regards the divinity ; 

 and to them is confided the famous botuto, of 

 which I have spoken, and which is sounded 

 under the palm-trees, that they may bear abun- 

 dance of fruit. On the banks of the Oroonoko 

 there exists no idol, as among all the nations 

 who have remained faithful to the first worship 

 of nature, but the botuto, the sacred trumpet, is 

 become an object of veneration. To be initiated 

 into the mysteries of the botuto, it is requisite to 

 have pure manners^ and to have lived single. 

 The initiated are subjected to flagellations, fast- 

 vol. v. T 



