66 Prince Maximilian* s 



in the breast with his knife, after which he scraped off the 



hair, cut it into pieces, and divided it. (*) From the smalhiess 



of the swine, many of them returned unserved and displeased 



to their forest; but scarcely had they departed, when a sack 



of meal arrived for them from S. Fidelis, which we sent after 



them. 



Barbarous insensibility is, as this and many other examples 

 evinced to me, the chief feature in the character of these sava- 

 ges. Their manner of life leads to this consequence; for 

 it is the same circumstance that renders the lion and tiger 

 blood-thirsty. A spirit of revenge, a certain degree of jea- 

 lousy, an invincible inclination to freedom, and an unset- 

 tled, uncontrolled life characterize these \ people. They 

 have generally several wives, some even four or five, when 

 they can support them. They do not usually ill-treat their 

 wives, but the husbands consider them as their ])roperty, and 

 they must act according to their will ; hence, while the man 

 walks at her side carrying only his weapons in his hand, the 

 woman goes loaded like a beast of burden. Some authors, 

 and among the rest Jzara, have denied all notions of religion 

 to these American nations ; yet this assertion seems to be so 

 much the less warrantable, as this author has himself commu- 

 nicated the opinions of some of the Indians from Paraguay, 

 which, without doubt, have their foundation in a yet imperfect 

 system of religion.f For myself, I have found, among all 

 the tribes of the Tapuyas that I have visited, demonstrative 

 proofs of a religious belief ; hence it is with me an irrefragable 

 fact, that there it not a single nation of the earth totally desti- 

 tute of religious ideas.J The wild Brazilians believe in va- 

 rious mighty beings, of whom they acknowledge the most 

 powerful in the thunder, under the name of Tupa or Tupon. 

 In the appellation of this supernatural spirit, many tribes, and 

 even some of the Tapuyas, agree with the Tz/pi-tribes or the 

 Indians of the Lingoa Geral. The Puris ascribe to him the 

 name of Tupan, which Jzara also quotes from the language of 



* As little as on the present occasion^ did I find any where afterwards con- 

 firmed what M. Freyreiss, says in the 1st part. S. 208 of V. Eschwege's 

 Journal of Brazil ; viz. that the savages never eat the flesh of animals which 

 they have killed themselves. 



f Azarttf Voyage, &c. Vol. II. p. 34 in the note. 



J That the Minister at Joao Baptista does not allow that he found any 

 idea of religion among the Coroados proves nothing ; for as he grants that 

 religious notions exist among the still more uncultivated Puris, the Coroados 

 must certainly likewise entertain some. It is indeed now ascertained that 

 they fear a powerful supernatural being called Tujum, Von JEscÄwe^e's Journal. 



