104 THE AMAZON AND MADEIRA KTV'ERS. 
With a pitjhng shrug of the shoulders, and meaning it, iierhaiis, as an 
apology for his oavu rather passive couduct, he narrated to us the 
shocking story of a Coroado Avith loud voice once asking him, during 
mass, for a plate of fariuha 1 “ Since that time,” added the grey-hem-ded 
father, Avith a melancholy smile, “ I have been rather diseiichanted, and 
have refrained from asking my savages to hear mass.” lint oven this 
matter-of-fact nation of Ooroados I cannot believe to have no religion at 
all ; and the question ndiether there are any such nations at all seems to 
be an open one still, and likely to remain so for some time. 
Even the Tupi tribes have no kind of religious service ; and, AiEat- 
ever their ideas on the surrounding Nature and the reasons of its phe- 
nomena may be, they certainly do not rise aboA'e the childish notions of 
demoniac poAvers, hostile rather than friendly, AA’hich may be conjured 
and rendered harmless by their Pajes, or charm-doctors. These sly 
impostors, Avho sometimes may delude themselves into belicAung at least 
in their sacred mission, if not in the infallibility of their medicines, 
play quite a conspicuous part Avith all the independent Indian tribes ; 
and it even seems as if the aAve Avithiu AA'hieh they kuoAV hoAV to 
shroud themselves Avas shared by the Portuguese-speaking mestizoes 
and zamboes. 
As Avith the Shamans of the North- Asiatic nations, the influence a 
Paje may secure over his tribe depends entirely on the success of his 
cures and his more or less imposing personal qualities. Woe to him 
if by some unlucky ministration or fatal advice he forfeits his prestige. 
The hate of the ndiolc tribe turns against him, as if to indemnify them 
for the fear and aAim felt by them until then ; and often he pays for his 
envied position Avith his life. 
And an influential and poAA'erful position it is. His advice is first 
hoard in Aimr and peace. He has to mark the boundaries of the hunting- 
grounds ; and, Avhen quarrels arise, he has to decide in concert Avith the 
chieftain, sometimes eA^n against the latter’s AA'ishes. By a majestically 
distant deraeanoiu’, and b}’- the affectation of severe fasting and of nightly 
meetings Avith the spirits of another Avorld, those augurs have succeeded 
in giAung such an apjicarance of holiness to the Avhole caste, that them 
influence is a mighty one to the present day ; CA'en Avith the Indians of 
the Ahlcamentos, Aidiere contact Avith the Aidiitc race is sure by-and-by 
to produce a certain degree of scepticism. 
When 1 was at the Aldeamcnto of San Ignacio, on the Paranapanema, 
