16G THE AMAZON AND IVrADEIRA llIVERS. 
an excellent axe, not one of tliose imported ones, Avhieli are useless 
■witli liard wood, but a good solid one made in onr ow country. To get 
this axe was the subject of Cujmba’s dreams both by day and by night, 
liy a clever use of all his worldly and spiritual authority, and with 
an eloqtience he knows how to display in the right place, in spite of 
his usual curtness, lie contriTed to make tlie poor fellow promise to 
hand over to him the cov’etod weapon, on the condition of the Great 
ISpirit, moved by Ciuyaba’s intercession, granting him an interview 
for the purpose of initiating him into all the mysteries of Pajeism. 
After a coiirse of preparatory ceremonies, severe fasts, and mortifica- 
tious, to which the zealous neophyte submitted with patient readiness, 
Cuyaba informed him that the great day had arrived, on which 
he was to recite the prayers and magical words he had been taught, 
Ifom sunrise unto sunset, on a particular spot in the forest, with 
strict observance of the rule of abstinence from both food and di’ink. 
He should then be certainly favoured with the jnesence of the 
mightj'^ Spirit, who would reveal to him the most wonderful things : 
but he, Cuyaba, must liave the hatchet before the arrival of that great 
moment, as urgent business (Government atfaii-s probably) called him 
thence.” 
With the earnestness of profound faith, the honest youth took 
up Ills position on the appointed spot, from early dawn until the 
beams of the setting sun gilded the tree-crowns around him and the 
returning parrot-flocks filled the valley with their shrill cries. His 
prayers and supplications became louder and more ardent fi-om hour to 
hour; but the Great Spirit did not reveal itself to his weary eyes. 
So at last he returned sadly and slowly to his cottage, there to learn 
that the old impostor had left the settlement with his wives and — the 
hatchet of course, and was now far beyond his reach; his complaints 
to the Dh-ector being of no avail, as the old humbug never returned 
to Sao Pech’o d’ Alcantara. 
He had more legitimate claims, however, on, the gratitude “of the 
best of his time and tribe ” than this conjuring a la Cagliostro. 
The Director had once witnessed his cure of a bad case of rheu- 
matism. Singing aloud his exorcisms, and shaking the maracd* (whose 
^ The maracii is a sacred mstriauent, miicli resembling a. child’s rattle, used only 
by the I’ajes aud ehieftaius on solemn occasions. It simply consists of a gourd, vith 
