230 
TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. 
fifteen or twenty Indian children of all ages, to undergo 
the operation at once. There are seven or eight distinct | 
processes in the Roman Catholic baptism, well calculated j 
to attract the attention of the Indians : there is water j 
and holy oil, — and spittle rubbed on the eyes, — and : 
crosses on the eyes, nose, mouth, and body, — and kneel- 
ings and prayers in between, which all bear sufficient 
resemblance to the complicated operations of their own 
pages ” (conjurors), to make them think they have got 
something very good, in return for the shilling they pay 
for the ceremony. 
The next day there were a few weddings, the cere- 
mony of which is very like our own. After it was over, ' 
Frei Joze gave the newly married people a very good * 
and practical homily on the duties of the married state, 
which might have done some good, had the parties to “ i 
whom it was addressed understood it : which, as it was I 
in Portuguese, they did not. He at all times strenuously 
exhorted the Indians to get married, and thus save their ; j 
souls," — and fill his pocket. The only two white men, I j 
besides myself, were however bad examples, — -for they | | 
were not, nor would be married, though they both had | 
large families ; which the Padre got over by saying, ^ 
‘‘Never mind what these white people do, they will all| i 
go to purgatory, but don’t you be such fools as to go^|| 
too !” at which Senhor L. and the Commandante laughed ’I 
heartUy, and the poor Indians looked much astonished. 
\January. 
