362 
IDEAS or A BETTT. 
zone, on the hanks of the Missouri, as well as on the table- 
land of New Mexico, the American is a hunter; but m 
the torrid zone, in the forests of Guiana, he cultivates 
cassava, plantains, and sometimes maize. ^ buch 18 
admirable fertility of nature, that the held ot the nativ 
is a little spot of land, to clear which requires only setting 
fire to the brambles; and putting a few seeds or slips into 
the ground is all the husbandry it demands. It we „ 
back in thought to the most remote ages, in these thic* 
forests we must always figure to ourselves nations deriving 
the greater part of their nourishment from the earth; Dm* 
as this earth produces abundance in a small space, a 
almost without toil, we may also imagine these nation 
often changing their dwellings along the banks ot the sam 
river Even now the native of the Ormoco travels with a 
seeds; and transports his farm (conuco) as the AI» 
transports his tent, and changes his pasturage, ihe nun* 
her of cultivated plants found wild amid the woods, prov 
the nomad habits of an agricultural people. Can we o 
surprised, that by these habits they lose almost all w 
advantages that result in the temperate zone from statw 
ary culture, from the growth of corn, which requires exten 
sive lands and the most assiduous labour ? , 
The nations of the Upper Orinoco, the Atabapo, and. i 
Inirida, like the ancient Germans and the Persians, have 
other worship than that of the powers of nature. Ihev - 
the good principle Caehvmam; it is the Manitou, the 
Spirit, that regulates the seasons, and favours the harve 
Along with Cachimana there is an evil principle, Mo/cta 
less powerful, but more artful, and in particular * 
active. The Indians of the forest, when they occasio * a 
visit the missions, conceive with difficulty the idea . 
temple or an image. “These good people,” said the j 
sionary, “ like only processions in the open air. vv ^ 
last celebrated the festival of San Antonio, the P atr ° gS . 
my village, the Indians of Inirida were present at n # 
1 Your God,’ said they to me, ‘keeps himself shut up 
house, as if he were ol‘d and infirm ; ours is in the mres > 
the fields, and on the mountains of Sipapu, whence the * t 
come.’ ” Among the more numerous, and on this ac j 
less barbarous tribes, religious societies of a singular 
