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LXXXVIII.

the wizard that appeared to him in his dream. If he was BOOK able to give a proper description, they forced the guilty sorcerer to attend him during his illness. But it may be easily believed, that visions did not always spring up when they were most required, and on these occasions any mohane was chosen to act the part of a physician. By this means they acquired some knowledge of medicine, and learnt the virtues of several plants from practice or tradition, but they depended too much on supernatural agency, and neglected the means that lay within their reach..

soul.

These tribes entertained different opinions concerning the Immortalisoul after death. The Maynas on the banks of the Ama- ty of the zons, believed not only that it existed in another world, but that it still retained the human form. Being interrogated by the missionaries as to the nature of their doctrine, they appeared fearless of death, and affirmed that their deceased relatives and friends were waiting for them. The hero was thought to meet with a delightful reception, and his countrymen took the necessary precaution of placing a copper hatchet and an arrow by his side, to secure him a triumphant entry. His soul ascended to heaven by the milky way, that luminous grove where his ancestors spent their time in festive mirth; the pleasures of war were not unknown, for the noise of their battles was often heard by their children on the earth. The vanquished, when thrown headlong from the upper regions, occasioned thunder, and were condemned to return again to this lower world in the form of wild beasts.

chosis.

Such notions were common to the most of these Indians, Metempsybut the natives on the banks of the Ucayal believed the doctrine of transmigration. "Wherefore, said one of them to a Jesuit, do you speak so much about my sins? All that you have said of hell is a fable. I am convinced that I can never be burnt on account of my sins; and I know the fate of men after death. Just and wise caciques, brave warriors and chaste wives, inhabit the bodies of strong and beautiful quadrupeds. It is for that reason that we, worship them in their new shape. As to bad and wicked men, they

BOOK wander in the clouds, or languish in the beds of rivers; but no one was ever burnt in a lake of fire."

LXXXVIII.

Lamentations for

the dead.

Their complaints and lamentations over the dead were connected with their particular tenets; they expressed their grief by imitating the howling of tigers, the nasal cry of the monkey, or the croaking of frogs; and intimated in this way, to the lower animals, the loss of the person for whom they mourned. An aged female was appointed to close the mouth and eyes of the deceased. This ceremony being performed, the air was filled with the bitter groans of near relations, and the yells of a thousand old women, who collected themselves willingly for such purposes. The obsequies of a cacique lasted for several days, and the people wept in concert at day-break, noon, and mid-night. Some of these Indians, like the Moabites, cut off their hair after the death of their relatives. They not only destroyed the furniture of the deceased, but set fire to his cottage. The body was placed is an earthen vessel or painted jar, which was buried in a sequestered spot, and a covering of potter's clay laid over it. No monuments were erected to the dead, they even levelled their graves to prevent them being discovered by strangers.

After the funeral rites were finished, all mention of the deceased was forborn, and his name and memory were soon forgotten. A different custom prevailed among the RoaMainas, another tribe of these savages; they disinterred their dead, whenever it was thought that the fleshy parts of the body had been worn away. The skeleton was placed in a new coffin, painted with hieroglyphics, and conveyed in this state to the house of the mourners, in order that it might be held in greater veneration. After the lapse of a twelve-month, the remains were a second time committed to the earth, never again to be disturbed. The Cannibals. Capanaguas, a tribe on the banks of the Magni, roasted and ate the dead bodies of their relatives; that practice was a part of their superstition, and inculcated by their priests.

* Viajero Universal.

Agricul

Several of these Indians devoured their prisoners of war; BOOK the Guagas in particular were addicted to that barbarous LXXXVIII. custom. They were not impelled by necessity to cultivate the ground, their forests were stored with game, and their ture. rivers with different kinds of fish. But the water in many places was of a bad quality, and disagreeable to the taste; they had to till the land to obtain massado, their favourite beverage, a bitter and intoxicating liquor made from the roots of the yucca.

They received chambos on small copper hatchets, from Hatchets. different savages inhabiting the Cordilleras, and made with

A Jesuit has taken no

these instruments, others of stone. tice of a circumstance, that may give us some notion of the value which they put upon our iron axes. One of them told Father Richter, that he would sell his son for an axe; the priest reproached him for his want of affection. The savage replied, that he had many children, that his son would not always serve him, but an axe might be useful to him during the whole of his life. The fatigues of war, hunting, War Diand fishing, had irresistible charms for these barbarians. versions. Their weapons in the chase, and in the field of battle, were the same, they consisted of spears, clubs, darts, and arrows dipt in vegetable poisons. Convinced of the efficacy of their weapons, they attacked fearlessly the strongest animals in the forests. If an arrow grazed the skin of a wild beast, it fell lifeless to the ground.

Particular situations were chosen for their towns, which Towns. were built for defence; they resembled semicircular forts, and had two gates of communication, one on the side of an ascent, and the other towards a plain. The whole represented a half moon, with its convex circumference fronting a forest. By this means, when assailed at one of the gates, they had an outlet at the other, and were enabled to defend themselves with advantage. Some of the tribes treated their prisoners with humanity, and never employed poisoned arrows against their enemies. The missionaries added to the Spanish dominions, the vast province of Maynas. In

BOOK the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century, LXXXVIII. there were flourishing settlements on the banks of the Ma

noa; but these have been since destroyed, and the loss of

Missions. such positions as commanded the Ucayale, enabled the

Climate of
Interior

Peru.

Roads.

natives of Great Pajoul to throw off the Spanish yoke. That country maintained its independence for nearly forty years; but the missionaries from the seminary of Ocapa, and the schools of farther Girval and Sobrevela, brought about a friendly intercourse with many of the natives. Enlightened planters too, have by their judicious measures repeopled and restored to Spain many deserted districts between the Andes and the Uallaga.

The missions of the Jesuits to Chiquitas and Moxas were, even in a political point of view, attended with much advantage. After the abolition of that order, those that succeeded them either neglected their duty, or were not fitted for the task.

The districts eastward of the Andes are visited by continued droughts or incessant rains. During the rainy season, the plains are changed into lakes, and whole plantations are sometimes submerged. The quadrupeds take refuge on the mountains, and shell-fish have been found adhering to the branches of trees. The cold east wind dries the atmosphere, and the waters gradually subside; the banks of rivers appear, and islands formerly inundated seem to rise from the deep. But the heat and excessive humidity of the climate, and the sudden changes to which it is liable, render the country unhealthy. In the lower districts there are many large rivers, and the means of communication are safe and easy; but towards Upper Peru, the roads are broken by precipices, cataracts, and torrents. If the traveller go thither by water, he must often quit his canoe for a bulsa or slight raft made of twigs; and his journey by land is not less dangerous, for he must pass through dark and interminable forests.

There are gold mines in the hills to the east of the Andes, and the periodical inundations of rivers fertilize

the plains. Interior Peru seems to have been at a former BOOK period covered with wood; the tamarisk and palm-tree LXXXVIII. flourish in its vallies; beautiful flowers, and aromatic plants of exquisite fragrance grow wild in many parts of tions. the country.

The sustillo, or paper insect, is found in the plain of Pampantico, and on the banks of the Upper Uallaga. It lives exclusively on the leaves of the pacal or Minosa inga. They are considered delicate food by the natives, and although a great many are destroyed every year, their loss is speedily supplied, and their number is not sensibly diminished. After having stript a tree of its leaves, they descend from the branches, fasten on its trunk, and begin the wonderful texture, which they instinctively weave. They arrange themselves in the best order, and observe in their works the most exact proportion. Although the paper varies according to their number and the quality of their food, it is always superior in thickness and durability to the best sort that is made in China. The sustillo is sheltered in the under part of an aerial tent during its metamorphosis; they remain attached to the lower side in horizontal and vertical lines, so as to form an exact cube. In that situation the insect envelopes itself in a covering of coarse silk, and remains there, until it become a butterfly; they then leave their prison-house, the fragments of which float in the air, and are whitened by the sun.

Antonio Pineda brought a yard and a half of this paper to Madrid. A nest, in excellent preservation, was also sent to one of the museums in the same city; Calbancha, a Jesuit, who has given an account of the sustillo, tells us, that he wrote several letters on that kind of paper.*

Thadeus Hænke discovered a large plain in Chiquitas, covered with salt marshes, their crystallized, and still surface reflected the image of perpetual winter; small saline crystals, not unlike hoar frost, were suspended from the trees.

Produc

Histoire de Perou, I. p. 66.

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