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not even their relations. The old Piaches or Doctors attended, at night, to give them instruction. When they were thought sufficiently learned, and the period of their taciturnity expired, they obtained the title of Piache, in virtue of which they acquired the right of healing, conjuring evil spirits, and predicting futurity.

Medicines used.

For medicine, they make use of herbs and roots raw, boiled, or pounded with fat, wood and other things unknown to the vulgar; but they are never applied without pronouncing some magical words, which the physician himself does not understand. Thus prepared, they were applied as poultices or plasters to the part affected, in order, as they said, to extract the bad humours. If the pain or fever increased, they rubbed the whole body of the patient with their hand, and sucked his joints. This exercise was accompanied with some unintelligible jargon, emphatically expressed, containing, as the Piache alleged, a serious summons to the evil spirit to come out of the body of the patient. When the disorder appeared obstinate, they had recourse to a kind of wood, known only to the Piache. He rubbed strongly the mouth and neck of the patient, who soon gave an account of the contents of his stomach. The Piache, on his part, made frightful exclamations, cried, howled, quaked, and made a thousand contortions: at length, he perspired profusely, and vomited some slimy matter in the midst of which was a ball, which

the people of the house immediately took up, and throwing it, said you are going to be cast out, devil, you are going to be cast out. If the patient recovered, they gave every thing in the house to the Piache; if he died, the blame was laid upon fate, not upon the physician.

Particular gifts of the Piaches.

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The Piaches were, ex officio, admitted to all the secrets of futurity. They foretold whether there would be peace or war; whether it would be a year of scarcity or abundance; whether there would be good fishing, and whether fish would sell high; they prognosticated eclipses and comets, in short, if we are to believe Lopez De Gomara, they were the genuine nostradamus of this rude and extremely ignorant people. Their prophecies, as well as their treatment of patients were purchased at a high price.— The consequence was that the Piaches engrossed all the riches of the country. They were regarded with a respect and awe which bordered on superstition. Their influence amounted to absolute power, of which, however, they made little use. Their prerogatives were numerous. The most prominent, and what furnishes the best criterion to form a judgment of the rest, was that which gave them a positive, undisputed right to the bridal bed in cases of adoptive or supernumerary marriages.

Sorcery.

It was solemnly believed by the Indians, whether savage or civilized, and even by the Spaniards, that bodily disorders always arise from sorcery practised by some enemy. The Indians frequently accuse a Piache, without however daring to reproach him, because his order alone has the power of removing him.

Funerals of the Indians of Terra Firma.

The common opinion of all the Indians of Terra Firma was, that the soul, when separated from the body, cannot subsist without food. They made woful lamentations at funerals, and celebrated, in their songs, the exploits of the deceased. They interred the corpse in the house with some provisions laid beside it; or they dried it at the fire, and hung it up. If the deceased was of a rank above the common, they celebrated his anniversary, by assembling all his friends under the strict injunction of each carrying along with him his share of the entertainment. This ceremony, which somewhat resembled the ancient orgies, was performed during night. They took up the corpse, if they had it interred; and the whole night was spent in drinking, dancing, and howling.

Reflection.

We see from this miserable superstition, that such was the stupidity of the Indians, that they never

thought of searching for the first cause of the wonderful order of nature. Insensible of the blessings conferred upon them, they tendered no homage to the author; he was neither the object of their admiration or gratitude. They possessed only the figure of man; their mental faculties bespoke them a degraded species, nearer the brute than the human.

The Oronoko Indians, without being much better informed, or less superstitious, had however imagined a creator of all things, to whom they addressed their vows and adoration. Some tribes, says father Caulin, took the sun for the supreme being: to him they attributed the productions of the earth, the scarcity or abundance of the rains, and all other temporal blessings.

Effects of eclipses on the Indians.

Others thought that these virtues were to be ascribed to the moon; they considered her eclipses as dreadful signs of her anger.

As soon as they perceived any of them coming on, the credulous Indians began their ridiculous ceremonies, with a view to avert the punishment, with which they thought themselves threatened on account of their laziness and ingratitude. The men struck up their warlike instruments, or seized their arms to show their valour, cut down trees with mighty exertion, or betook themselves to other laborious exercises, to prove to the moon that they could not be taxed with effeminacy, or punished without injustice. The women ran out of their houses,

threw up into the air, maize and other kinds of grain, with lamentable cries, promising to amend their manners and to become more industrious. When the eclipse was over, they congratulated themselves on having deceived the moon with vain promises; after that, they had a dance which ended like all their feasts, in complete drunkenness and the most abominable acts of intemperance. The savage Indians still preserve all these customs; and the conquered Indians have not entirely abandoned them.

They Worship Toads.

There were likewise on the borders of the Oronoko, Indians who rendered the honours of divinity to toads.

Far from doing them any harm, they carefully kept them under the cover of vessels, in order to obtain from them rain or fair weather, as occasion required; and they were so fully persuaded that toads had power to grant it, that they beat them every time their prayers were not promptly complied with.

They Worship Idols.

Some of these tribes had no other worship than dancing to the sound of very noisy instruments, before two small idols, to which they addressed their devotion, singing some extemporary hymns to them.

Opinion with respect to the state of the soul after

death.

All the indians are agreed, as has been said, with respect to the immortality of the soul, but are at variance

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