Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/388

 348 ON THE ABORIGINE^

many which are most deadly in their effects : they are given at some festival in a bowl of caxiri, which it is good manners always to empty, so that the whole dose is sure to be taken. One of the poisons often used is most terrible in its effects, causing the tongue and throat, as well as the intestines, to pu- trefy and rot away, so that the sufferer lingers some days in the greatest agony : this is of course again retaliated, on perhaps the wrong party, and thus a long succession of murders may result from a mere groundless suspicion in the first instance.

I cannot make out that they have any belief that can be called a religion. They appear to have no definite idea of a God ; if asked who they think made the rivers, and the forests, and the sky, they will reply that they do not know, or some- times that they suppose it was " Tupanau," a word that appears to answer to God, but of which they understand nothing. They have much more definite ideas of a bad spirit, " Jurupari/' or Devil, whom they fear, and endeavour through their page's to propitiate. When it thunders, they say the "Jurupari" is angry, and their idea of natural death is that the "Jurupari " kills them. At an eclipse they believe that this bad spirit is killing the moon, and they make all the noise they can to frighten him away.

One of their most singular superstitions is about the musical instruments they use at their festivals, which they call the Jurupari music. These consist of eight or sometimes twelve pipes, or trumpets, made of bamboos or palm-stems hollowed out, some with trumpet-shaped mouths of bark and with mouth-holes of clay and leaf. Each pair of instruments gives a distinct note, and they produce a rather agreeable concert, something resembling clarionets and bassoons. These instru- ment, however, are with them such a mystery that no woman must ever see them, on pain of death. They are always kept in sone igarip£, at a distance from the malocca, whence they are brought on particular occasions : when the sound of them is heard approaching, every woman retires into the woods, or into some adjoining shed, which they generally have near, and remains invisible till after the ceremony is over, when the instruments are taken away to their hiding-place, and the women come out of their concealment. Should any female be supposed to have seen them, either by accident or design, she is invaribly executed, generally by poison, and a father