and sick people. When (»'the sea-coast, limpets and muscles
are gathered by ftfe women and children ;> but fish and seats
are seldom obtained. Ddgs’ arênoteaten, neither are ‘horses,
unless disabled by an' aeeident.^||l
I shall conclude this section with some facts illustrative of
their psychological history.
Faikner gives the following account of the notions of tliesé
people connectedwith religion, by which it appears that thigy
are strongly contrasted with the sentiments prevalent among
the North American races.
u The Indians imagine that there! is a multiplicity of
deities, some good, others evil. At the head of the good
deities is Guayara-kunny^ or the lord of thé dead. The
chief evil agent is called Atskannakanath, or Ydliehu. ; This
latter name is applied to every evil demon.
“ They think that the good deitiê^haVe hattMtidtiS Sn test
caverns under the earth, and that when an Indian diesf his
soul goes to live with the deity who presides/over hii particular
family.
“ They believe that their good deities made the world,and
that they first created the Indians in the subterranean eaverhs
above-mentioned m, gave them the lance,- the bow and arrows,
and the bulls, to fight and hunt with, and then turned them
out to shift for themselves. They imagine that tia d ^ tid s ‘lithe
Spaniards created them in a similar manner, hut that
instead of lances, bows, &c., they gave then|guftsiandss#ords.
They say that when the beasts, • birds, and lesser animals
were created, those of the more nimble kind cathe immediately
out of the ? caverns; but that the bulls and cows
being the last, the Indians were so frightened-at the sight
of their horns that they stopped the entrances of their
caves with great stones. This is the grave reason they give
why they had no black cattle in their countryy till thé Spaniards
brought them over; who more wisely had let them out
of their caves- a
“ Some say that the stars are old Iridians ; that the milky
way is the field where old Indians hunt ostriches^ and that the
Magellanic clouds are the feathers of the ostriches which they
kill. They have an opinion that the creation ds not yet exhaustedj.
XLor alLof iityeideome .out to the daylight of this
upper -worlds The wizards, beating-their drums, and rattling
their ^hide-bags fuH of» sskells or.,stones, pretend to .see into
pther^ie^etcisiurider the earth, ; 'Mach- wizard is supposed to
«have. familiar spirits in , attendance, who give supernatural
information, and execute tbe-dfonjuror’s will. They believe
that the -souls of their -wizards after -death are of tide number
fi£‘ those demonsj called Walichu, to whom-'every, eyd rfe unpleasant
»e vent-os attributed. ,
. Their religions worship, is entirely directed to the powers
jfcjfi evlhitfi&feept in soilfepurticidar «ceremonies made usp'of in
reverenOelto fhei dead.” ' i'
i The Sea#mfolianOe between f^actitees *o£ these wizards
and thott iof the Siberian Shamans is really, isurprisi^, *
“ To perform their worship-they assemble together indhe.
,wfeo-4S5«h»t.pp the sight of the rest
gg a>corner> • g In? this ^seclusion he has a small drum, onejor
two rohnd -(Calabashes, fesigs efj dry hide,.- .with snoall ;seashells
in them, and some.square bags of painted hide in which
| Hedbpgins ithe ceremony by making-a
,§trange .noise -with higpdrum, andjfrattlehhags^ after which he
the evil -spirit, wha>- it is then
suf^E^ed’jh has; mitered Anto him j ; keeps hi s eyes' turned up,
di^orifei^srfae^ femm at the mouth, «tfcews up his joints,
and after many [violent and distorting.motions, remains stiff
and motionless,..resembling a man seized -with epilepsy. After
some time. he.comes to himself, «as having .«overcome the.de-
mon’s influence janext - he feigns $ hebftnd his screes^ a faint,
shrill, mournful voice, as .of ; the evil spirit^ who hy this dismal
cry is supposed to acknowledgo«HimseIf.ssubdued; and
then the wizard-,: , from a kind of tripod, answefisiall questions
that are put to-him.
; “ Whether his answers areiitrue or false> isrof very little
consequence.; because, if his-intelligence should prove false,
it is the fault of the demon or Yalichu. On all these occasions
the wizard is* well paid.
« The profession of the wizard is very dangerous, notwithstanding
the respect that is* Sometimes paid-to them ; for it
often happens, when' an Indiltn chief die®, that some of the