the contrary,
if they did not pacify the evil spirit, and make him propitious, he
would take away or spoil all those good things that God had given, and
ruin their health, their peace, and their plenty, by sending war, plague
and famine among them; for, said he, this evil spirit is always busying
himself with our affairs, and frequently visiting us, being present in
the air in the thunder, and in the storms. He told me farther, that he
expected adoration and sacrifice from them, on pain of his displeasure,
and that therefore they thought it convenient to make their court to
him. I then asked him concerning the image which they worship in their
quioccasan, and assured him that it was a dead, insensible log, equipped
with a bundle of clouts, a mere helpless thing made by men, that could
neither hear, see nor speak, and that such a stupid thing could noways
hurt or help them. To this he answered very unwillingly, and with much
hesitation; however, he at last delivered himself in these broken and
imperfect sentences: It is the priests----they make the people believe,
and----. Here he paused a little, and then repeated to me, that it was
the priests----, and then gave me hopes that he would have said
something more; but a qualm crossed his conscience, and hindered him
from making any farther confession.

Sec. 31. The priests and conjurers have a great sway in every nation. Their
words are looked upon as oracles, and consequently are of great weight
among the common people. They perform their adorations and conjurations
in the general language before spoken of, as the catholics of all
nations do their mass in the Latin. They teach that the souls of men
survive their bodies, and that those who have done well here, enjoy most
transporting pleasures in their elysium hereafter; that this elysium is
stored with the highest perfection of all their earthly pleasures;
namely, with plenty of all sorts of game for hunting, fishing and
fowling; that it is blest with the most charming women, who enjoy an
eternal bloom, and have an universal desire to please; that it is
delivered from excesses of cold or heat, and flourishes with an
everlasting spring. But that, on the contrary, those who are wicked and
live scandalously here, are condemned to a filthy, stinking lake after
death, that continually burns with flames that never extinguish; where
they are persecuted and tormented day and night, with furies in the
shape of old women.

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