g these circumstances into consideration, I am strongly of opinion
that the story of the Amazons has arisen from these feminine-looking
warriors encountered by the early voyagers. I am inclined to this
opinion, from the effect they first produced on myself, when it was only
by close examination I saw that they were men.

I cannot make out that these Indians of the Amazon have any belief that
can be called a religion. They appear to have no definite idea of a God.
If asked who made the rivers and the forests and the sky, they will
reply that they do not know, or sometimes 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
"pages," or sorcerers, to propitiate.

When it thunders, they say that 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 drive him away. One of the singular facts connected
with these Indians of the Amazon valley is the resemblance between some
of their customs and those of the nations most remote from them. The
gravatana, or blowpipe, reappears in the sumpitan of Borneo; the great
houses of the Uaupes closely resemble those of the Dyaks of the same
country; while many small baskets and bamboo-boxes from Borneo and New
Guinea are so similar in their form and construction to those of the
Amazon, that they would be supposed to belong to adjoining tribes.

The main feature in the personal character of the Indians of this part
of South America is a degree of diffidence, bashfulness, or coldness,
which affects all their actions. It is this that produces their quiet
deliberation, their circuitous way of introducing a subject they have
come to speak about, talking half an hour on different topics before
mentioning it. Owing to this feeling, they will run away if displeased
rather than complain, and will never refuse to undertake what is asked
them, even when they are unable or do not intend to perform it. They
scarcely ever quarrel among themselves, work hard, and submit willingly
to authority. They are ingenious and skilful workmen and readily adopt
any customs of civilised life introduced among them.

ELIOT WARBURTON

The Crescent and the Cross

_I.--Alexandria_

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