362
IDEAS OF A DEITY.
zonо, on the banks o f the Missouri, as well as on t h e tableland o f N e w M e x i c o , the A m e r i c a n is a h u n t e r ; b u t in t h e torrid z o n e , in the forests o f G u i a n a , b e cultivates cassava, plantains, and s o m e t i m e s maize. S u c h is t h e admirable fertility o f nature, that the field o f the native is a little s p o t of land, t o c h a r which requires o n l y s e t t i n g fire t o the b r a m b l e s ; and putting a few seeds or slips into t h e g r o u n d is all t h e husbandry it demands. I f we g o back in t h o u g h t t o the most remote ages, in these thick forests we must always figure to ourselves nations deriving the greater part o f their n o u r i s h m e n t from the e a r t h ; b u t , as this earth produces a b u n d a n c e in a small space, and almost without tod, we may also imagine these nations often c h a n g i n g their dwellings along the banks o f t h e same river. Even now the native o f the O r i n o c o travels with his s e e d s ; a n d transports his farm ( c o n u c o ) as t h e A r a b transports his t e n t , and c h a n g e s his pasturage. T h e numher o f cultivated plants found wild amid the w o o d s , proves the n o m a d habits o f an agricultural p e o p l e . Can wo b o surprised, that by these habits they lose almost all t h o advantages that result in the temperate zone from stationary culture, from the growth o f c o r n , which requires e x t e n  sive lands and the most assiduous l a b o u r ? The nations o f the Upper O r i n o c o , the Atabapo, and the Inirida, like the ancient G e r m a n s and the Persians, have n o o t h e r worship than that o f t h e p o w e r s o f n a t u r e . T h e y call the good principle Cachimana ; it is the Manitou, t h e G r e a t Spirit, that regulates the seasons, and favours the harvests. A l o n g with Cachimana there is an evil principle, Iolokiamo, less powerful, but more artful, and in particular more active. T h e Indians o f the forest, when they occasionally visit the missions, conceive with d i f f i c u l t y the idea o f a temple or an image. " T h e s e g o o d p e o p l e , " said t h e mis sionary, " l i k e only processions in the o p e n air. When I last celebrated the festival of San Antonio, the patron o f my village, the Indians o f Inirida w e r e present at mass. ' Y o u r G o d , ' said they to me, 'keeps himself shut up in a house, as if he were old and infirm ; ours is in the forest, in the fields, and on the mountains o f Sipapu, whence the rains come.'" A m o n g the more n u m e r o u s , and on this a c c o u n t less barbarous tribes, religious societies o f a singular kind