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One of these pajes was sent for by a woman in John Aracu's family, to operate on a child who suffered much from pains in the head. Senor John contrived to get possession of the supposed worm after the trick was performed in our presence, and it turned out to be a long white airroot of some plant. The paje was with difficulty persuaded to operate while Senor John and I were present.
It is said to be haunted by a Paje, or Indian wizard, whom it is necessary to propitiate by depositing some article on the spot, if the voyager wishes to secure a safe return from the "sertao," as the interior of the country is called. The trees were all hung with rags, shirts, straw hats, bunches of fruit, and so forth.
Each horde of Mundurucus has its paje or medicine man, who is the priest and doctor; he fixes upon the time most propitious for attacking the enemy; exorcises evil spirits, and professes to cure the sick. All illness whose origin is not very apparent is supposed to be caused by a worm in the part affected.
This the paje pretends to extract; he blows on the seat of pain the smoke from a large cigar, made with an air of great mystery by rolling tobacco in folds of Tauari, and then sucks the place, drawing from his mouth, when he has finished, what he pretends to be the worm. It is a piece of very clumsy conjuring.
Grimley, the aëronaut, writing of some experiments he has recently been making at Montreal with an ingenious arrangement of revolving fans invented by two gentlemen of that city, says: "The Cowan and Paje propelling and steering apparatus worked as well as could be expected, but the air will never be navigated by balloons driven by machinery. It is opposed to common sense."
They lead, like those tribes, a settled agricultural life, each horde obeying a chief of more or less influence, according to his energy and ambition, and possessing its paje or medicine-man who fosters its superstitions; but, they are much more idle and debauched than other Indians belonging to the superior tribes.
The ringleader enacted the part of the Tushaua, or chief, and carried a sceptre, richly decorated with the orange, red, and green feathers of toucans and parrots. The paje or medicine-man came along, puffing at a long tauari cigar, the instrument by which he professes to make his wonderful cures.
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