Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

SUPERSTITIONS. 163 " The profession of the wizards is very dangerous, notwith- standing the respect that is sometimes paid to them ; for it often happens, when an Indian chief dies, that some of the wizards are killed ; especially if they had any dispute with the deceased just before his death; the Indians, in this case, attributing the loss of their cacique to the wizards and their demons. In cases also of pestilence and epidemic disorders, when great numbers are carried off, the wizards often suflFer. " On account of the small-pox, which almost destroyed the Chechehet tribe, Cangapol ordered all the wizards to be killed, to see, if by such means, the distemper would cease. " There are wizards and witches. The former are obliged to dress in female apparel, and are not allowed to marry. The latter are not restricted. Wizards are generally chosen when children ; and a preference is always shewn to those who, at that time of life, discover an effeminate dispositio'n. They are clothed very early in female attire, and presented with the drum and rattles belonging to the profession which they are to follow. Those who are seized with fits of the falling sickness, or the ' Chorea Sancti Viti' (St. Vitus's dance), are immediately chosen for this employment, as selected by the demons them- selves ; whom they suppose to possess them, and to cause all those convulsions and distortions common in epileptic pa- roxysms." The Patagonians, and indeed all the South-American aborigines, have faith in witchcraft. They all believe that the wizards or witches can injure whom they choose, even to deprivation of life, if they can possess themselves of some part of their intended victim's body, or that which has proceeded thence — such as hair, pieces of nails, &c. ; and this superstition is the more curious from its exact accordance with that so pre- valent in Polynesia. The tribe, or subdivision of the Tehuelhet who generally live near Magalhaens' Strait, have learned to pay a sort of homage (perhaps it may be termed worship) to an image of wood, cut into the figure of a man's head and body, and called Cristo ; this image they rarely produce to strangers, or even amongst M 2