Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Initiated Are Subjected To
Flagellations, Fastings, And Other Painful Exercises.
There are but a
small number of these sacred trumpets.
The most anciently celebrated
is that upon a hill near the confluence of the Tomo and the Guainia.
It is pretended, that it is heard at once on the banks of the Tuamini,
and at the mission of San Miguel de Davipe, a distance of ten leagues.
Father Cereso assured us, that the Indians speak of the botuto of Tomo
as an object of worship common to many surrounding tribes. Fruit and
intoxicating liquors are placed beside the sacred trumpet. Sometimes
the Great Spirit himself makes the botuto resound; sometimes he is
content to manifest his will through him to whom the keeping of the
instrument is entrusted. These juggleries being very ancient (from the
fathers of our fathers, say the Indians), we must not be surprised
that some unbelievers are already to be found; but they express their
disbelief of the mysteries of the botuto only in whispers. Women are
not permitted to see this marvellous instrument; and are excluded from
all the ceremonies of this worship. If a woman have the misfortune to
see the trumpet, she is put to death without mercy. The missionary
related to us, that in 1798 he was happy enough to save a young girl,
whom a jealous and vindictive lover accused of having followed, from a
motive of curiosity, the Indians who sounded the botuto in the
plantations. "They would not have murdered her publicly," said father
Cesero, "but how was she to be protected from the fanaticism of the
natives, in a country where it is so easy to give poison?
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