Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	body_n	call_v	death_n	12,105	5	5.7391	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57484	The history of the Caribby-islands, viz, Barbados, St Christophers, St Vincents, Martinico, Dominico, Barbouthos, Monserrat, Mevis, Antego, &c in all XXVIII in two books : the first containing the natural, the second, the moral history of those islands : illustrated with several pieces of sculpture representing the most considerable rarities therein described : with a Caribbian vocabulary / rendred into English by John Davies ...; Histoire naturelle et morale des iles Antilles de l'Amerique. English	Rochefort, César de, b. 1605.; Davies, John, 1625-1693.; Breton, Raymond, 1609-1679.	1666 (1666)	Wing R1740; ESTC R16877	340,702	386

themselves not to know the Name and Quality of that kind and heavenly Benefactor who hath obliged them so much nor to render him any acknowledgment or honour The Pagans were much more grateful in honouring Ceres from whom they said they received Corn and the invention of making bread And the Peruvians though they knew not the great Pachacamac that is him whom they held to be the soul of the Universe and the Sovereign Author of their lives and all they had yet did they adore him in their hearts with much respect and veneration and rendring him externally by their gestures and words great expressions of their submission and humility as to the unknown God The Caribbians believe they have every one of them so many souls as they feel beatings of Arteries in their bodies besides that of the heart Now of all these souls the principal as they say is in the heart and after death it goes to Heaven with its Icheiri or its Chemiin that is with its God who carries it thither to live there in the company of the other Gods And they imagine that it lives the same kind of life as man lives here below Thence it comes that to this day they kill slaves on the Tomb of the dead if they can meet with any that had been in the service of the deceased to go and wait upon him in the other world For it is to be observed that they do not think the Soul to be so far immaterial as to be invisible but they affirm it to be subtile and of thin substance as a purified body and they have but the same word to signifie heart and soul As for the other souls which are not in the heart they believe some go after death and live on the Sea-side and that they cause Vessels to turn They call them Oumekou the others as they conceive go and live in the Woods and Forests and they call them Maboyas Though most of this poor people believe the immortality of the soul as we have represented it yet they speak so confusedly and with so much uncertainty of the state of the soul separated from the body that we should sooner have done to say they were absolutely ignorant thereof than set down their extravagant Relations Some affirm that the most valiant of their Nation are carried after their death into certain Fortunate Islands where they have all things at their wish and that the Arouagues are there their slaves that they swim unwearied in great Rivers that they live deliciously and spend the time in dancing playing and feasting in a land which produces in abundance all sorts of excellent fruits without any cultivation On the contrary they hold that those who were cowardly afraid to go to the wars against their Enemies do after death serve the Arouagues who inhabite barren and desart Countries beyond the Mountains But others who are more brutish never trouble themselves about their condition after death nor ever think or speak of it And if any question be put to them concerning it they know not what answer to make Yet they have all had heretofore a certain belief of the immortality of the Soul but after a very gross manner as may be deduc'd from the Ceremonies of their Interrments and the prayers they make to the dead that they would return to life as we shall represent more at large in the last Chapter of this History as also from this that the most polite among them are at present of that perswasion that after death they shall go to Heaven to which place they say their Ancestors are gone before them but they never enquire after the way they are to take to attain that happy abode Accordingly when their Boyez who also act the part of Physitians despair of curing their diseases and that the Devils have foretold by their mouths that there is no further hopes of life they give them this comfort that their Gods will conduct them to Heaven where they shall live at ease without any fear of sickness The belief of the Calecutians as to this Article is worse than that of our Caribbians and their transmigration is an extravagant kind of immortality For they believe that their souls at the departure out of their bodies are lodg'd in those of wild Oxen or some other beast The Brasilians are in this point more rational for they conceive that the souls of the wicked go after death to the Devil who beats and torments them but that the souls of the just are entertain'd with dancing and good cheer in delightful plains beyond the Mountains And it is pleasant to think that most of the Savages of America place the sovereign felicity of the other life in dancing The Resurrection of the body is by the Caribbians accounted a pure foolery their Theology is too obscure to receive so great an illumination We may therefore well wonder at a small glimpse of this sacred truth in the poor Virginians since it is a point wherein the ancient Pagans saw as little as our Caribbians There is also a small spark of it among the Indians of Peru as most Authors affirm But though the Caribbians have so little knowledge and fear of God as we have represented yet are they extreamly afraid of his voice that is Thunder that dreadful voice which makes such a stir in the clouds which is attended by such flames of fire which shakes the foundations of the Mountains and makes the Neroes and Caligulaes of this world to tremble Our Savages therefore assoon as they perceive the approaches of the Tempest which commonly comes along with that voice make all the haste they can to their little houses and sit down on low stools about the fire covering their faces and resting their heads on their hands and knees and in that posture they fall a weeping and say in their Gibberish Maboya mouche fache contre Caraibe that is Maboya is very angry with them and they say the same when there happens a Hurricane They give not over that lamenting exercise till the Hurricane is quite over and they are extreamly astonish'd that the Christians should express so so little affliction and fear upon those occasions Thus the Grand Tartars are mightily afraid of Thunder and when they hear it they drive all strangers out of their houses and wrap themselves up in Garments of coarse cloth which they put not off till the noise be over And divers other barbarous Nations are no less frighted than the Caribbians upon the like occasions Nay it is reported that the Peruvians the Cumaneses the Chineses and the Moluckeses imitate them in lamentations and frights when there happens an Eclipse Yet is it true that since the Caribbians have conversed familiarly with the Christians some of them are grown so resolute as not to be afraid of the Thunder for some have been seen to laugh when it thundred most and others counterfeited the noise pronouncing a word which

blown are much larger than those of our greatest Roses are charged with a great many other leaves which appear still less and less to the lower part or bottom of the Bell Out of the midst of them there rises a little button like a heart which is of a very delicious taste The Plant hath a little bushiness at the top much like Sage The leaves and the flower smell like a Violet It is also a kind of sensitive Plant for it cannot be touch'd either in its leaves or flower but it immediately withers These Religious men carryed the said English Gentleman to a Village of the Indians who inhabit in the Mountains where there is a miraculous Grott or Cave wherein the waters have fashion'd all the most delightful rarities that a man can desire from a divertisment of that kind They shew'd him particularly one place in the said Grott where the waters falling upon a bare stone and distilling drop after drop of a different bigness make so exact a musick that there is no harmony can well be preferr'd before it There is found in the Mountains on the East-side of the Province of Achalaca some Rock-Christal and certain red and bright stones which have such a lustre as that they might pass for right Rubies 'T is possible there may be some Copper-mines in those parts but they are not yet discovered only what confirms this opinion is that they find a kind of golden sand there which is wash'd down by the torrents and hath a wonderful lustre Mr. Brigstock having given of it to some Goldsmiths to make a test thereof it was in a manner quite consum'd by the fire and the little that remained in the Crucible might well pass for very fine Copper These same Religious men shew'd the said Gentleman as they pass'd through the woods several sorts of trees which yielded Gums of excellent scent as also many other Rarities a particular account whereof would require a considerable Volume But above all they show'd him the tree whereof the Floridians make that excellent drink which they call Casina the description whereof may be seen in the History of de Laet. It is absolutely conformable to the Relation of Mr. Brigstock Before the Inhabitants of Achalacha were converted to Christianity they took several Wives but now their Marriages are regulated and they content themselves only with one They interr'd their Lords as the Apalachites do in the Caves that are at the foot of the Mountains then they made up the entrance thereof with a stone-wall they hung before the Cave the most considerable Vessels which those Princes had made use of at their Tables And all the Captains fasten'd all about the place their Bows Arrows and Clubs and mourned for several days at the Sepulchre They worshipped the Sun and held the immortality of the Soul as well as their Neighbours They believ'd also that such as had liv'd well and serv'd the Sun as they ought and made many presents to the poor in honour of him were hapyy and that after death they were chang'd into Stars But on the contrary that those who had led a wicked life were carried into the precipices of the high Mountains whereby they were surrounded and there endur'd extream want and misery amongst the Lions Tygers and other beasts of prey which hunt after their sustenance therein The Inhabitants of this Country are all long-liv'd insomuch that there are many among them both men and women who are neer two hundred years of age This curious digression we receiv'd from the forementioned English Gentleman Mr. Brigstock and we have inserted it here out of a presumption that it will not be undelightful to those who shall make it their divertisement to read this History at least while we are yet in expectation that that excellent person will give us a perfect accompt of the state of the Apalachites and some others of the Neighbouring Nations as he puts us in hope that he will CHAP. IX Of the Bodies of the Caribbians and their Ornaments WE are now to re-assume our former discourse and return from Florida to the Caribby-Islands to consider there with all the exactness imaginable what concerns those Inhabitants thereof on whom we intend to bestow the remaining part of this History and particularly what relates to their Bodies Minds Dispositions Manners Religion Customs and other remarkable occurrences concerning the savage Caribbians or Cannibals of whose origine we have already given so large an account And whereas some of the Caribbians who inhabit in the same Islands wherein the French and other Europaean Nations have planted Colonies or at least come often among them accommodate themselves in many things to their manner of life and that they may be the more kindly received by them they quit many of their old Customs those who are desirous to be acquainted with the ancient manners of the Caribbians are not to learn them of the Caribbians who live in Martinico or those who converse most with the Europaeans but from those of St. Vincent who of all others have held least correspondence with any Forreigners It is accordingly from them that we have receiv'd what we shall hereafter relate concerning the Caribbians But before we enter into the relation we shall make some general observations to prevent the astonishment which the Reader might conceive at the difference there is between the account we give of them and what he may receive from others either by word of mouth or writing In the first place it is to be acknowledged a thing almost impossible that the Relations of Countries and Customs at so great a distance from us should agree in all things especially since we find that those of neighbouring Countries are for the most part differing among themselves Secondly it is to be observed that since the Caribbians became familiar and have conversed with forreign Nations they have remitted much of their ancient Customs and quited many things which they practis'd before with an inviolable strictness So that there may be seen in them now a remarkable change from what they were heretofore That the case stands thus with them now is to be attributed partly to the conversation of the Europaeans who in some things have oblig'd them to abate somewhat of their originary simplicity and in others have made them worse than they were as to our own shame we cannot but acknowledge Hence it comes that Monsieur du Montel tells us in his Relations that two ancient Caribbians considering that degeneration of their Country-men took occasion to entertain him with a discourse to this purpose Our people are become in a manner like yours since they came to be acquainted with you and we find it some difficulty to know our selves so different are we grown from what we have been heretofore It is to this alteration that our people attribute the more frequent happening of Hurricanes than they were observ'd to be in the days of old and conclude thence that