The Huitotos often paint themselves on other occasions, one of the most common colouring matters being the _huitoc_ or _jagua_, which also has the excellent property of being offensive to gnats and mosquitoes to such an extent that they will have nothing to do with persons painted with it. [Illustration: GUAMARES INDIANS, OF THE HUITOTO TRIBE, IN DANCE COSTUME. To face p. 162.] The religion of the Huitotos is a confused mixture of several beliefs. Thus, they worship the sun and the moon and at the same time believe in the existence of a Superior Being, called Usiñamu, and an inferior potentate, named Taifeño, who is also supposed to be the Spirit of Evil. They also appear to believe in a future life to be spent in happy hunting-grounds, &c., but these ideas are vague and confused and mingled with the most ridiculous superstitions. In the days when the Colombians were paramount in this district they used to bring down priests from Pasto and Mocoa to convert the Huitotos and introduce them to the ways and customs of civilisation and Christianity. Now that the Peruvian Amazon Company has monopolised the region priests are carefully excluded, and everything that tends to the instruction and enlightenment of the wretched aborigines is carefully done away with. Indeed, in order to frighten people and thus prevent them from entering that region, they have circulated most bloodcurdling reports of the ferocity and cannibalism of these helpless Indians, whom other travellers as well as Perkins and myself have found to be timid, peaceful, mild, industrious, and humble. In conclusion, it is necessary to call attention to the fact that owing to the oppressions of the Peruvian Amazon Company--in whose service the greater part of the Huitotos, unfortunately, are--the numbers of these Indians are diminishing to an alarming degree, and, unless something be done to protect them, this noble race of aborigines will, in my opinion, soon disappear completely, as have so many others in the region of the Upper Amazon. CHAPTER VI THE DEVIL'S PARADISE