I heard accidentally, in conversing with persons of the lower ranks in life, of an instance in which the Indians continued their heathenish customs. A family resided at a plantation in this neighbourhood, which had much intimacy with many Indians, but none of the members of it were of that cast. When the heads of the families were from home, the young females were in the habit of meeting to amuse themselves. On one of these occasions, an Indian girl carried one of her companions into the hut in which she and her parents dwelt, and on this playmate questioning her, from girlish curiosity, about several gourds which were hanging up in the room, she appeared much alarmed and said, “You must not look that way, those are _maracàs_, which my father and mother generally put into their chest, but they have to-day forgotten them.” Notwithstanding her entreaties to the contrary, her companion took hold of one of the gourds, and moving it quickly discovered that there were pebbles within; they had handles to them, and tufts of hair upon the top, and they were cut and carved in divers unusual forms. Here this matter ended, but soon afterwards several of the mulatto women agreed to watch the Indians, for they knew that they often danced in their huts with closed doors; this was an uncommon practice and inconvenient too, for the open air is much pleasanter. They had soon an opportunity of witnessing one of these meetings. The huts are constructed of coco-leaves, and through these they managed to obtain a view of what was going forwards. There was a large earthen pot in the centre; and round this, both men and women were dancing. A pipe was handed occasionally from one to the other. Soon afterwards, one of the Indian girls told one of her companions of a different cast from her own, as a great secret, that she had been sent to sleep at a neighbour’s hut a few nights before, because her father and mother were going to drink _jurema_. This beverage is obtained from a common herb; but I never could persuade any of the Indians to point it out to me; though when they positively asserted that they were unacquainted with it, their countenances belied their words.