Guecubu, or Huecuvu, is named Mavari by the natives on the Orinoco, and is the same with the Aherman of the ancient Persians.  To him every evil is attributed.  If a horse tire, he has been ridden by Guecubu.  In an earthquake, Guecubu has given the world a shock; and the like in all things.  The Ulmens, or subaltern deities of their celestial hierarchy, resemble the genii, and are supposed to have the charge of earthly things, and to form, in concert with the benevolent Meulen, a counterpoise to the prodigious power of the malignant Guecuba.  These ulmens of the spiritual world are conceived to be of both sexes, who always continue pure and chaste without propagation.  The males are called Gen, or lords; the females Amei-malghen, or spiritual nymphs, and are supposed to perform the same friendly offices to men which were anciently attributed to the lares, and every Araucanian imagines he has one of these attendant spirits in his service. Nien cai gni Amchi-malghen, I keep my nymph still, is a common expression when any one succeeds in an undertaking.  Pursuant to the analogy of their own earthly government, as their Ulmens have no right to impose any service or contribution on the people whom they govern, so they conceive the celestial race require no services from man, having occasion for none.  Hence they have neither idols nor temples, and offer no sacrifices, except in case of some severe calamity, or on the conclusion of a peace, when they sacrifice animals, and burn tobacco as a grateful incense to their deities.  Yet they invoke them and implore their aid on urgent occasions, chiefly addressing Pillan and Meulen.

[Footnote 59:  Pillan, according to Dobrizhoffer, is likewise the word for thunder.  In a similar manner, Tupa or Tupi, among all the Tupi tribes of Brazil, and the Guaranies of Paraguay, signifies both God and thunder.—­E.]

[Footnote 60:  Among the Moluches, the general name of the Supreme Being, according to Falkner, is Toqui-chen, or the supreme ruler of the people.—­E.]

[Illustration:  Map of CHILI]

Notwithstanding the small regard which they pay to their deities, they are extremely superstitious in matters of less importance, and are firm believers in divination, paying the utmost attention to favourable and unfavourable omens, to dreams, the singing and flight of birds, and the like, which they believe to denote the pleasure of the gods.  They have accordingly jugglers or diviners, who pretend to a knowledge of futurity, who are called Gligua and Dugol, some of them call themselves Guenguenu or masters of heaven, Guenpugnu or masters of disease, Guen-piru, or masters of worms, and the like.  These diviners pretend to the power of producing rain, of curing diseases, of preventing the ravages of the worms which destroy the grain, and so on.  They are in perpetual dread of imaginary beings, called Calcus or sorcerers, who in their opinion remain concealed in caverns by day, along with their disciples or servants, called lvunches or man-animals, who transform themselves at night into owls and shoot invisible arrows at their enemies.