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THE CAPTIVITY OF HANS STADE

do us no harm." I remained silent and made my prayer to God, as they demanded it from me, and said: "O Thou Almighty God, Thou heavenly and earthly Lord, who from the beginning hast helped and hast heard those who among the godless call upon Thy name, vouchsafe me Thy mercy, so that I may perceive that Thou art still with me, and that the savage heathens may see, that Thou my God hast heard my prayer!"

I lay bound in the canoe so that I could not turn round to see the weather, but they looked constantly behind them, beginning to say, "Oqua moa amanasu.” That is; "The great tempest passeth away."[1] Then I raised myself a little and looking back, saw that the great cloud passed off, upon which I thanked God.

Now when we came to land, they did with me as they had done previously. They tied me to a tree, and they lay around me during the night, saying that we were now near their country, and that we would arrive there against the evening of the following day—whereat I did not much rejoice.


    ingenious style of defining the "Unknowable". (See Mà-râ, note to chapter 2). Tupá meant simply the "thunderbolt"; the thunder was known as Tupá-ci-nunga, or noise of Tupá, and lightning as Tupá-berábá, light of Tupá. The discharge of electric fluid appeared to these savages, who had no Deism, as Varnhagen seems to think, but abundant diabolism, a destructive being over their heads, “C'est un nuage dans lequel est Dieu, mais dont il ne sort pas encore" quotes M. Ferd. Denis. The pious and the credulous transferred Tupá to the name of the Almighty, and translated it "Excellencia espantosa". It was adopted by the Jesuit missionaries, who called the church Tupan-Oca or Tupaóca (House of Tupá), and the congregation Tupá-tayra (son of Tupá—a Christian). And in 1656 the disciples of Loyola got into trouble by designating God as Tupá, and God the Father as Tuba-"both being the names of infernal spirits" (e.g., Tubuel and Tubuas). See Southey (ii, 444-447).

  1. ↑ Of course it was a common "tornado" blowing off shore.
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