Bible Encyclopedias
Maracas

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

idols of the Brazilians. The word is a corruption of Tanmaraca, which is the name of a certain fruit about the size of an ostrich's egg, and shaped like a gourd. These idols, indeed, were nothing more than the fruit Tamaraca dressed up in beautiful feathers, and fixed on a staff, which the priests stuck in the ground, and ordered the people to bring food and drink before it.