376 Sir R. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana. 



sembling the wooden pillows or head stools of the Egyptians, 

 the necessary utensils for the preparation of the cassada 

 bread, and the implements of the chase and of war, form the 

 furniture of the hut. The inmates usually sit on their stools, 

 or rest in their hammocks. Each tribe has its own hunting 

 ground, and each family its own plantations, which, after the 

 trees have been felled by the husband and grown-up sons, 

 are cultivated by the women. 



Members of the same tribe frequently form small villages 

 of from six to ten houses ; over which communities a chief- 

 tain presides, called in the Carib language Yuputorikung, 

 and in the Macusi Toyeputori, whose authority is only ac- 

 knowledged to its full extent during feuds and wars. His 

 power and influence depend upon his personal superiority in 

 strength and enterprise. The hereditary dignity is derived 

 from the mother ; but it is rendered easy for any one who 

 has talent and courage to assume the command on the death 

 of his predecessor, without the advantage of relationship, and 

 his authority is more frequently retained by his undisputed 

 superiority than by any formal election. 



It is customary among some nations, before a child is born, 

 for its parents to subject themselves to a rigid fasting. The 

 day after its birth it is carried into the air without a cover- 

 ing on its head, or, as among the Macusis, the head is daubed 

 over with arnotte or rucu. Their heads are generally more 

 covered with hair than those of European children, and they 

 learn to speak and to walk at an earlier period. They are 

 frequently nursed until they are five or six years of age. At 

 the birth of the child the husband receives the congratula- 

 tions of his friends, and the women of the village are atten- 

 tive to the wants of the mother, who is restored in a few days 

 to her wonted strength and occupation. Twins are seldom 

 born to them ; but I have nowhere found any reason to sup- 

 pose that one is always destroyed. - As a direct contradic- 

 tion to this assertion, I have seen the Carib and Macusi 

 mother with twins in her arms. The child is named by the 

 piaiman, piatsang, pache, or conjuror, who receives an offer- 

 ing of considerable value, and the strength of the incanta- 

 tions, which he pronounces on that occasion in a dark hut, 



