of hanging fiber —a danger that probably underlies in part 
the natives’ belief that the evil spirit, the curupira, inhabits 
piassaba groves and wanders around at night.” The same 
curupira, we should add, is the central Master-of-Animals 
figure in South America who functions as the patron spirit 
of the trees and the forest (Zerries 1954: 18). Kanishabarao 
of the Warao is obviously a cousin of the Amazonian curupira. 
Furthermore, there exists also a sun-palm relationship among 
the Yukuna Indians of Colombia, whose kai-ya-tee festival 
resembles the annual sago festival, nahanamu, of the Warao, 
and “basically celebrates the harvest of the pupunha palm 
which was given to the Yukuna people by the ‘Sister of the 
Sun’ as one of their major cultivated foods” (Schultes 1974: 
16). 
That the Manicaria belongs to the midnight sun rather than 
to the day sun becomes apparent in the belief that, while its 
sago may be unsuitable for a nahanmu festival in honor of 
the cardinal gods, it is, nevertheless, used for this purpose by 
Kanishabarao and his people of the underworld. Annually 
they prepare a feast of temiche sago, and that is why the 
Indians may come across hollowed-out trunks of the palm in 
the forest. Kanishabarao and his people also eat the nuts and 
all the parts of the palm that humans enjoy. 
Finally, Manicaria sago is believed to be extracted by the 
monkey (naku) for purposes of celebrating an animal na- 
hanamu palm festival. Monkeys are supposedly very fond of 
the starch and are believed to be yet other ‘ ‘people” that 
hollow out the palms one happens across in the forest. 
Instead of fish or crab, monkeys are said to prefer large 
spiders (abunamoko) with their starch. 
The custom of recovering palm starch from Manicaria 
is essentially a feature of the past with the Warao. It came 
to my attention when an elderly informant remembered hear- 
ing his uncle and other elders send workers out to prepare 
Manicaria sago. It was done occasionally, he said, when the 
people were away from the Mauritia groves fishing on a ma- 
jor river. To supplement their diet, they relied on Manicaria 
sago which was always close at hand in the Intermediate 
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