564 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



By iwniistsion of the South American Missionary Society. 



A GROUP OF LENGUA CHILDREN, PARAGUAYAN CHACO. 



sleep with a fire so close beneath their hammocks that the flames seem to lick their bare 

 bodies. 



Like all American aborigines, the Guiana Indians are prone to self-torture; and no man 

 can receive full rights of tribalship till he has undergone some hard ordeal. These tortures are 

 also submitted to in order to ensure success in hunting and fishing; and are inflicted not 

 only on the hunters themselves, but likewise on their dogs. A brush of fibres attached to a 

 long string is, for example, pulled through the nose into the mouth; irritating hairy cater- 

 pillars are rubbed into the limbs till a painful rash ensues; or the victim may be tormented 

 in various ways by the bites of venomous ants, or with red pepper. 



The clan system is, or was, strictly followed among the Aravvak tribes, the descent being 

 exclusively in the female line, and no intermarriage with relations on the maternal side 

 permitted. Accordingly, a person may take a husband or a wife from his or her father's 

 family, or from any other family save that of the mother. And when an Arawak takes a 

 wife, he forthwith domiciles himself with his father-in-law, for whom he works; thus 

 absolutely identifying himself with the family of his bride. There are, however, still some 

 traces in Guiana of marriage by capture. Boys and girls are betrothed at an early age, 

 but the nature of the bargain for a wife is still obscure; and, in general, marriage ceremonies 

 are dispensed with. That curious custom of the couvade, according to which it is the husband 

 who, on the birth of a child, takes to his hammock, where he is carefully tended by the 

 relatives and fed on a special diet, is universally prevalent. Although Arawaks when old and 

 useless are allowed to take to their hammocks, where they are somewhat grudgingly served 

 with food, they receive little else in the way of attention. When death comes, the relatives 

 usually exhibit slight evidences of grief, but will sometimes indulge in loud lamentation and 

 cut their hair. Usually the body of the deceased is wrapped in his own hammock, and 

 interred in a palm-leaf-lined grave dug in the middle of the house. Properly the corpse 

 should be placed in a sitting posture, or, among the Ackawois, in the standing position; but 



