INDIAN CHARMS 495 



more of the nature of charms, the possession of which is suffi- 

 cient to insure success in any undertaking. 



Balata bleeders and gold diggers believe in luck, and 

 sometimes carry beenas in the handkerchiefs tied around 

 their waist. I never heard of inoculating or even rubbing 

 on the skin in their cases. The wood-cutter, however, rubs 

 a beena on his arms before commencing to haul timber and 

 the women who carry loads of wood on their heads put a 

 leaf under the pad. I have been told of a kind of bush-rope, 

 used as a fighting beena ; it is rubbed on the arms after scari- 

 fying and is supposed to strengthen them and assist in 

 gaining the victory. The woman whose husband is cutting 

 timber uses a beena if she wants him to come home. She 

 keeps it in a bottle and shakes it, after which he is supposed 

 to have an impulse to leave his work and respond to the call. 

 As, however, Creoles have very little faith, the beenas are not 

 so effectual with them as with the Indians. 



Love beenas are used by Creoles to some extent. They 

 generally include the head of a hummingbird pounded and 

 mixed with some perfume. It appears that the soft parts 

 only are used after drying and these may be mixed with 

 part of a male bat and a caladium similar to that used to 

 invoke good-luck. It may be possible to find cases of suc- 

 cess among the more ignorant, but we need not expect such 

 certainty as with native Indians. 



Beenas suggest the beginnings of what we may consider 

 primitive religion. First we have man's great struggle for 

 success, which means mastery over other animals. He tried 

 his best by inventing weapons and partially succeeded. But 

 he was never uniformly successful, for although his bows, 

 arrows and blow-pipe were in good order and nothing was 

 faulty with his eyes, something might go wrong, and there 

 would be no meat. He seems to have got the idea at a very 

 early period that he could be assisted. How it first came is 

 naturally very obscure; we see it as the result of long use 

 of beenas. Possibly a caladium may have been found grow- 



