550 



NA TURE 



[April 6, 1893 



of unaccustomed strangers, there is a great deal of life and even 

 in some cases of beauty in their appearance. It is practically 

 impossible for a stranger to see them in this their more pleasing 

 and natural state, except when, as I now do in this picture of 

 three Carib lads, they are taken under the most natural con- 

 ditions, and distance and time being for the purpose annihilated, 

 they are shown you in the most natural conditions but without 

 their knowledge. 



That it may not be said that in my anxiety to impress you 

 with my own too favourable ideas of these red-skinned friends of 

 mine, I have elected only to show you young fellows in their too 

 brief prime, I next show you an old Carib. I must, however, 

 admit that he is only old for a Redman. His age was probably 

 about forty-five. But these happy childlike people lead but a short 

 if a happy life, and are old at fifty, and rarely survive to sixty. . . 



Another obvious, but insufficiently used, use of the camera 

 for anthropological purposes would be for the better illustration 

 of collections of objects of ethnological interest. Those who 

 have tried know best the difficulty of showing these in an 

 effective and interesting manner. Comparatively elaborate and 

 correspondingly artistic objects made and used by a people who 

 have made considerable progress without attaining what we 

 are pleased to call civilisation, are easily shown in an attractive 

 manner ; but the simpler objects, illustrating the daily life of 

 people in a much more primitive state of civilisation, are not so 

 easily placed. The articles which constitute the dress and 

 ornaments of a people which makes but little use of ornament 

 and less of dress, are generally of so simple a nature that when 

 stored in rows or, as I am afraid is sometimes the case, in heaps 

 or even in bundles, in museum cases, they too often seem 

 deficient in interest to the very curators of the museum, and are 

 naturally much more so to the outside public. Yet these same 

 things, very likely, to one who has seen them in actual use, 

 seem, just because of their simplicity, more interesting than the 

 elaborate dancing masks and such like. It has been suggested 

 — possibly the suggestion has been carried into effect — to dis- 

 play these on lay figures ; but when it is remembered how very 

 few of these simple articles of dress or ornament are worn at 

 any one time, it is obvious that for their proper display in 

 the suggested manner the number of lay figures which would 

 be required would, for reasons both of economy and of space, 

 make the plan ineffective. A much more feasible plan would 

 be to place by the side of each object, or group of objects dis- 

 played, a photograph of the object — preferably of the identical 

 object. A few examples will better explain what I mean : — 



The first is a photograph of a Partamona (Ackawoi) Redman 

 in a curious dress made and worn for a special festival celebrated 

 by those people and called Parasheera. The dress consists of 

 three parts, which may be described as skirt, cloak, and mask, 

 all made of the bright greenish-yellow, immature leaves of the 

 ^ta palm {Mauritia flexuosa). Probably there is not an ex- 

 ample of this dress in any existing museum ; for it is probable 

 that no white man except myself has ever seen it, and I frankly 

 confess that I was deterred, as has often been the case under 

 similar circumstances, from bringing away an example of the 

 dress by the consideration that when seen off the body of the 

 wearer it would look like nothing in the world but a small bundle 

 of withered palm leaves, and would to the uninitiated seem 

 supremely uninteresting. 



The next example I show you is a picture of a Macusi lad in 

 full dancing dress. Those who are acquainted with the ordinary 

 heaped curiosities of the average ethnological collection will 

 perhaps recognise the typical head-dress of bright parrot and 

 macaw feathers, the loose hanging ruff of alternate black curas- 

 sow and white egret feathers, and the strip of waist-cloth upheld 

 by a cotton belt, which constitutes the whole of this dress ; and 

 such persons will probably recognise that these articles seen, as 

 in this photograph, in situ, acquire a new interest. 



Again, one of the commonest articles from Guiana seen in 

 museums is the necklace of peccary teeth, much affected by all 

 the Carib tribes. But in now showing you one of the finest 

 specimens of this ornament I have ever seen, it will probably 

 gain very much in interest from the fact that I am able at the 

 same time to throw on to the screen a picture of the actual 

 necklace on the Macusi, named Lonk, from whose shoulders I 

 acquired it. And it may in passing be of interest to add that 

 these necklaces, in the manufacture of which only the tusk teeth 

 of the peccary are used, so that in proportion to its size each 

 represents a very large number of animals, are most highly 

 •valued as heirlooms, and as representing the accumulated prow- 



NO. 1223, VOL. 47] 



ess not only of the wearer for the time being, but also of his 

 ancestors, for this property is handed down in the male line of 

 descent, and is added to by each holder, . . , 



In short, a good series of photographs showing each of the 

 possessions of a primitive folk, and its use, would be far more 

 instructive and far more interesting than any collection of the 

 articles themselves. Or, if it is desired to illustrate not the pos- 

 sessions but the habits of such folk, the thing can be done in the 

 same way, A few examples from a large series showing the 

 games of these people will illustrate this. 



Many of their games are dramatic representations of ordinary 

 incidents in their work-a-day life. One represents their rare 

 and eventful visits to the distant town. Of the many figures 

 in this game one represents the fully-manned canoe in which 

 they go on their journey down the big rivers of the country. 

 All but two of the players, seated on the ground, the one 

 behind the other, and each clasping the player in front of 

 him, form a long line, which, by the action of the feet and 

 thighs of its constituent members, drags itself slowly forward, 

 the whole swaying from side to side. In this way — which must 

 certainly involve a considerable amount of somewhat painful 

 friction, considering the hardness of the stony ground traversed 

 and the unprotectedness of the skins of the players — a very 

 realistic representation of the forward rolling motion of a large 

 and well-manned canoe, such as would be used on a real journey, 

 is attained. And the illusion is assisted by the players' noisy 

 imitation of the regular and most characteristic rhythmic beat 

 of the paddles against the sides of the canoe, and of the shouts 

 of the paddlers. 



After several other figures, another comes, in which the 

 players, all standing in line, each falls forward on his hands and 

 feet, his thighs the highest part of him, so that the whole line of 

 players, with their closely pressed bodies, forms a long tunnel, 

 through which each player in turn has, as in a well-known 

 figure in the old-fashioned dance of Sir Roger de Coverley, to 

 pass, but by creeping. The journey, that is, is nearly over ; 

 and the home-comers, leaving the broad river up which they 

 have come so far, have turned into the narrow creek or side 

 stream densely roofed with low hanging trees, which leads 

 directly to their homes ; and under this natural tunnel the canoe 

 has to force its way. 



Other games to be seen among the Redmen of the borders of 

 Guiana and Brazil are simple representations of- the doings of 

 animals. For instance, one represents an aguti in a pen and 

 the attempts of a jaguar to get him out. The players form a 

 ring, their arms round each other's necks. Inside this circle 

 one of the players crouches, and represents an aguti — a small 

 animal often kept in captivity by the Redmen — inside the pen. 

 Outside the pen another player watches ; it is the jaguar looking 

 with hungry eyes on the aguti. He tries to get the aguti out 

 between the bars of the pen, that is, between the legs of the 

 ring of players. But the living pen whirls round and round, and 

 it is no easy task for the jaguar to seize the aguti and drag it out. 



Yet more curious is the whipping game of the Arawacks. 

 It is played by any number of persons, but generally only by 

 men and boys, for one, two, or three days and nights — as 

 long, that is, as the supply ol paiwari, the native beer, holds out. 

 The players, with but brief intervals, range themselves in 

 two Imes opposite each other. Every now and then a pair of 

 players, one from each line, separate from the rest. One of 

 these puts forward his leg and stands firm ; the other carefully 

 measures the most effective distance with a powerful and 

 special whip with which each player is provided, and then 

 lashes with all his force the calf of the other. The crack is 

 like a pistol shot, and the result is a gash across the skin of 

 the patient's calf. Sometimes a second similar blow is given 

 and borne. Then the position of the pair of players is reversed, 

 and the flogged man flogs the other. Then the pair retire, 

 drink good-temperedly together, and rejoin the line, to let 

 another pair take their turn of activity, but presently, and 

 again and again at intervals, to repeat their own activity. 



It has been said that the most active players of this extra- 

 ordinary game are the men and boys. But occasionally the 

 women lake a part also. And it is noteworthy that when this 

 is the case a wooden figure of a bird, a heron, is substituted for 

 each of the whips, and a gentle peck with this bird is substi- 

 tuted for the far more serious lash of the whip. I do not know 

 that any equivalent example of the fact that the germ of the idea 

 of courtesy to the weaker sex exists among people even in this 

 stage of civilisation is on record. 



