64 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



this social condition. The Demarena, one of the 

 Arawak clans, trace their descent from a girl, the 

 daughter of a mythical people who dwelt below the 

 earth. A young man fell in love with her, and was 

 only allowed to marry her on condition of going down 

 to share his bride's home and join her family. The 

 descendants of this pair have connubium only with the 

 clan of the young man in question, namely the Koro- 

 bohana, whose totem seems to be a species of parrot, 1 

 a custom pointing perhaps to an older rule of acquiring 

 brides by exchange. Another story does not relate 

 the origin of a clan ; but it is one of a " great chain of 

 legends " accounting for the peculiarities of the various 

 animals of the country, and is therefore part of the 

 ancient myth-store of the aborigines. It belongs to a 

 cycle of tales known all over the world. A beautiful 

 royal vulture, so it runs, was once captured by a bold 

 hunter. She was the daughter of Anuanima, sovereign 

 of a race whose country is above the sky, and who 

 cease there to be birds and assume human form and 

 habits. Smitten with love for the hunter his captive 

 laid aside her feathers and exhibited her true form- 

 that of a beautiful girl. " She becomes his wife, bears 

 him above the clouds, and after much trouble persuades 

 her father and family to receive him. All then goes 

 well until he expresses a wish to visit his aged mother, 

 when they discard him." After great difficulties he 

 reaches his home in safety. Then follow his efforts to 

 regain his wife whom he tenderly loves. With the 

 assistance of the birds, whose forces he commands, he 

 invades his wife's country above the sky, where "he is 

 at last slain by a valiant young warrior resembling 



1 Brett, Legends, 178. 



