60 IN THE GUIANA FOREST. 



His feather crown and belt glow with colour and 

 show very good taste, and even his paint is not 

 glaringly discordant. Necklaces of peccaries' 

 teeth and seeds, with tufts of toucans' breasts 

 hanging down the back ; bracelets and anklets 

 of beetles' wings ; and belts of rattling seeds, all 

 go to decorate the man, leaving the woman without 

 even a floral wreath. Sexual selection appears here 

 as in most of the lower animals to come from the 

 female side ; the male decorates himself, dances, 

 boasts of his prowess in hunting, and plays Othello 

 as a matter of course, while the female tacitly 

 approves and gives him her homage. 



Life is a serious thing to the Indian boy. He is 

 ambitious to become a man as soon as possible. 

 Around him he sees skilful hunters and fishermen, 

 and wants to be like them. His father tells him to 

 wait he is not yet a man, nor can he become one 

 until he has gone through the proper ordeal. Ol 

 course, he wants to do this as soon as possible, and 

 is proud to show how well he can shoot, paddle, 

 and chop down trees. Then, to prove his capability 

 of bearing pain he allows manourie ants to bite 

 him, or cuts gashes on his arms and breast, into 

 which he rubs the acrid juice of a beena in imita- 

 tion of his father and the other men. 



This reminds us that but little is known of this 



