64 IN THE GUIANA FOREST. 



piwaree a fermented liquor made from chewed 

 cassava bread. For want of other vessels this 

 drink is generally made in a "dug-out" canoe, 

 and when the time comes for the drinking bout 

 the quantity disposed of by a few men is 

 astonishing. Calabashes full are handed round 

 by the women, and the men appear to emulate 

 each other in the number they take. Gallon after 

 gallon disappears down their throats, and every 

 now and again one goes outside to eject what he 

 has just taken. Altogether, these orgies are a blot 

 on the otherwise admirable character of the red 

 man, and show up his one weak point a taste for 

 drink and an intense craving for the pleasures of 

 intoxication. 



However, we will not dwell upon this unpleasant 

 subject, but come to the climax of the youth's 

 ambition. He cannot be altogether a man until 

 he has a wife. With a feather crown on his head, 

 a necklace of peccaries' teeth round his neck, and 

 perhaps a feather belt below his waist, he struts 

 about glorying in the fact that he is no longer a 

 child. The young girls look on him with admira- 

 tion ; they have seen his bearing under the ordeal. 

 Very little courting is necessary : the couple agree, 

 and, as a matter of course, the bride hangs her 

 hammock beside that of her husband the same 



