PREFACE 



Wten, some seven years ago, 1 took up tlie duties of stipendiary 

 magistrate, medical oliicer, and protector of Indians in this mosquito- 

 cui-sed district of the Pomeroon, T determined upon devoting all mj- 

 spare time — and there has been plenty of it — to an ethnographical 

 survey of the native tribes of British Guiana, somewhat on the lines 

 I had already followed in the case of Xorth Queensland. As the 

 work progressed, I recognized that, for the proper comprehension of 

 my subject, it was necessary to mak(^ inquiry concerning the Indians 

 of Venezuela, Surinam, and Cayenne, with the result that the area 

 to be re^-iewed comprised practically that portion of the South 

 American continent bounded, roughly speaking, by the Atlantic 

 seaboard, the Orinoco, and the northern limits of the watershed of 

 the Rio Negro, and the lower Anuizon: and it was not long l)efore I 

 realized that for the proper study of the Arawaks and the Caribs I had 

 to include that of the now almost extinct Antilleans. 



In the course of my ethnographical work, I collected sufficient 



material in the way of myth, legend, and fable to warrant the j)ubli- 



cation of a separate volume on Animism and Folk-lore, and so the 



following pages have come to be written. The legends collected have 



been drawn mainly from Arawak, Carib, and Warrau sources, and 



are initialed (A), (C), and (W), respectively. 



Waltek E. Roth. 



Pomeroon River, British Guiana, June, 1913. 



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