124 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS [kth. axn. 30 



were returning with the cassava, they heard the music playing and said to themselves, 

 "There was no man or boy there when we left the house; who can it be? It must 

 be a man playing." And though ashamed they went in and saw the youth blowing 

 the harri-harri. As soon as they had taken the quakes (baskets) from off their backs 

 and placed them on the ground, they asked after Haburi. but Wau-uta said that as soon 

 as they liad left for the field, the child had run after them, and she had thought it was 

 still with them. Of course all this was a lie. Old Wau-uta was desirous of making 

 Haburi grow quickly, with the intention of making him idtimately her lover. She still 

 further deceived the two sisters. by pretending to assist in the search which was then 

 undertaken in the surrounding bush, but she took good care to get back to her house 

 first, and told Haburi to say she, Wau-uta. was his mother, and gave him full direc- 

 tions as to how he must treat her. 



13. Haburi was a splendid shot — no bird could escape his arrow — and Wau-uta 

 directed him to give to her all the big birds that he killed, .and to his mother and 

 aunt all the little ones, which he had to pollute first by fouling them. The object 

 of this was to make the two sisters so vexed and angry that they would leave the place: 

 but this they would not do; they continued searching the neighborhood for their 

 little child. This sort of thing went on for many days, big birds and dirtied little 

 birds being presented by Haburi to Wau-uta and the two women, respectively.' 

 Haburi, however, did one day miss a bird for the first time, his arrow sticking into a 

 branch overhanging a creek where his uncles, the water-dogs, used to come and feed. 

 It was a nice cleared space, and here Haburi eased himself, covering the dungwith 

 leaves. He next climbed the tree to dislodge the arrow, but just, then the water-dogs 

 arrived, and, scenting the air, exclaimed, "What smell is this? That worthless 

 nephew of ours, Haburi, must be somewhere about." So they looked around, and 

 down, and up, and finally discovering him on the tree branch, ordered him to come 

 down. They then sat him on a bench, and told him he was leading a bad life, that 

 the old woman was not his mother, but that the two younger ones were his mother and 

 aunt, respectively; they furthermore impressed upon him that it was very wicked of 

 him to divide the birds so unfairly, and that in future he must do exactly the opposite, 

 giving his real mother, the bigger of the two sisters, the larger birds. They told 

 him also to let his real mother know that the way he had hitherto treated her was 

 due entirely to ignorance on his part, and that he was sorry. 



14. So when Haburi got home that day, he carried out the instructions given him 

 by the water-dogs, handing the dirtied little birds to Wau-uta, and making a clean 

 breast of it to his mother. She, poor thing, felt very strange that day, and could not 

 bring herself to speak to him as "my son " all at once, but when he explained that it was 

 only Wau-uta who had made him a man quite suddenly, she believed him, and became 

 quite comforted. Old Wau-uta, on hearing all this, worked herself into a great passion, 

 and, seizing Haburi by the neck, blew into his face (Sect. S5), and told him he must 

 be mad; so angered and upset was she that she could eat nothing at all. She spent 

 all that day and night in nagging him, and telling him he had left his senses. Haburi 

 went away next morning as usual, returning late in the afternoon, when he again gave 

 the big birds which he had shot to his real mother and the dirtied little ones to Wau-uta. 

 The latter, as might have been expected, gave him no peace. 



15. Haburi, therefore, made up his mind to get out. So telling his mother that 

 they must all three arrange to get away together, he made a little corial (a dug- 

 out canoe) of bees' -wax, and when completed, he left it at the water-side; but, by 

 next morning a black duck had taken it away. He therefore made another little clay 

 corial, but this was stolen by another kind of duck. In the meantime he cut a large 

 field, and cleared it so quickly that the women with their planting could never keep 

 up with him. They required plenty of cassava for their proposed journey. At any 

 rate, while the women planted, Haburi would often slip away and make a boat, always 

 of a different kind of wood and of varying shape, and just as regularly would a dif- 



