ROTH] TRACES OP SPIRIT, IDOL, AND FETISH CULT 139 



kei>t them under pots, in order to obtain rain or fine weather; and 

 so fully persuaded were they of their power in this respect, that they 

 scourged them as often as their petitions were not answered. " (FD, 

 52.) It is known that for the Chsnmas, Cumanagotos, Tamanacs, and 

 other original tribes of th(\ Caribs, the frog was the god of the waters 

 (cf. Sect. IS) : Ruiz Blanco {Conversion de Piritu) says that the 

 Cumanagotos never killed a frog, but kept one like a domestic animal, 

 beating it when the rain did not fall (AR, 185). There is an intimate 

 connection between frogs, toads, and certain other animals, and suc- 

 cess in the chase (Sect. 8^9). 



47. Beyond the mention of certain snake dances. I can find nothing 

 akin to actual worshi]) and sinoilur ceremonies in connection with 

 these creatures, notwithstanding the very deep-rooted belief in the 

 relationship of the serpent to sexual matt(>rs (Sect. 3^7). At Maroa, 

 River Guainia (upper Rio Negro), Humboldt (ii, 38(i) talks of "that 

 ancient dance of serpents, the Queti, in wliich these wily animals are 

 represented as issuing from the forests, and coming to drink with the 

 men in order to deceive them, and carry off the women." So also 

 Wallace (204) records in connection with a snake dance among the 

 Uaupes River Indians, participated in by men and boys, "two huge 

 artificial snakes of twigs anil busiies bound together with sipos, from 

 tliiity to forty feet long, and about a foot in diameter. . . . They 

 divided themselves into two parties of twelve or fifteen each, and 

 lifting the snakes on their .shoulders, began (Umcing." 



48. South of theGuianas, there is the evidence of Acuna (92) from 

 the Amazons, in 1639: 



The Religion of these barbarous People is much alike: they all worship Idols which 

 they make with their own hands; to one of them they ascribe the authority of govern- 

 ing the waters, and put a fish in his hand in token of his power; they choose others 

 to preside over their seed time, and others to inspire them with courage in their Battles; 

 they say these gods came down from Heaven on purpose to dwell with them and to 

 show them kindness. They do not signify their Adoration of these Idols by any out- 

 ward ceremonies, but on the contrary seem to have forgotten them as soon as thej' have 

 made them, and ptitting them in a case let them lie, without taking any notice of 

 them so long as they imagine they have no occasion for their Help; Imt when they 

 are ready to march out to war, they set up the Idol in which they have placed the 

 hopes of their Victories, at the Prow of their Canoes (Cf. Sect. 84)' so, when they go a 

 fishing, they take that Idol with them to which they attribute the government of the 

 waters. 



49. On the other hand, there are a few accounts of the existence 

 of various ctdt objects, the actual signification of wliich has so far 

 not been satisfactorily explained; lest these should ever be claimed 

 as examples of a fetish cult, it would be well to mention them here. 

 In the Catalogue of Contributions transmitted from British Guiana 

 to the London International Exliibition of 1862 there is a record 

 (p. 52) of "Figures of Clay, made by an Indian of the Caribisi tribe, 



