140 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GtTIANA INDIANS [eth. ann. 30 



and representing human beings and an armadillo. From Massaruni 

 River. Contributed by H. C. Whit lock and Geo. Dennis. These 

 are the only specimens of Indian plastic art ever seen by the Contribu- 

 tors." I myself have obtained cliildren's whistles in the shape of 

 frogs and turtles made of clay by the Moruca River Caribs. Among 

 the Caribs of the Parou River, French Guiana, Crevaux (262) speaks 

 of meeting with a young woman who was modeling a tapir in black 

 wax. From the upper Aiary (Rio Negro) Koch-Griinberg (i, 125) 

 figures several wax objects modeled by httle boys, and wooden fishes 

 employed in the death ceremonies (KG, ii, 154). In our own colony, 

 Schomburgk states (ScR, ii, 471) that at a Maopityan settlement, 

 under the cone-shaped shelter raised on top of the giant huts, 

 were several flat pieces of wood, cut' into all kinds of figures, 

 which swayed to and fro with the wind. Among the Monikos and 

 Sokorikos, branches of the Carib race inhabiting the districts on both 

 sides of the Cotinga, "a very marked feature in all their houses," 

 says J. J. Quelch (Ti, 1895, pp. 144-5), "are the rude imitations of 

 birds, chiefly of the herons, the negrocop [Mycteria], the muscovy 

 duck, and the swallow-tailed hawk, wliich are made from cotton 

 thread, corn-cobs and sticks, and are suspended high up under the 

 roofs of the houses, in the positions occupied during flight." These 

 are probably identical with the targets met with on the Alar}' River 

 (Rio Negro). Targets of artificial bii'ds, made of maize-cobs and their 

 coverings, hang as decorations from the crossbeams of the houses: 

 the boys blow at them with nonpoisoned ari-ows (KG, i, 102; ii, 244). 

 50. Outside of the Guianas to the westward, among the Carijonas 

 of the upper Yapura, Crevaux (361) speaks of a bench with rough 

 carvings representing a bird of pre}'; also of the wooden figure of a 

 man with legs wide apart. To the southward, Acuna (142) makes 

 mention of the Capunas and Zurinas on the south side of the Ama- 

 zon, near its junction with the Rio Negro: 



They will cut a raised figure bo much to the life and so exactly upon any coarse 

 piece of wood that many of our Carvers might take pattern by them. It is not only 

 to gratify their own fancies, and for their own use that they make these pieces of work, 

 but also for the Profit it brings them: for they hereby maintain a trade with their 

 neighbotus, and truck their work with them for any necessaries to serve their occasion. 



