BOTH] CREATION OF MAN, PLANTS, AND ANIMALS 145 



(Bomhnx) or ite palm ( Mauritia). The AJiawai and Makiisi idea of 

 creation is that, co-eval with Makunaima, there was a large tree, 

 and that, ha"\ang mounted this tree, with a stone ax he cut pieces of 

 wood which, having been thrown into the river, became animated 

 beings (HiC, 244; ScR. ii, 319). The Arawaks hold that from his 

 seat on the silk-cotton tree, the Miglity One scattered twigs and 

 bark in the air, on the land, and in the water, and that from these 

 pieces arose the birds, beasts, reptiles, fish, and also men and women. 

 The sire of the Arawaks was Wadili (BrB, 7). Some of the Sahvas 

 affirmed that certain trees used to bear men and women for fiiiit, 

 and that these people were their ancestors (G, i, 113). The Maipures 

 and, according to Humboldt similarly the Tamanacs, say that in 

 early days the whole earth was sul)ni(M-gcd in water, only two people, 

 a man and a woman, saA^ng themselves on the top of the high moun- 

 tain Tamanaku; that as they wandered around the mountain in 

 deep distress over the loss of their friends, t*liey heard a voice which 

 tohl them to throw the fruits of the Mauritia behind them over their 

 shouldei-s, and that as they did so, the fniit which the man threw 

 became men, smd that which the woman threw, women (ScR, ii, 320). 

 Certain of the Achagua Indians pretend that they are the children 

 of tree-trunks a^nd from this allusion call themselves Aj^cuba- 

 verrenais (G. i, 114). I^okii-daia is the mythic Indian tree, growing 

 out of a gi-avc, which is said by some In(hans to have been the root 

 from which they sprang. When it was cut down, it was transformed 

 into a rajiid. wlicnce the name of one of the Demerara River rajjids 

 (Da, lUo). 



According to the idea cun-ent among the Trios, people were 

 originally like wood, stone, etc.. and had no faces (Go, 12). The 

 manufacture of a woman out of a plum tree .(Sect. 29), and the tree 

 changing into a man (Sect. 9), should also be noted here. 



58. Not a few legends (Sect. 158) connected \vith the origin of the 

 tribes contain curious examples of animism relative to earth, rocks, 

 and stones (Sect. 171). The Mapoyas, the Salivas, and the Otomacs, 

 all thrc<' of them Orinoco tribes, had behefs of this nature (G, i, 113). 

 The last-mentioned used to say that a stone matle up of three parts, 

 arranged in the form of a pyramid upon the summit of a rock called 

 Ban"aguan, was their earHest ancestress; and that another monstrous 

 rock, which served as the summit of another puuiacle, two leagues 

 distant, was their first ancestor. Being consistent, they beheved 

 that all the rocks and stones of which the said Barraguan (a liigh 

 promojitory of large rocks, bearing hardly a particle of earth) was 

 formed, were each of them one of theu- predecessors. Although 

 these Otomacs buried their dead, they dug up the skulls at the end 

 of a year, and placed them m aiul among the crevices and holes be- 

 tween the rocks and stones constituting the promontory mentioned, 



l."i!)r,l-'— iil) KTH l.'i 10 



