150 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS [eth. axn. 30 



skins," (i. e., "You will always be young," like snakes, etc.), but oue 

 doubting old dame called out "Oh!" which annoyed AmaUvaca so 

 much that he now said "You shall die!" (ScK^ ii, 320). When 

 Kururumanni [Kororomanna] came to earth to see what the Ara- 

 waks were domg, lie found them so bad that he wished to destroy 

 them, on which account he took away their everlasting life and 

 bestowed it on those creatures who cast their skins — snakes, lizards, 

 and cocki'oaches (ScR, ii, 319). 



64A. There are several examples of this takmg-off and puttmg-on 

 of skins and consequent continuous existence, to be met with in the 

 Guiana folk-lore (c. g., Sects. 64.B, 137, 162), therefore I can only con- 

 clude that all of these are stages in the conception of the same idea of 

 living forever. 



The Man with a Bad Temper (W) 



A man and woman once caught a girl monkey and "minded " her: she became quite 

 tame, and when the old people would have to go away for a while, they would often 

 leave the monkey in charge. One day when they had thus gone away on a visit to 

 some friends, the monkey took off her skin, threw it over one of the house-beams, and 

 replaced it with the apron-belt and other ornaments that the household had left behind. 

 She then started with the cassava, which she cooked and ate; finally she put on her 

 skin again. AMien the house-folk returned, they looked for the cassava, but could 

 fuid none, and though they were puzzled a good deal, they never suspected the monkey. 

 On the next occasion that they had to leave the place, a yoimg man remained behind, 

 though hidden, to watch lest any one should steal the cassava a second time. After a 

 while the monkey took off her skin, dressed herself as before, and commenced baking 

 the cassava: the young man rushed up and seized her, and a hard struggle took place. 

 "No," said the girl, "I am not fit to be your wife. " "But I want you badly" was the 

 rejoinder. "That's all very well," added the girl, " but you will ill-treat me and knock 

 me about." And when he assured her that he would never ill-treat her, she at last 

 consented, and so soon as she agreed to yield to his desires, he pulled the monkey skin 

 down from the beam and tlu-ew it into the fire. They remained together a long time. 

 By and by she bore him a little boy. And now her troubles indeed again com- 

 menced, because, getting tired of her, he began "lashing" her and kept calling her 

 "Monkey," and annoying her in every way he could. Suffering so much, at last 

 she said to herseU, "I can bear this treatment no longer; I will return to my people." 

 Taking a calabash and some it^-stareh, she told her husband that she was going to 

 bathe in the pond, but instead of doing so, she really went far away into the bush. 

 Her husband waited long, long, for her to return, and finally followed in search. By 

 this time she was limping along with the help of a stick: she was trjTug to get back 

 into her original style of walking on four legs, and was just contriving to resume her 

 old habit of jumping from tree to tree ; her little boy also was beginning to imitate her 

 movements. And when the husband reached the spot where she had been, there he saw 

 her with the baby jumping from the top of one tree to the top of another. "Come 

 back home!" he kept on shouting, but his wife took no heed; only his child, who 

 felt sorry for hisfather, threw down the spiders and insects for him to eat. Now, though 

 monkeys eat such things, men can not eat them, and so he had to proceed hungry. 

 "Come back home!" he again called out to her, as he tried to follow her through the 

 bushes below, but looking down upon him, she said, "No! I have had quite enough 

 purdshment from you already." And thus they proceeded on and on, the father run- 

 ning along on the ground below, the mother and child jumping from the topmost 

 branches of tree to tree. At last they came to a wide river, and here the monkey cried 

 out to her people .£i3tanm-f<5ri (i. «. "Come and fetch us!"). And they made the 



