156 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS [eth. ANN. 30 



sessed. When the last article had ])asse(l out of the door, in came 

 the piai: he proceeded to the head ot the corpse, bent down to the 

 left ear, and shouted several words into it, when he retired. The 

 piai came back with a bundle of hair, and bending down, exposed 

 the corpse's face from beneath the laths, spat on it; then plugged 

 the hair into the ears and mouth, while he continued spitting; 

 then, addressing it in a harsh tone, he retired (ScR, i, 421). So 

 again, at the death of a Makusi female from the effects of a snake 

 bite, all the women of the village gathered in the hut and shouted 

 unintelligible words into the corpse's ears (ScR, ii, 269).' 



On the Moruca River, the Warrau women sit in a cncle round the 

 grave, and break out ever anew with their song of mourning, which 

 is apjiroximately as follows: '' Wliy have you left your wife, children, 

 and friends who loved you so dearly? Wliy have you left your 

 home and field, where yams and cassava were thriving so well ? . . . 

 Wlio will catch agouti, monkey, fish, and turtle for us now ?" (ScR, 

 II, 446.) "Wliy are you dead? Were you tired of life? Did you 

 not have cassava enough?" are among the expressions addressed 

 by the Island Carib women to the corpse (BBR, 2.52). So with their 

 fellow tribeswomen in Cayenne where, on a death, the men, women, 

 friends, and children assemble and weep, or rather sing; the singing 

 is done mostly by the nearest female relatives who, sitting on theh" 

 heels, slowly pass both hands over the corpse from head to foot, 

 while reproaching him for having let himself die. "Is it because 

 you were not happy with us?" say some. "What have we done for 

 you to leave us like this?" say others. They add: "You were such 

 a good hunter, too ! You caught fish and crabs so well ! You loiew 

 how to make a proper provision-field," etc. (PBa, 22S). On the 

 Orinoco the Saliva mourners, on finallj' eulogizing the deceased, 

 would say, "Wliat an excellent fisherman we have lost!" "Wliat a 

 clever archer has died; he never missed his mark!" (G, i, 197). 

 Among the special feasts and festivals in honor, or rather in pro- 

 pitiation, of the dead, I would mention the Arawak Makuari .(Mora- 

 Kuyuha, Sect. 75) and Hauyari dances for deceased males and 

 females, respectively. In the far western Guianas, the object of 

 the Mask dances is to propitiate the spirit of the dead, so that he 

 will not come back again to fetch one of the survivors (KG, 138). 



75. WTien the death of any member of that tribe [ Akawai] is supposed to have been 

 brought about by unfair means, the knife of the deceased is buried with him, that 

 he may have the means of avenging himseh" in the world of spirits. The Warraus, in 

 similar circumstances, place a bow and arrows by the side of the dead man, that he 

 may by means of those weapons keep off malignant spkits in his passage to the other 

 world. (Br, 356.) 



1 In these last two examples there is difficulty in intei^preting the real signification of the shouting into 

 the ears — whether it is the deceased or the mischievous spirit causing the death (Sect. StO) that is being 

 addressed. In North Queensland I have observed a similar custom. There, the seat of intelligence, life, 

 etc., is located in the ear,and at death these escape through this exit: hence, by shouting into the deceased's 

 ears his friends are trying to restore these essentials to their proper place. — W. E. R. 



