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



Many of the Indian tribes, but chiefly the Caribs, Makusi, and 

 Akawai have the custom of burying theu- dead either in the hut 

 where they lived, or, if a case of death should happen during a journey, 

 a shed covered with palm leaves is built over the grave to prevent 

 the weather from incommoding the person who rests beneath (ScG, 

 271). For the alleged reason of making doubly sure of giving the 

 spu'it or spirits no cause for wishing to come out of the grave, certain 

 of the present-day Pomeroon Arawaks are said either to plant cassava, 

 or to place a cassava-squeezer, upon the top of it. 



11. The eating of the corpse's flesh or the drinking of a preparation 

 made therefrom, except in those cases in which cannibalism was 

 indidged in rather by reason of vengeance with the object of inspiring 

 terror in their enemies (PBa, 171), was but the expression of another 

 link in the chain of ideas which culminated in a belief in spirit 

 immortality. There yet remamed in the flesh and bones of the 

 deceased certain qualities, somethings, spirits, etc., which could be 

 detached, separated, and transferred to the living by means of mges- 

 tion. There is abundant evidence among these Guiana Indians of a 

 belief in the transference of individual (anunal or human) pecidiari- 

 ties through this agency (Sects. 250, 280) . Thus in order to strengthen 

 their own courage and contempt for death, the Caribs of the upper 

 Pomeroon would cut out the heart of the person slain, dry it over the 

 fu-e, powder it, and then mix the powder in their drmk (ScR, ii, 430). 



The Taridnas and Tucdnos (of the Uaiipes River) and some other tribes, about a 

 month after the funeral, disinter the corpse which is then much decompo.sed, and put 

 it in a great pan, or oven, over the fire, till all the volatile parts are driven off with a 

 most horrible odour, leaving only a black carbonaceous mass, which is poimded into 

 a fine powder, and mixed in several large couches (vats made of hollowed trees) of 

 caxiri: this is drunk by the assembled companj' till all is finished; they believe that 

 thus the virtues of the deceased will be transmitted to the drinkers. [ARW, 346.] 



The Salivas on the Orinoco also pursued the practice of diggmg up 

 the bones, burning them, and then collecting the ashes to mix with 

 their di-mkuig water (Bri, 267). 



On the other hand, in the lands back [of Caj^enne] there are 

 nations who disinter the bones when they consider the body is putrid 

 enough, and after calcining them, drink the ashes which they mix 

 with their vicou, believing that by this means they are giving the 

 defunct a more honorable burial than by leaving them a prey to 

 worms and corruption (PBa, 2.31).^ 



78. Surely it is not um-easonablc to suppose, granted certain spirits 

 and other agencies were believed to be contained in the corpses, that 

 the bones of the deceased distributed among friends and acquamt- 

 ances, or slung up in their houses, must have served a purpose other 



1 This was practically tho identical rea.son given me by a North Queensland aboriginal native when I 

 asked her why she had eaten her little child's body instead of burying it. — W. E. R. 



