Chapter M^I 

 FAMILIAR SPIRITS 



The cult of Familiar Spirits reaclu'd a high development among the Island Carib 

 folk (89). Though presented with offerings and other things, these Spirits could be 

 invoked only by the Medicine-man {90), and, being more or less intimately asso- 

 ciated with human bones, were often called into requisition for purposes of Witchcraft 

 and Prophecy (97). The Island Arawak people also had similar Familiar Spirits (92), 

 the belief in whose existence is even yet traceable on the Guiana mainland (93). 

 Familiar Spirits and Couvade (9^.4). 



89. The cult of the FamiUar Spirit would appear to have reached a 

 high stage of development among the island tribes; at any rate, it 

 is from tliese people that ct)mparatively complete records of its exist- 

 ence have come down to us. Thus with the Carib Islanders: "The 

 good spirits which are their gods arc more particularly expressed as 

 Icheiri (by men) and Oiemin (by women): They beheve that these 

 good spirits, or these gods, are in great numbers, and in this pliu-ality 

 each person beheves he Itas a special one for himself — ^liis own par- 

 ticidar spirit, liis own familiar: They say that these gods reside in 

 the sky, but do not know what they do there, and they themselves 

 show no signs of recognizing them as the creators of the world and of 

 things that are" (RoP, 471). The precise source or origin of these 

 Famihar Spirits is unfortunately nowhere given, beyond the statement 

 that they leave the human body at death in company -with the par- 

 ticular spirit comiectcd witli the deceased's heart (ibid., 484). Again: 

 The Island Caribs dedicated no temples or altars to their divinities, 

 these Icheiri or Oh(>min: they made them no sacrifices. They simply 

 made them offerings of cassava, and their first fruits. Above all, 

 when they behoved that they had been cured by them of some illness, 

 they had a feast in their honor and offered them cassava and oiiicou. 

 All these offerings are knowni as anacri [ahhi]: they place these at 

 one end of the hut in A-essels, according to the nature of the thing, on 

 one or several matittus, or small tallies jilaited of rushes "and palm 

 leaves. Each one in the hut can make these offerings to his [Familiar] 

 Spirit; but such offerings are not accompanied by any adoration or 

 prayer, and consist only of the actual presentation of the gifts (ibid., 

 472). 



90. To invoke them, however, requires the Boye (medicine-man), 

 together with incantations and tobacco smoke. This is the case 

 chiefly on four occasions: (a) tg be revenged on some one who has 

 done them hann, and so draw punishment on h i m ; (6) to get cm'ed 

 of some illness and learn the results of it; (c) to consult them on the 



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