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



which thus far I have not been able to identify. The IncUan <;;uicle 

 breaks liis arrow and asks pardon from the Spirit for his p]uro])ean 

 visitor having touched the timber with unclean victims — a fisli and 

 an agouti.' 



97. Wien perceptible to human eyes, the Ekkekuli or Manahau 

 have the appearance of black people (negroes) : they are of a savage 

 nature, killing Indians, and abducting children. If anj^where in the 

 neighboring caves and guUios and their names be loudly called 

 in the forest, they will materiaUze. The Mansinskiri (Arawak), or 

 Mailiisikiri (Warrau) is a particular Yawalui wandering about the 

 bush, and in and among tRe trees, of which the native women, sub- 

 sequent to certain regular occasions, have to be especially careful. 

 Such Spirits can assume the identical material appearance of tlieir 

 real husbands or lovers, but woe betide those ]ioor women who j-ield 

 to their solicitations, for they will surely die in a few days. On the 

 other hand, provided the woman is shrewd enough, she can invari- 

 ably tell whether she is dealing with the real man or not — she has 

 only to look at the left foot; in the case of a spirit wooer, this is 

 always minus the big toe. During February, 1910, an Indian came 

 and gave me particulars of his wife's death, with details as to name, 

 place, and surrounding circumstances. The wife had been out getting 

 firewood in the busli, and had unexpectedly met what she had beheved 

 to be her husband. When she got home there was her husband lying 

 in his hammock; she expressed surprise at seaing him, still more so 

 when he assured her that he had not been away from the house that 

 day. Like a gooil wife, she told liim what had happened to her. 

 Within the week the woman died. 



97A. The Maihisikiri Changes the Woman into a Bush 



Spirit (W) 



A man went out hunting, leaving his wife behind by lierself. It was then that a 

 Maihisikiri appeared, and believing it to be her husband, the woman allowed him 

 to act like one, but he went away shortly before the time for her real husband to arrive. 

 The same thing happened on a second and a third occasion, but on the last \'isit, know- 

 ing that her husband had gone to a distant locality, she expressed her doubts by asking 

 Maihisikiri, "How can you be my husband ? he is gone far away. " It was only then 

 that he admitted who he really was, a Bush Spirit in her husband's likeness, and he 

 told her to come away with him. When the real liusband returned, the house was 

 empty, and no wife visible, but he could hear her laughing in the distance, and 

 approaching the spot found her, prostrate, still laughing. She was laughing because 

 the Maihisikiri was sporting with her : her husband of course could not see the Spirit for 

 the reason that he was invisible to the male sex. Now, when he seized his wife's arm 

 to drag her home, it was all soft, with no bones in it, and then feeling her all over 

 realized that she had not a single bone in her body, which was all soft. Returning 

 home, he waited a while, and then returned a .second time to fetch her; but she was 

 still all flesh and skin, and sohe left herseverely alone. All she could say to him was; 



1 Further details of this and similar a.ssociation will be discussed in connection with plants (Chap. X). 



