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



The woman was at a loss to know wliat to do: she was alarmed at the prospect of 

 exposure and yet did not want to draw too much attention to herseU'. All she 

 could do was to wait until the others had finished and then bathe alone. Tliis went on 

 for some days, until the others remarked upon it, wondering why the new-comer would 

 never go into the water with them, but alwayawaiteduntiltheyhad finished bathing. 

 Two of them accordingly set watch, and as a result discovered that it was a woman who 

 had come among them. They thereupon determined on killing the husband so 

 as to secure possession of the wife. They tried twice, but on each occasion something 

 went wrong with their plans. The third time, they tied him in a corial and let it 

 drift out to sea, but the sea cast it back on shore, where a tiger, scenting him, gnawed 

 through the ropes, and set him free. Tiger did not. however, go to all this trouble for 

 the sake of kindness, but for pure selfishness, telling his captive that he now intended 

 punishing him. "Don't do that," pleaded the man, "haven't I been punished 

 enough in losing my wife?" This was but reasonable, and Tiger let him go. The 

 man then walked along the shore a good distance, until he came to a house, wliich he 

 was afraid to enter; but the house-master bade him welcome, provided him with a 

 stool to sit on, and with food to eat. Having been asked what he was doing, and 

 wliither he was going, the wanderer related how he had been robbed of his wife, what 

 he had suffered on her account, and that he intended seeking her. Now, the house- 

 master was really a Spirit, and knew perfectly that what had been narrated was the 

 truth. He told the man to shut his eyes, and when he opened them again, a third 

 person, another Spirit, was present. "Go with this friend," said the house-master, 

 "and you will find your wife. " So they went, and traveled far, and eventually came 

 to a house, where they slung their hammocks and rested. In the meantime, the wife 

 had been taken possession of by a " keeper, " and was living in the near neighborhood. 

 The guilty couple used to pass regularly the very house where the husband was resting, 

 and when the wife saw him she exclaimed, "Look! there is my husband," but the 

 keeper said that it could not be, because he had been tied inside a corial and allowed 

 to drift out to sea. However, to make sure, they went in, and when they recognized 

 the husband, they chopped him up with an ax. But the Spirit friend restored him 

 to life, and when the wicked people passed again next day, the wife exclaimed as 

 before, "Look! there is my husband!" So they killed him a second time, but the 

 Spirit again made him whole. And the couple passed the house a tliird time, and 

 just the same thing happened, except that the keeper burned the body, and scattered 

 the ashes. This, however, made no difference, because the Spirit collected the ashes 

 together in a palm leaf, and made them into a living person again. The resurrected 

 husband, acting under advice, then went and destroyed his faithless wife as well as her 

 paramour : their friends and relatives tried to piece the bits together, and ' ' make them 

 alive," but this they could not do. It is only Spirits who can do such things. 



107. Certain of the Forest Spirits have come from the bodies of 

 old-time medicine-men: the present-day celebrant invokes them with 

 his rattle (Sect. 309). Such Spirits may be considered beneficent in 

 the sense of assisting the piai by giving him mformation concerning 

 the source of the illness from which liis patient is suffering, and m other 

 ways. Evidently others have been kindly disposed occasionally, in 

 that they have conferred blessings and other gifts upon mankind.' 

 Thus, Arawak legends point to the Spirits of the Forest as the intro- 

 ducers among them of the flute made from the femoral bone of animals, 

 and according to Akawai tales, of the seweTielcuru, or lace-work of hard 

 nutshells tied on the legs to give proper time to the movements in 

 dancing (Da, 184). Sometimes these Spirits do positive good, as in 



