BOTH] THE SPIRITS OF THE BUSH 181 



road again. In this connection, it is interesting to note that Bates 

 speaks of his Indian boy, on the lower Amazon, making a charm 

 to protect them from the Curupari: "For this purpose he took a 

 young palm-leaf, plaited it, and fcrmed it into a ring which he hung 

 to a branch on our track" (ITWB, 35).' 



110. On the Orinoco, the Mapoyes blamed the Spirits of the Forest 

 for damage to their fields, the Guayquiries held them responsible 

 for all their strifes and tlisputes, the Guamos ascribed sickness to their 

 occult powers, while the Betoyes regarded them as the cause of the 

 deaths of all their children whose necks the_v broke so silently as not 

 to be felt (G, ii, 2.3-26). Tliis belief in their bemg the cause of 

 sickness and death is universal throughout the Guianas. Among 

 the Arawaks it is the Yawahu-sliimara, or Spirit's Arrow, which has 

 the properly of inflicting pains or ills, the visible causes of which are 

 not discoverable. The Arawaks, however, are not alone in this con- 

 cejjtion: it is apparently shared by the Caribs, from whom I learned 

 the following: 



Why Children- Become Sick and Cry (C) 



An Indian went into the forest to hunt small deer, and for this purpose built a 

 scaffold npon the trunk of a locust tree ( Ilymensea). When completed he sat on top of 

 it, liow and arrow in liand. waiting for the animals to come and eat the seeds that had 

 fallen around. By and by, a Yurokon woman came along with a baby slung over her 

 breasts, and a quake over her forehead. .She also was fond of locust seed, and when 

 she saw the fine fruit all scattered about, she put her baby down on the ground right 

 below the spot where the native was seated, and started going round the tree, picking 

 up the seeds, and gathering them into her basket . But while thus engaged, the Indian 

 shot the child, making it cry. The mother rushed back, to find her infant screaming 

 for no apparent cause; she felt it all over, but could disco\er no arrow . So she took it 

 to the piai of her trilie who soon discovered what was the matter, and extracted the 

 weapon, which he showed her: he sucked it out of the child. " Verj' well," exclaimed 

 the mother; ■Just as that Indian shot my boy, so will my husband shoot his people's 

 children, and make them crj' without any one knowing the reason." 



111. In Cayenne, it is Ilyorokon, the Bush Spirit, who strangles 

 some, corrupts the blood of others, covers this one with ulcers, and that 

 one afflicts with Jaundice. The same Indians believe also in a Spirit 

 caUetl Chinay [thus far not identified by me], who is a real cannibal and 

 sucks their blood, which accounts for their being so thin wheii sick 

 (PBa, 206). This belief (in the work of the Spirits) explains a 

 peculiar trait of Indian character which would otherwise be inex- 

 plicable. Believing that a child who has just fallen into the river 

 or has gotten beyond its dej)th is being drowned by the will or agency 

 of a Spirit, the Indian who passes by and sees the strugghng child 

 is afraid to incur the wrath of that Spirit, by any interference on his 

 part to save the child. He thinks he will have done his utmost duty 

 as a neighbor by informing the parents of the fate of their child 



» Compare the offerings to a medlcme-man, or to his Spirit, in Sect. 286. 



