182 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS [eth. ann. 30 



(Da, 290). So again, because sickness is regarded chiefl_y as due to 

 Spirits, the method of cure is therefore mainly directed to driving 

 them out by means of presents, through the agency of the piai, etc' 

 112. Death, sickness, and other calamities may be inflicted by the 

 Spirits upon mankind, not only out of pure malevolence, but also by 

 way of punishment for transgressions committed against the recog- 

 nized rules of law and order as umlerstood in Indian society. The 

 other calamities just referred to include, inter alia, transformation 

 into various beasts and birds, and spontaneous disappearance. The 

 following five legends from the Warraus and Arawaks illustrate these 

 points pretty clearly. 



The Woman Killed by her Husband's Spirit (W) 



A party of Arawaks. all of them married men, once went to Morawinni. on the way 

 to the Berliice, where they were murdered. Their wives whom they had left behind 

 here [Ln the Pomeroon] took other men. all except one. who was verj' sorn,' at losing her 

 husband, and would not take another one. She found consolation in her two little 

 children. Later on, it happened that the whole settlement went off to a drink-party, 

 but this same woman prefc'rred to remain liehind alone. \Mien night came on, she 

 heard the harn-harri (flutei plajing in the river, and the sound gradually coming 

 nearer and nearer. Recognizing it as her husband's, she turned to her child and said, 

 "That tune is like what your father used to play. Perhaps he alone was saved when 

 all the others were killed." As a matter of fact, it was indeed the man's Spirit trying 

 to come back home again. On reaching the landing, he tied up his corial and came 

 up to the house, when she recognized him. After saying "How-day?" he asked her 

 if she were well, and then inquired after the two children. He next told her to sling 

 up his "hammock, for he was come back sick. When rested in his hammock, he 

 began to relate all that had happened, and how he and liis party had all been killed. 

 By and by he said, "Go and fetch a Ught: there must be a lot of dog-fleas about: they 

 are biting my back terribly. " ' But instead of dog-fleas it was worms that were gnawing 

 into him, and when she brought the fire-stick, his wife could see them all crawling 

 in and out, and said, "Mo, No! There are no dog-fleas there." Now, from seeing all 

 the worms she knew that it must be her husband's Spirit, and not his Body, that 

 had returned, and it was a token of something that was to happen. Again, and still 

 a third time, he asked her to pick off the dog-fleas, l)ut she persisted in her "No, No! 

 There are no dog-fleas there." At the same time she began to consider how she could 

 best save herself. She liegan to spit, and continued spitting in the same spot until 

 there was quite a pool of spittle, when she quietly sUpped away from the house in the 

 direction of a neighboring settlement. Now, when the Spirit again asked her to 

 come pick off the dog-fleas, it was the Spittle that answered "No, No! There are 

 no dog-fleas there. ' ' And so the same question and answer were repeated. But when 

 the Spittle was finally all dried up, it could not spsak any more, and as soon as no 

 reply came, the Spirit got out of his hammock and followed his wife's tracks. Now, 

 although the fire that she was carrying had gone out, she still went on in the darkness, 

 the Spirit holloa-ing behind. As he was closing in upon her, she remembered an old 

 armadillo hole, in which she liid herself, while the Spirit, rushing along, passed on. 

 He, howe\er, soon saw that he had lieen tricked, and returned to the place where she 

 had so suddenly disappeared. Here he stopped and pondered a while, and she heard 



1 1 shall revert to this subject when dealing with the medicine-man (Chap. XVII).— W. E. R. 



