184 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS Ieth. ANN. 30 



113. The Man Changed into a Beast (W) 



Two brothers set out in their corial to shoot morokot ( Myletes) fish, after telling their 

 old father where they were going. The younger, who was steering, started singing. 

 "Don't do that," said his brother; "if you make that noi.se, we shall get no fish and 

 father will be disappointed." But he would not heed, and went on making a 

 disturbance, so the elder one said: "This won't do. I will leave you on shore." 

 The latter evidently had no objection, and with an "All right; leave me here," 

 stayed on the bank where his brother left liim, still continuing his singing, wliich, if 

 anything, he now raised to an even higher pitch. The elder brother then recognized 

 that it was a token of something that was about to happen, and paddled on by himself 

 to shoot. He shot one morokot, then a second, and then a third, now that there was 

 no noise about. Having shot enough, he went to pick up his brother at the river 

 bank where he had left him. but found him singing even ' ' more high "' than ever before: 

 indeed, so deafening was the noise — such a rolling and a roaring — that, becoming 

 frightened, he went home without him. The father asked him where his brother 

 was, and when he was told that he was screaming loud and that there was something 

 wrong with him, he would not believe it, but said he would go to see for himself. 

 So the two returned to the spot where the younger brother had been left; the old man 

 heard the awful noise in the distance and followed the tracks from the waterside. 

 The tracks were very prominent and the leaves on each side were much crushed 

 and damaged , showing that a big carcass must have passed that way . At last the father 

 came upon his son. and said, "Come! Come!" but all the reply he received was a 

 terrible roar, which frightened him so much that he turned back, liis son following. 

 The latter had now been changed by the Hebu into an evil beast, which was ready to 

 kill anybody and anything. On reaching the waterside again, the father told his 

 elder boy his experiences with the younger one, that he was on the road behind, and 

 that they must both be prepared to shoot as soon as he put in an appearance. At 

 last the latter came out into the clearing and they shot him. It was lucky they did 

 so, because he was already changed into a beast from the neck downward, with two 

 big teeth on his belly (Sect. 100). Had he kept quiet when his brother warned him, 

 all this trouble would not have happened. 



114. The Man who Dined after Dark (A) 



[\ote. — It would appear that in the olden times, it was strictly "taboo" for anyone 

 to take a meal after nightfall, though the true reasons for such a restriction are seem- 

 ingly not now obtainable. (Sect. 246.) The certain punishment for infringement 

 of this taboo was the transformation of the offender into some bird or beast. The 

 following legend bears on this belief.] 



There were once two fishers. I do not know their names, but they were friends. 

 They went out together one day to a neighboring creek, and started building a shed, 

 as they intended setting their hooks in the course of the afternoon, remaining there 

 all night, and visiting their lines next daybreak. The shed buUt, and the hooks 

 all set, they came back late to the banab, and while resting there, they happened to 

 notice near by a kokerite (-Va,ri?m7i'ana) palm with a splendid bimch of ripe nuts. 

 These they cut down and began eating after breaking them on the stones. They 

 wore delicious, and they continued eating, until one of them noticed that the sun 

 was about sinking on the horizon, when he warned his friend to stop, advising him 

 to follow his example and turn into his hammock. But the warning was unheeded: 

 he said they were so sweet that he couldn't stop, and he continued breaking and 

 chewing the nuts until long after dark. Then, all of a sudden, instead of breaking 

 the nuts with a stone, his friend in the hammock heard him breaking them in his 

 teeth, and knowing well that no Indian could do this, the friend felt convinced that 

 something had happened. He lit his wax torch, and instead of a man, he saw a 

 tiger crmiching the seeds. He slipped out of his hammock, wandered about till 



