ROTH] THE SPIRITS OF THE BUSH 207 



rattle. The whole place looked very pretty because it was decorated with their red 

 necklaces, whit« dresses, and black wing-tips.' All around, hung up by cords to 

 the beams, were the dau-u hew^e; these were long pieces of wood, shaped somewhat 

 like your (i. e. European] ''indian-clubs," bigger below tlian above, all beautifully 

 paiuted and tasseled.^ 0\ir friend stood there watching and continued watching: 

 so enchanted was he with the sight that, before he was aware, darkness fell, which 

 compelled him to remain there all night. His mother was wondering what had 

 become of him, and was still more surprised to see him return empty-handed next 

 morning. He straightway went into his hammock, without sajdng a word: his mind 

 was too full of what lie had seen. By and by, he took up his harri-harri and began 

 to play on it, but he told no one of hie adventures or why he had not brought back 

 home any game. Next day he quietly slipped away before dawn, and wended his 

 way to the beautiful house he had gazed upon two nights before. It was still there 

 and so were all the people, hosts and guests — fair people as I have said — all singing 

 and dancing. The girls looked .so pretty that he set his mind on getting one of them. 

 Now there was "lemon-grass" about a yard high growing thick all around the house, 

 and at a little distance from it and under cover of tliis he gradually crept closer and 

 closer, on all fours, up to just about the spot where the girls during tlie progress of 

 their mari-mari dance would retreat backward in their steps.' As they thus made a 

 move a little farther back than usual, he caught hold of the girl he had taken a fancy 

 to, but no sooner had he seized her than all the other people, house, decorations, and 

 music' suddenly disappeared, and everything became the same old humdrum trees 

 and bushes again, lie had the girl, however, and although she struggled bravely, 

 he never relaxed his hold. Exhausted in her efforts to secure her freedom, at last 

 she panted, ''Loose me! Loose me! I want to go home," but this appeal was of 

 no avail, for the only reply she got was: " No! I want you for my wife. If you will 

 only behave and not refuse me, you shall have everything you like." She yielded 

 and she followed him, only insisting on the stipulation that he must not tlvrash her. 

 He promised her that he never would do that, and thus he brought his bride home. 

 They lived together a long time contentedly, he always giving way to her insistence 

 of never using the meat on the same day that he brought it home from the chase: she 

 would never eat it fresh, preferring to keep it a day or two until it became tainted.* 

 Now, one day it liappened tliat her husband returned from the hunt extremely 

 hungry, and he told her that she must cook at once the giime that he had brought 

 her, and that he would not wait for it until the morrow. She refused point-blank, 

 and forgetting his promise, he gave her a thrashing. Another time the same thing 

 happened, he wanting the meat cooked immediately, but she objecting: he thrashed 

 her again. And he beat her a third time. She bore this lirutal treatment meekly 

 and never upbraided him. She merely told him that she proposed taking him to 

 see her father.' So he went a-hunting, and brought back much meat as a present 

 for her family, and when ready to start she gave him Vulttire feathers for a covering; 

 he could not visit her people without this garb. After they had traveled a good 



» These birds have a feather-coloring somewhat as here mentioned. 



i I have failed thus far to learn the use or meaning of these obsolete ornaments, if ornaments indeed 

 they were: on the other han<l, there is the possibility of them having been the dummy-figures of enemies 

 slain in t>attle, as we know, from historical evidence, it was the custom in old-time Carib houses to keep 

 such figures. — W. E. R. 



3 In the mari-mari dance, the name applied to it byCaribsand Warraus.arow of women linked together 

 by their arms round waist and shoulder faces a similar row of men. In the course of the numerous evolu- 

 tions each side advances and retires with a rhythmic stamping movement. The idea intended to be con- 

 veyed in the story is that as the women retreated from the row of men, with their backs toward him, the 

 visitor ran but very little risk of being seen by them, and yet gained a position of advantage for carrying 

 out his designs, as will be immediately seen. 



• Though in human form, she still had the attributes and tastes of the Vulture. 



6 The only people that a married Indian woman can lawfully seek redress from, a procedure but very 

 rarely followed, however, are her father and brothers. 



