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



distance into the bush, they came to land that was 'like steps," so that the farther 

 they went the higher they got, until at last they reached a very high spot — the very 

 spot indeed where the carrion-crow governors [i. e. the Vultures] lived.' "You 

 must not be afraid of sapng good-day to my father," she was careful enough to 

 admonish him, "although he is a very celebrated man." ^^'hen therefore the couple 

 reacher her father's place, he went up and shook the old man's hand.^ His father- 

 in-law bade him sit down, and after the usual routine of questions had been asked 

 and answered, told him: "All right. You can stay with me today and return 

 tomorrow. I will come and pay you a visit later on or I will send some of my people 

 to call on you." The old man was well informed as to how badly he had been treat- 

 ing his daughter, and felt too little affection to warrant his asking him to prolong his 

 stay. He knew also that the time would not be far distant when he would have to 

 inflict summary chastisement. Thus it was that the couple returned next day to 

 the mundane home of the husband, who felt sore at the treatment he had received 

 from his father-in-law. Man-like, he vented his spleen on his unfortunate wife, 

 whom he thrashed twice. So badly did he knock her about that even his mother 

 took her part. Addressing her son, the mother said, "You are doing wrong, in beat- 

 ing the girl, especially since she is so far away from all her family.' I am sure some 

 e^dl will happen if you continue such conduct." The dame was a wise old woman, 

 because her motherly instincts told her that her daughter-in-law was not "a real 

 person." but had something weird and eerie about her. Did not the girl wear a 

 strange nose-ornament for instance?'' Her son, however, refused "to hear" and com- 

 menced beating his wife again. ^ On this occasion however, she picked up the 

 feather covering — the very one that she had lent him when they went to \-isit her 

 father's place — and putting it on, started to fly homeward. He jumped out of his 

 hammock and tried to catch her, but the bird was already flown. As day after day 

 passed, and cheerless night closed in, he became more and more wretched, his misery 

 turning at last into heartfelt sorrow: yes, truth to tell, he wept now because he was 

 so unhappy. But it was too late; the mischief had been done. Every day he went 

 into the bush where the beautiful house once stood, but there was nothing there: 

 he went along the same paths they used to tread together, and cried and called for 

 her, but there never came the voice that he once upon a time loved so well, and 

 now longed so much to hear. And where was she? She too was weeping, but for a 

 very different reason: pain and anguish, not selfishness, were the cause of her tears. 

 Her old father comforted her, saj-ing: "Do not cry. I told your husband that I 

 would come and visit him, or else my people would." And thus it came to pass that 

 he sent the Carrion Crows [Cathartes burrornaniis] to \'isit his lata son-in-law. These 

 met him at the very spot where once stood the beautiful house whence he captured 

 his wife, and there, in that very spot, they killed him. They went and told the old 

 man Vulture what thev had done, and afterward returned to devour the carcass.'' 



1 Upon my asking for further information about the *'steps," I was told that this structure had been 

 erected by the birds specially to admit of their human visitor reaching the VulUn-e country. — W. E. R. 



- When I expressed doubt as to the practice of liandshaking among the Guiana Indians, my informant 

 Insisted that it certainly constituted the Warrau form of greeting. Thus, at a party, or on other occa- 

 sions when the house-master was expecting friends, he would go to meet his guest halfway between 

 the water-side and the house, to which, taking him by the hand, he would lead him. In other words, 

 the salutation was rather in the form of a hand-lead than of a hand-shake. 



' She means to indicate that the young woman has nobody near to look after and protect her interests.- 



* My informant is firmly convinced that when \-ultures assume an anthropomorphic form the wattle- 

 like growth on top of the beak becomes a sort of nose-ring. 



& It is not a little remarkable that all my English-speaking Indian friends invariably employ this 

 expression "to hear " for "to heed." I have noticed and recorded the same peculiarity among the Queens- 

 land savages. Compare "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear," used as a preface to manj- important 

 statements in the Christian Scriptures.— W. E. R. 



8 Creoles as well as English-speaking Indians in the Pomeroon and elsewhere, from the association of 

 these two species of birds, speak of the Vulture as the Carrion-Crow Governor or "Boss." 



