212 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LOBE OF GUIANA INDIANS Ieth. ann.30 



141. How Alligator Came to Have his Present Shape ' 



Adaili [Hadalli] is the Sun, but when long ago he came to earth in the shape of a 

 man, he was called Arawidi. Once, after fishing in a favorite stream, he built a dam, 

 with the object of retaining both the water and the fish, for use on subsequent visits. 

 But the otters destroyed it, so he appointed the woodpecker to act as watchman. 

 The latter warned him with a loud tapping of the proximity of an alligator: he hurried 

 along and clubbed tlie reptile so unmercifully that it offered him a girl for wife if he 

 would only stop. Arawidi accepted these terms, but to this day the alligator shows 

 the marks of the thrashing on its battered head, and in the notches along its tail.^ 



143. How the Birds Obtained their Distinctive Markings^ 



An Arawak hunter captures a Vulture, daughter of Anuanima.* She lays aside her 

 feathers, appears before him as a beautiful girl, becomes his wife, bears him above 

 the clouds, and after much trouble persuades her father and family tn receive him. 

 All then goes well until he expresses a wish to visit his aged mother, when they dis- 

 card him and set him on the top of a very high tree, the trunk of which is covered 

 with formidable prickles. He appeals to all the living creatures around. Then 

 spiders spin cords to help him and fluttering birds ease his descent, so that at last 

 he reaches the ground in safety. Then follow his efforts, extending over several 

 years, to regain his wife. At length the birds espouse his cause, assemble their forces, 

 and bear him as their commander above the sky. At last he is slain by a valiant 

 young warrior, resembling him in person and feature: it is his own son. The legend 

 ends with the conflagration of the house of the Royal Vultures. . . . The Kiskedee 

 [Lanius s^dphurnliia], though a valiant little bird, disliked the war, and bandaged his 

 head with white cotton, pretending to be sick, but being detected, was sentenced 

 to wear it continually. He is noted for his hostility to hawks and other large birds, 

 wliich he attacks inces.santly when on the wing. ^ . . . The Warracabba, or trumpeter 

 bird [Psophia crepitans],^ and another [the Sakka-sakkali, a kingfi.sher] quarreled 

 over the spoil and knocked each other over in the ashes. The former arose with 

 patches of gray, while the other became gray all over. The Owl discovered among 

 the spoil a package done up with care, which he found to contain Darkness only; 

 he has never been able since to endure the light of day. 



143. The Deer and the Turtle (A) 



The Deer met the Turtle one day. while cleaning his hoofs — for m tliose days turtle 

 wore hoofs and the deer had claws, — and said: "My friend, you have nice sandals." 



1 According to Brett (BrB, 27), this is an Ararfak stoiy, but it is practically identical with the first part 

 of the Makiisi legend of Makunaima and Pia (Sect. 39). 



2 According to the Akawais, during the course of creation Makunaima missed his fire, which the marudi 

 had accidentally swallowed, and began looking for it and making inquiries. The other animals told him 

 that the alligator, whom they all disliked, had stolen it, so be forced open the reptile's mouth to search, and 

 finding its tongue In the way, pulled it out. The tongue of the alligator, previous to this calamity, is sup- 

 posed to have been long and flexible. ( RrB , 132. ) 



3 See BrB, 29. 



< I find that this name should be Annuiuna, the carrion crow: indeed it almost would seem that this 

 legend Is but an Arawak version of the latter part of the Wairau story given in Sect. 1S7. — W. E. R. 



f* An Arawak woman told me that two somewhat similar birds, the Tillili and the Fai-fai-a, joined the 

 Itiki (the Arawak name for the kiskedee) in playing malingerers. The Fai-fai-a is now always making a 

 kind of moaning noise to show how much he grieves at not havmg taken part in the fray. — W. E. R. 



■> In the Akawai story of Creation Brett (BrB, 131) speaks of the trumpeter bird flying down into an 

 ants' nest, thus getting her legs, which had previously been nice and plump, picked quite clean. On the 

 same occasion, the Marudi {Pemlope sp.), thinking some glowing hot embers to be an insect, swallowed 

 them, and so got his fiery tluoat. Compare Brett's story in Sect. 162. 



' Sandals are in common use in the hinterland of Guiana. 



