CnAPTER X 



THE SPIRITS OF THE BUSH 

 Associated with Particular Plants 



Derivation of Man from Plants, and vice versa (163-163 A); Association of Bush 

 Spirits with Sillc-cotton Ti-ee (164), Cassava (165-166), Maize (767), Kofa (168). Snake- 

 bush (16SA), the Whistling C'aladium (Kanaima), Blow-tube Grass and Dakini Tree 

 (16SB). lie and Mora {16SC). and possibly with the "Tree of Life," the " De%'il-doer," 

 Silverballi, Darina, Hiari, and Bamboo (169). The belief in Binas may be but a 

 develoijment of this association of Bush Spirits with plant-life (170). 



163. So far as mankind is concerned, their original derivation from 

 trees, trunks, and fruits is accepted by many of the tribes (Sect. 57). 

 As to the converse idea — the transformation of human beings, or 

 tlieir Spirits, mto plants (Sect. 59), I can find only two traces of it: 

 one, in an Arawak legend relative to the discovery of the whip used 

 in the makuari dance (Sect. 75), and the other, in the Yahuna story 

 of the Jurupari ceremony (Sect. 163 A). 



The First "Makuari" Whips (A) 



There was a family of two sisters and two brothers. Going out one day to cut 

 firewood, the former proceeded to the forest and cut the timber; on splitting a \o^, 

 they found inside a pretty little whip. After closely examining it, each gu-1 proceeded 

 to make another exactly like it. Then they proceeded to their provision field, put 

 up a little banab, and hung inside it the three whips. WTien they reached home 

 they made some drink, two jugsful altogether, one for their two brothers, and one 

 for them.selves: they took their portion to the banab, where they left it. On three 

 occasions they did this [i. e. they made drinks and took their own share to the field]. 

 The brothers, suspecting that something was wrong, and being unable as brotliers 

 to talk with their sisters on so delicate a matter, sent the little hummingbird to make 

 Lnquii-ies. \Miile the girls were working in the field, the bird flew into the banab, 

 saw the jug of drink there, and the three whips hanging up, and reported accordingly. 

 The brothers thereupon asked the sisters to explain what they had been doing in the 

 banab, and when the latter said "Nothing," they reproached them for not having 

 mentioned anything about the whips, the possession of which they were then forced 

 to admit. The lirothers then asked to have a trial of the whips, but this the sisters 

 refused; they would not deliver their cliarge over to anyone. So the brothers said, 

 "Well, if you won't let us touch them, you can at all events let us look at you when 

 you are sporting with them." No exception was taken to this, and the gii-ls, making 

 some drink, enlarged the banab and widened the pathway leading up to it. At the 

 entrance to the pathway they placed the jug of drink. The brothers came, slopped 

 to refresh themselves with its contents, began to sing, and then proceeded to the 

 banab. where, addressing their sisters, they asked them to take down the whips and 

 show their manner of play. This the women did, but it was soon evident that they 

 knew neither how to sing, to dance, nor to whip properly with them. Admitting this, 

 they were finally constrained, after repeated entreaties, to hand the whips over to 

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