232 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS [bth. anx. .'lO 



than the aerial roots in question. The Arawaks speak of this epiphyte 

 as the kofa. 



168A. Space must be found here also for mention of the Pomeroon 

 Arawak beUef in some intimate relationship between certain plants 

 (known as "snake-bush" to the Creoles) and venomous serpents, the 

 poisonous effects of which they can avert. A similar idea prevailed 

 among the same tribe on the Demerara River: 



The Indians advised that when the snakes (a bush-master and a labaria that had 

 been killed and buried) were supposed to be decomposed, they should be dug up, 

 the bones burned, and carefully replaced, and the spot of ground fenced in. From 

 the ground manured with the burned bones of the snakes, would grow up, they said, 

 snake-bushes that could be used as antidotes to the virulence of snake-bites. Some 

 plants called "snake-bush" resemble a group of small snakes flattened laterally, 

 etanding upright, from twelve to twenty inches, with their tails planted in the ground. 

 [Da, 324,] 



168B. Among the Caribs, the masiemo (i. e. kanaima), Caladivm, 

 would seem at first sight to possess qualities almost distinctive: it is 

 a large-leaf species which I have seen cultivated at Carib settlements 

 on Manawarin Creek. Its peculiarity lies in its supposed power of 

 uttering a long low whistle, and shaking the sleeper's hanunock 

 with the object of rousing him from slumber to a sense of his danger 

 on the near approach of the human and animal kanaima, or blood- 

 avenger (Sect. S^O) . The plant from which the blow- tube is derived 

 commonly grows in wet places, as wide stagnant marshes, and super- 

 stition has stationed an Evil Spirit to defend it, whence the Indians 

 have the apprehension that some iU must befall him who ventures in 

 to procure the reed (Pnk, i, 488). In especially bad cases of sickness 

 among the Surinam Caribs the chief remedy is the sap of the Dakini 

 tree : to obtain this, the piai has to get the permission of the Spirit 

 of the Tree, and only after many a parleying wiU he cut an opening 

 to obtain it (AK, 19:5). 



168C. The Ite Palm and the Mora Tree (W) 



In the days of long ago there was always to be found growing a Mora near an Ite: 

 wherever one was to be seen, there sure enough, close by, would be found the other. 

 The Baboon would forage on the Ite and eat of her fruit, and this is just what made 

 the Mora jealous. In those times the trees, like the animals, would converse with one 

 another just as people do; and these two trees must have been women, for did they 

 not each bear seed? At any rate the Ite said she would leave the Mora and travel 

 eastward, but the Mora followed her: she wanted the Baboon to come and stay with 

 her. She was very jealous. As they both traveled on and on toward the east, they 

 left some of their seeds behind: on and on they went, farther and farther east. As 

 the ground of course gradually changed from dry bush to swamp, the Baboon more and 

 more preferred to feed on the Mora, whose branches were always well above the water 

 surface, and so finally left the Ite altogether. The Mora now at last satisfied, and with 

 no further cause for jealousy, remained where she was, while the Ite traveled still 

 farther eastward, stopping only when she came to the heavy swamps of the Orinoco. 

 And here was too much water for the Baboon to follow her. Hence it happens that the 



