nOTHl THE SPIRITS OF THE BUSH 233 



Baboon is never met with nowadays on the Ite palms, but always on the tojimost 

 branches of the Mora. All the Ite palms that you see here and there more or less 

 isolated in this district are stragg;lers from the original palm which traveled to the 

 Orinoco. It is only on that mighty stream where you see the real Ite palms. There 

 they jneld starch and fniit and drink in plenty: the stragglers left behind here are 

 so miserable and poor that it is not worth our while to cut them down. 



169. Among remaining plants which may, perhaps, be regarded 

 as associated more or less intimately with Spirits and the hke, are the 

 "Tree of Life," the Devil-doer, the Silverballi, the Darina, the Hiari, 

 the Kanaima (Sect. 16SB), and perhaps the Bamboo. A leaf of the 

 plant of the "Tree of Life" (BryopJiyllum cahjcinum), the Kakidiu- 

 adda of the Ai-awaks, is sometimes suspended in the house, both on 

 the Demerara and the Pomeroon, when one of the inmates is ill. 

 Should the leaf germinate, as is its nature to do under ordinary cu-cum- 

 stances, it is accepted as a sign that the sick man will recover. But if 

 it wither, that is an indication he will die. The Devil-doer, the uses 

 of which have apparently been taught by the Indians to the blacks, 

 is a bush-rope, called by the latter, the Fighting Stick, or Dcbbil-dooha, 

 Debra dwar, or Zebra dwar. It is said to have the effect when dried, 

 pulverized, and smoked with tobacco, of rendering all within the 

 influence of the smoke pugnacious — and a row is certain: it is used 

 to stinuilate virility, and excite venery (Da, 286). So again, the 

 Indians are of opinion that the scent of the burning chips of the 

 Silverballi {Nectandra pisi) makes people (|uarrclsome (ibid.). At 

 a certain season, the Darina has every appearance of being dead. 

 But having shed its bark it begins to revive; the new bark becomes 

 red like the bloodwood and thickens; new leaves spring forth, and the 

 tree resumes its beauty. At midnight the Arawak Indians hear the 

 chants of the medicine-man emanating from the tree (ibid.). The 

 Hiari [Hearili], a large tree with thick leaves, which bears a small 

 seed, is probably the Aiuke of the Akawais. The gum, or the inner 

 bark, scraped, mixed with water, and given to the sick will cause the 

 Spiiit of the tree to appear to him, and point out the person who 

 inflicted his illness upon him: throvm into the fire, it stupefies all who 

 inhale its fumes (Da, 285). The smoke of the wood when burning 

 is fatal to all kinds of animals (Bol, 258). The Pomeroon Arawaks 

 believe that if the leaves fall into the river from an overhanging tree, 

 sickness will fall upon the people farther down the stream. The 

 same folk believe that the Bamboo flowers and seeds only during 

 the night, which certainly accounts for the fructification not being 

 seen, if for nothing else: any alleged Indian superstition concerning 

 this palm must be counteracted of course by the fact that it is an 

 introduced plant. The ability of the house-posts to talk (Sect. 16) 

 may be traces of a Spirit originally associated with the timber. 



170. I am very strongly inclined to regard all the (vegetal) attrac- 

 tion — charms, or binas, used in hunting (Sect. 2SS) or love-making 



