234 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS Ieth. ann. 30 



(Sect. 237), and otlierwise, as sur\nvals of an orio^nal belief in i)lants 

 possessing associated Spirits; wliile the presence of tlie originally 

 associated Spirit lias been lost sight of, and more or less forgotten, 

 its attributes, proi)erties, and powers have been retained. It will be 

 remend:)ered that all such binas have an exceptional source of origin — 

 the calcined bones of a snake (Sect. 235), and in this connection it is no 

 less interesting to note that the Haiari root (Lonchocarpus sp.), fish- 

 poison, which can equally be regarded as an attraction-charm, 

 should also possess animal (with its contaiiied spirit) relationships, 

 in that it has been quickened in lumian blood. I here paraphrase 

 the Legend of the Ilaiari Root, given by Brett (BrB, 172): 



An old fisherman noticed that when his boy accompanied him, and swam about 

 in tlie river, there the fishes would die, and yet were quite good to eat. So he made a 

 point of making the lad bathe every day. But the fisli were determined upon putting 

 an end to this. Accordingly one day when the lad, after a swim, was lying basking in 

 the stin, those fish which were possessed of spines, and especially the sting-ray, sprang 

 quickly up at him and pricked him. The lad died of hi.s wound.M, but before dying 

 told his father to watch for the sirange plants that would spring up from the ground in 

 those spots where his blood had fallen. The father did so, and found the haiari. 



