Chapter XI 



THE SPIRITS OF THE MOUNTAIN 



Their presence due mainly to: Peculiarities in geological conformation, markings, 

 etc. (171), for example, in legend of Kaieteur Fall (172), Rock-engravings (77.5); 

 Actual Transformation of Sentient Being.s into rocks and stones (174): Site of some 

 long-pa.st remarkable occurrence (175-176). 



171. The belief oi; the part of the Indians in tlie presenee of Moun- 

 tain Spirits in certain hicahties would seoni to have been due in large 

 measure to one or another of three sets of causes: peculiarities m 

 conformation, marking, position, and other features of the rocks 

 (on the principle of suiting a picture to tiie frame); the supposed 

 transformation of the person or animal into stone; or the association 

 of the locality with some remarkable event that look place in the 

 long-ago. 



There are an endless number and variety of Spirits connected with 

 mountains, precipices, rocks, cataracts, etc. (cf. Sect. 58). South of 

 the Takutu River is a mountain chain taking its name from a liill 

 resembling a crescent in the distance, whence the Wapisianas have 

 compared it to the moon (Kaira in then- language), and designating it 

 in consecpience Kai-irito, or Mountains of the Moon (ScT, 48). Now 

 all this country in Schomburgk's time was terra incognita to both 

 Brazilians and Indians, and hence, as might have been expected, and 

 as ho tells us, "the Indian banishes all cx\\ spirits to this region, 

 while the Brazilian considers it the abode of wild Indians who massacre 

 any person foolhardy enough to come wnlhin tlieir precincts." So 

 extraorilinarily has nature molded her mountain forms in different 

 parts of the Guianas, that there are seldom wanting resemblances, 

 comparatively striking, to common everyday objects. I can c[uite 

 sympathize with Schomburgk when he so much regretted that the 

 little knowledge wliicli 1)6 possessed of the Makusi language did not 

 permit him to understand some of the many wonderful stories the 

 Lidians had to tell him of every stone they met on the road that was 

 of more than ordinary size or fantastically shaped by nature (ScF, 

 199). Along the valley of the Unamara, a very good example is 

 Mara-etshiba, the highest mountain, where the bulging out in the 

 middle of this mass of rock has been identified with the maraka. 

 Another is Mount Canu-yeh-piapa (Ht. "guava-tree sttunp"), while 

 a third is Mount Pure-piapa ("headless tree") (ScF, 197). Else- 

 where, there is Mmmt Pakaraima, a singular isolated mountain 

 which from its figure "has been called the Pakara or Pakal, meaning 



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