Chapter XII 

 THE SPIRITS OF THE WATER 



Names and sjeiieral appearance: Anthropomorphic (777) ; partly human, partly ani- 

 mal (ITS); Zoomorphic, as porpoise, manati. macaw (179). snake (ISO), big lish, Omar 

 (181-182); derived from men or animals (183); kindly disposed on the whole — they 

 gave man Ids water-jug and potato (IS4), the rattle and tobacco (185); of an amorous 

 disposition (186-1S7), with strong likings for menstruating women (188-189) ; share, with 

 Bush Spirit.i, the re.«rponsibility for sickness, accident, and death (190); responsible 

 also for the Tidal Wave (191); they object to mention of their names and antecedents 

 (191); to a pot-spoon being washed outside the traveling boat (19.j); and woe betide 

 the voyager if he dares to utter certain forbidden words (194). 



177. The Water Spirits, whether antliropomorphic or zoomorpliic, 

 arc known a.s Ori-yu or Orchti (Arawak), Ho-aranni (Warraii), Oko- 

 _\Tini() (C'arib), etc. The Warraus, especially a swamp-iiihabiting 

 tribe, seem to have made several distinctions in their Spirits: they 

 ha<l their .VJiilba, Ilo-inarau or Ho-aranni, and Xaba-rau or Xaba- 

 raimi. The .\Juiba is the "Fi.sh-mamma," the chief of all the fish — 

 one male and one female. The two Uve in underground water; their 

 heads are like those of people, but their bodies resemble those of 

 fish tliough they are provided A\nth all the different kinds of feet 

 belonging to laud animals. They work evil on mankind; when ship- 

 wreck takes place they eat the bodies. The Ilo-inarau and Xaba- 

 rau represent the Water Spirits of the sea and the rivers, respec- 

 tively; they are sometimes like people, sometimes like fish, and 

 were once good and Iviud, but the Warraus have made them bad. 

 Indeed, there was a time when these Water People used to live in 

 , amity and friendship with the Land People. There are two reasons 

 for the ternunation of this ideal state of existence. The Warraus 

 used to exchange wives with them in those days, that is, a wife would 

 be taken as required alternateh" from the one and the other tribe 

 (see Sect. 190). The Warrau suj^ph* ran short, however, and the 

 Water Spirits accordingly became vexed and angered with them. 

 The second alleged rea.son is that the Warraus insisted on the isolation 

 of the women at their menstrual periods, a practice to which the 

 Water Spirits were unaccustomed and strongly objected (Sect. 190). 

 Though some of the Water Spirits have been repeatedh' described 

 by certain authors as the Water-maimna, they have nothing whatever 

 to do with the African-Creole superstition represented under that 

 designation. Still less have they necessarily any connection with 

 the water-cow or manati (the Kuyu-moro of the Arawaks), or with 

 the water-camudi (the madre del agua of the old Spanish authors), 



15961"— 30 ETH— 15 16 241 



