ROTH] THE SPIRITS OF THE WATER 247 



will never be visited again by theii' Spiiit frionils. Furthermore, 

 those Indians who foster such friendships must on no account have 

 similar dealings with their own people.' Perhaps it is as a result of 

 these sexual weaknesses of the Spirits that some of the Arawaks 

 believe in the possibility of an Oriyu introducuig into the womb a 

 full-term fetus, provided the woman really wants to be pregnant 

 (Sect. 284A) — a real water-baby. 



187. How THE Water Spirit Got the Man's Wife from Him (W) 



A man took liis wife with him on a fishing expedition. He built a banab on an 

 island in midstream and as night came on told his wife to remain there, while he 

 went to fish. She was very anxious to accompany liiin in the corial. btit he insisted 

 on her remaining and of course slie had to obey. Being very tired, she soon afterward 

 fell asleep, and about midnight the \\"ater Spirit paid her a visit. . . . Half- 

 dazed, she woke up, and asked hira whether he had done anything to her, and when 

 he told her that he had, recognizing a stranger's voice in place of her husband's, she 

 felt very much ashamed. However, the \Vater Spirit told her who he was, of his 

 great love for her. and that he would now take her to wife: all she had to do was to 

 tell her previous husband that it was entirely his fault that she had been left alone 

 and taken advantage of. and that henceforth she declined to share his hearth and 

 home. So when the latter returned next morning from his fishing, the wife made a 

 clean breast of everything, for which she blamed him, as he had refused to let her 

 accompany him in the corial, and she told him further that she intended living with 

 him no more. They started now on their way home, and getting into the boat, they 

 paddled a short distance, when the wife said: "After today you will not see me. You 

 must toll all my family to meet me tomorrow at a .spot that I will show you." As 

 they traveled along, she showed him the very spot and at the same moment the boat 

 stopped, just as if some one were holding it. She got out. the water coming up to her 

 knees, and the corial continued on its journey, .\fter a while the husband turned 

 annuid to have a look, and saw his wife with another man. the Water Spirit, just step- 

 ping ashore: as he turned the point, the couple were walking together along the river- 

 bank. Now, when he reached home without his wife, all her people wanted to know 

 what had become of her; the mother especially was angry, but became somewhat 

 mollified when he assured her that next day he would take her to the very place 

 where her daitghter had left him. He also gave her a mes-sage from his late wife that 

 she was to bring tlie silver nose-ornament and the bead bracelets and necklets which 

 the latter had left behind. So on the following morning he took the mother down to 

 the river-bank, and there sure enough they saw the guilty couple, the daughter and 

 the Water Spirit, behaving in a very friendly manner. As they got quite close, the 

 Spirit suddenly disappeared , leaving the woman by herself. The mother then handed 

 over the beads and ornaments, while her daughter murmured: "Your son-in-law 

 caused this trouble: he would not let me come into the corial with him; and so when 

 I was fast asleep the Water Spirit took advantage of me." Mother and daughter 

 sobbed, and the latter .said: '■ You will see me sometimes, but never distinctly: directly 

 you think you see me clearly, I will disappear." No one knew at the time that the 

 Water Spirit had taken advantage of the man also: but it was this Spirit who had 

 made the husband refuse to let his wife keep him company in the corial, so as the 

 better to carry out his wicked design. 



1 This explains a curious phase of Indian character: Celibacy in either sex is regarded as something 

 uncanny or unnatural. It is on this account that two very respected residents in my district, loading 

 presumably irreproachable celibate lives, were believed by many of the Indians to have enjoyed intimate 

 relations with the Oiij-u. 



