Chapter XIII 



THE SPIRITS OF THE SKY 



The Sun, male: Greeted of a morning (195); eclipsed (.196); origin of his warmth 

 and Iieat (197). The Moon, also male: Cause of the "spots" (198); beliefs concerning 

 the "new" moon (199); when eclipsed, a transformation of animals occurs (200); 

 causes of eclipse (201-202). Comets {20:i). Stars: Morning and Evening, etc. (204); 

 the Milky Way (205); Southern Cross (206); Babracote and Camudi (207); Pleiadea— 

 their story told by Arawaks (208), Akawaia (209), Warraus (210), Caribs (211); 

 Orion's Belt (211A). Other Sky Spirits derived from man (212). The Woman of 

 the Dawn (212A). Rain: Can be made as required (21-3); pimisliment for infringe- 

 ment of taboo (214); can be stopped (215); Rainbow (216). Weather-forecasting 

 (217). Thunder and Thunderbolts (27S). Storms generally (;?79). 



195. The Sun seems to have been regarded invariably as a male 

 (Sect. 29) : The Salibas of the Orinoco — certainlj^ a section of the 

 tribe — claimed to be his children (G, i, 113). At Enamouta Village, 

 on a branch of the Ireng, it would appear to be the usual practice 

 for the Indians to issue simultaneously from their houses at dayhght 

 and greet the morn with cries and loud shouts (Bro, 129) . It was cus- 

 tomary for the Otomacs to bewail the dead as a matter of daily 

 routuie. "Tlius, as soon as the cocks crow, about 3 o'clock in the 

 morning, the air is rent with a sad and confused sound of cries and 

 lamentations, mixed with tears and other appearances of grief. 

 They mourn not bj'^ way of ceremony, but in very truth. Wlien day 

 breaks, the waiHng ceases and joy reigns" (G, i, 167). So also on 

 the Vichada, a branch of the Orinoco, the Guahibo^ at sunrise come 

 out with a pan-pipe and make the round of the village while plaj-ing 

 on this instrument, but their purpose in doing so is not made clear 

 (Ci", 554). Among the Wapisianas of the upper Rio Branco, the 

 Ih-st to awake strikes a drum until all jump out of their hammocks, 

 and, in the meantime, with a quick step, he will promenade around 

 the maloka with his barbarous music (Cou, ii, 268). With the Island 

 Caribs the flute is ordinarily played in the morning wlieii they rise 

 (RoP, 509). 



196. It is said b}^ im Thurn tliat on one occasion, during an ecU]:)se of 

 the sun, the iVi'awak men among whom he happened to be rushed from 

 their houses with loud shouts and yells: they explained that a fight 

 was going on between the Sun and the Moon, and they shouted to 

 frighten and so part the combatants (IT, 364). Brett speaks of 

 Oroan,^ the great Demon of Darlcness, who causes eclipses; he seizes 



■ Warraus tell me that this word is a form of Yurokon, the name of the Carib Bush Spirit.— W. E. R. 

 254 



