260 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS Ieth. axn. 30 



204. Arawaks, Warraus, in fact all the Indian tribes of whom we 

 have reliable accounts, possess myths and legends indicative of a 

 more or less animistic conception of the stars and constellations. 



Dance (270) says that Eweiwah, or Huewah (Arawak), and 

 Koiunuk (.Utawai) are the names of the Morning and Evenmg stars 

 interchangeably, these tribes supposing that they are one and the same. 

 Bretb (Br, 107), on the other hand, gives the Arawak name for Venus 

 as Warakoma [Warukoma], and that generally used for Jupiter as 

 Wiwa Kaluncro (i. e. the star of brightness). The Warraus hero on 

 the Pomeroon call the Morning Star Okona-kura. She it was who 

 stuck' in the hole when her people first came down from above the 

 skies to populate the earth (Sect. 51). The ilakusis speak of the 

 Evening Stai as Kai-wono, wife of the Moon, because she is to be 

 seen in his near neighborhood, and also on account of her shining 

 more brightly than all the other stars (ScR, Ii, 328). According to 

 Father GUi, the Indians of the Casiquiare believed that the dew 

 which falls by night was the spittle of the stars (AR, 207), a belief 

 similar to that reported of the Makusis. The Caribs ascribed it to the 

 urination of the stars (ScR, i, 429). The Makusis speak of shooting 

 stars as Wai-taima (ScR, ii, 328). The Island Caribs regarded all the 

 heavenly bodies as Carib. Father de la Borde mentions some five 

 or six stars ia then* cosmogony, but unfortunately has apparently 

 not identified them. Racimion was one of the first Caribs made by 

 Louqiio; he was transformed into a large snake with the head of a 

 man; he was always seated on a cabatas (a hard and liigh tree); 

 he lived on its fruit, which resembles a large plum or small apple, 

 and which he gave sometimes to those wlio passed; he is now changed 

 into a star. "Savacou was also a Carib. He was changed into a 

 large bird; he is the captain of the Storms and Thunders; he has 

 caused the heavy rains, and is also a star now. Achmaon, a Carib, 

 at present a star, causes light ram and strong winds. Couroumon 

 (a Carib), also a star, causes the heavy sea waves, and upsets canoes; 

 he is also, the cause of flood and ebb.'"' (BBR, 229.) 



205. Arawaks speak of the Milky Way under two names, one of 

 which signifies the Path of the Maipuri (Tapir), and the other is the 

 Path of the Bearers of Wai-e, a species of white clay of which their 

 vessels are made. The nebulous spots are supposed to be the tracks 

 of Spirits whose feet were smeared with that material (Br, 107). 

 On equally reliable authority we are told that the three nebulae 

 within the Milky Way represent a tapir being chased by a dog, fol- 

 lowed by a jaguar, who is not particular in choice, so that he take 

 either the dog or the tapir. Another legend is that the nebulae were 

 formed by celestial wild hogs rooting up the white clay (Da, 296). 

 The Makusis call the ^lilky Way Parana, a term which they apply also 

 to the sea. 



