BOTH] THE SPIRITS OF THE SKY. i561 



306. With regard to the Southern Cross, Dance talks of it as being 

 the great "Wliite Crane, and gives a legend relative to it (Da, 296). 

 Ai-awaks and Warraiis, however, have told me that this represents the 

 powis {Crax sp.), the nearer "pointer" to it being the Indian just 

 about to let fly his arrow, the farther one indicating his companion 

 with a fire-stick running up behind. This constellation serves also 

 as an indication for the hunting of the bird, Schomburgk recordmg 

 (ScT, 28) how, when the Cross stands erect, the powis commences 

 its low moan (Sect. 98). The Makusis apparently regard the Southern 

 Cross as the home of the Spirit of this bird. 



207. Tliere are two groups of stars described by the Arawaks and 

 certain of the Warraus, as the Babracote and the Camudi: four bright 

 stars (Pegasus) with four imaginary connecting lines constitute the 

 square frame of the former, another thick cluster (Scorpio) repre- 

 senting the Snake. This is the Arawak stor}': 



The B.4.BRACOTE .\nd C.\mudi (A) 



There was a man living with his wife and mother-in-law in the same house: the 

 wife's father had been dead a long time. The man was always going out hunting, but, 

 although he started early, and returned late, luek never seemed to attend his efforts. 

 This made the mother-in-law verj- angry, and one day site said to him: 'You are a 

 worthless son-in-law. Day alter day, you go out hunting, and you bring back nothing. 

 Day after day. you go out fishing, and bring back nothing." The man made no reply 

 to all this, but just laid himself quietly dowii in his hammock where he remained 

 until next morning. Xext morning he called his wife and told her to pack the ham- 

 mocks with suflicient casswa for two or three days, as he intended taking her o\it 

 hunting with him. .\flcr they had traveled a long way, he killed her. cut her into 

 pieces, and dried the flesh on a babracote. Xext day he returned home with his 

 victim's Uver, and lianding it to his mother-in-law said. ''Here's the liver of a tapir 

 for you. The wife is laden with the flesh and is slowly coming on behind." The 

 old woman, who was so hungrj', spared no time in eating it. and when finished got 

 into her hammock quite satisfied, anxiously looking down the pathway for her daugh- 

 ter. After watching for some hours in vain, she began to think that the alleged tapir's 

 liver must really have been her daughter's. Turning to her son-in-law, she charged 

 him with having killed her daughter, because it was then very late and still she had 

 not returned. He denied it and swore that she would soon be coming, but the woman 

 would not believe him. .'^he continued watching until late in the night, and then 

 she knew that the Uver she had eaten was indeed her own daughter's. Of course 

 she slept but little, and early next morning crept quietly out of the house, and made 

 her way to her brother, the large camudi. that li\ed at the head of the neighboring 

 creek. She told him how her son-in-law had killed her child, and given her the liver 

 to eat. She told him also that she would send the culprit along that very creek, and 

 that as soon as he got within reach he was to catch and swallow him. When she reached 

 home again the old woman said nothing, liut next day told her son-in-law that she 

 was feeling very h«ngr}', that he must go out hunting, and that if he went up to the 

 head of the creek, he would find plenty of game to shoot. The aon-in-law suspected 

 something, so he went to a younger brother of liis and told him to put in a day's hunt- 

 ing at the head of that very same creek, while he took good care to take his bow and 

 arrows in exactly the opposite direction. That same evening, instead of returning- 

 to his own place, he came back to his younger brother's house. Xo brother returned 



