262 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LOEE OF GUIANA INDIANS [etd. ann. 30 



thai night, nor the next day. Indeed, he never came l)ack. because he liad been 

 killed and swallowed by the camudi, who had mistaken his man. The son-in-law, 

 after waiting theie a few days, then knew what liad happened, and made his way 

 to another settlement, far, far from the nagging old woman. On a clear night you 

 can still see the babracote where he barbecued his wife, and close to its side you can 

 just make out the camudi with its swollen belly, due to the younger brother being 

 itiside. 



208. The Pleiades, the Seven Stars, hore a very important role in 

 the daily life of the Guiana Indians in that, among several other 

 reasons, their rising from the east marked the commencement of their 

 new year: this measurement of time was adopted from the Orinoco to 

 Cayenne. All the legends relating to the constellations Taurus and 

 Orion have something in common in the detail of an amputated arm 

 or leg. Dance speaks of the Stars forming the belt and sword-sheath 

 of the constellation Orion (Da, 343) as Mabukuli 0\i-awak) or Ibbeh- 

 pughn (Akawai). Now the word Mabukuli signifies ''without leg," 

 and the correspondmg little story which he relates (Da, 296) will not 

 prove out of place here: "A huntsman being unsuccessful m the chase 

 one day, and being loth to return without flesh for his stepmother, 

 whom he loved, cut off one of his own legs, and wrapping it up m 

 leaves, presented it to her as veritable game; and then ascended into 

 the heavens as Mabukuli (Ibbeh-pughn) or one-legged." 



209. The Legend of the Tumong, or Seven Stars, as told by Dance 

 (296), apparently from Akawai sources, is this: 



The Legend of the Seven Stars 



A man having lustful inclination toward his brother's wife killed his brother while 

 hunting in his company, and cutting off an arm of the murdered man, presented 

 it to the widow as a proof of her hu.sband's death. He then took her as his own wife. 

 But tlie spirit of the murdered man haunted a tree near by his brother's house, and 

 filled the air at nights with liis laments, so that tlie widow, discovering the treachery 

 of her new husband, became disconsolate. The fratricide, from vexation, decided to 

 rid himself of her, and of her little child. For this purpose he took her ostensibly to 

 hunt with him, and observing a hole at the root of a large tree, he desired her to stoop 

 and search therein for a suspected acouri. While she looked in, he pushed her in com- 

 pletely, and also her child after her, and then stopped up the hole. On that night 

 the spirit of the murdered man appeared to his brother and informed him that he 

 knew of his deed of violence, and was not angry; for his wife had been transformed 

 into an acouri, and his child to an adourie, so that his unnatural malice, save by the 

 infliction of death, could not any more affect them. For himself, he would not cease 

 to render the murderer's life miserable so long as his own mangled body remained 

 unburied. But if the wicked brother would disembowel the body and scatter 

 the entrails, after inteiTing the other remains, not only would the dead cease to be a 

 terror, but at that season every year an abundance of fish would gather in the 

 river. The wretched brother then went to the place of the bl*dy deed, and did 

 what he was told, when the scattered entrails of the murdered man floated upward 

 to the skies, and assumed the appearance of the Seven Stars. And truly, a.s was 

 predicted, on the annual appearance of those stars, the yarumak [Pimelndus macu- 

 ' latus], tibicurie [Prochilndus rubro-Uniatus], caburessi [Chalcexis txniutus] and several 

 other excellent fishes are abundant in the rivers. 



