266 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS [eth. an'X. 30 



[the Pleiades] with the Tapir's head [the Hyades: the red eye is Aldebaran] close 

 behbid, and Serikoai [Orion, with Rigel indicating tlie upper part of the sound lim>i] 

 farther baek — all three in pursuit. 



311A. Orion's Belt is part of the leg of a woman (Sect. 98) — of 

 Mabukuli (Sect. W8), of Nohi-abassi (Sect. 210), of Makunaima (Sect. 

 38) — and the arm of the murdered husband (Sect. 209) . 



213. As has been already mentioned, the Spirits of people departed 

 may wander upward to join other Spirits m Sky-land (Sect. 81). 

 Some of these may pass their existence happily, and harm no one, 

 or in the course of their transformation (Sect. 69) they may become 

 changed into birds — perhaps into bii-ds of HI omen sometuTies — and 

 so have then- place in the heavens. Agam, the Spu'its of good medi- 

 cine-men travel upward to Cloud-land, and may be invoked by theii' 

 surviving professional brethren with the aid of the rattle and tobacco 

 (Sect. S09). There are a few other Spirits of the Sky who are essen- 

 tially bad-minded in the sense of bringing sickness into the world: 

 these also are referred to elsewhere (Sect. 309). 



312A. The Woman of the Dawn (W) 



Plenty of people went out to hunt, Init on the way back, four of them were caught 

 by nightfall when far away from home. These four comprised a man. his wife, and 

 two daughters; and a long, long way behind them was yet another man. This last 

 man eho\ited out to the four others, "Hi! Stop! wait for me! wait for me!" to which 

 they replied, "Come along quick, and follow us," But as he could never reach 

 them, he kept on singing Mawa-hahotu [lit, "for me — wait"]. He is the little night 

 owl, who still sings like this. The darkness was now so thick that the four could get 

 no fartlier. They had to remain where they were, and though they waited and waited, 

 no daylight came. In the meantime they made a fire from ite-palm leaves, but it 

 burned away too quickly; it was no good. They then rolled some wax in a leaf, 

 Ijut this also burned away too quickly: it too was no good. The parents, seeing a 

 little dawn a long distance away in the bush, sent the elder daughter to go and bring 

 it. She went on and on, but zigzag and crossways just like a drunken man. a token 

 that she woidd never obtain the daylight. She walked in a crooked way because she 

 had already had dealings with a man. Finally she reached the spot where the day- 

 light was, and there she came across an old man and his wife. She asked for his son, 

 but as he was out at work, the old man bade her to wait. When at last the old man's 

 son did reach home, the mother said: "A friend has come to see you. She has waited 

 long. You had better ask her what she wants," And when he asked her what she wanted, 

 she told him how her father had sent her to fetch some daylight, [Extrahens suum 

 clavem, ineepit arcara intrare], but the key' would not lit, the lock' having been tam- 

 pered with, and he therefore sent her home again, A\'hen she got back, empty handed, 

 the younger sister said, " I will try to get some daylight," and although her father told 

 her she was too young to go, she insisted, and went. She did not stumble on the road 

 from one side to the other because as yet she had never had anything to do with a man, 

 and she reached the spot without trouble. Like her sister, she had to await the young 

 man's return, and when he did arrive, his old mother said: "I don't know what is tlie 



1 When I reminded the old Warrau informant that Indians had no locks and keys, she told me that 

 the story as told above is just as she heard it, and that oldtimi people do not like to mention bad (i. e. 

 indecent) things.— W. E. R. 



