BOTH] OMEXS, CHAKAIS, TALISMANS 275 



and elsewhere, probably from their custom, when in large numbers, 

 of flying in pairs, one behind the other, the baridi hawks are taken 

 as an omen of a funeral. On the lower Amazon, a black eagle 

 {MUvago nudicollis) locally knoMTi ivs the caracdra-i, is considered a 

 bird of ill-omen by the Indians ; it often perches on the tops of trees in 

 the neighborhood of their huts and is then said to bring a warning 

 of death to some member of the household. Some say that its whin- 

 ing cry is intended to attract defenceless birds within its reach 

 (HWB, 146). With regard to remaining species of birds, the Pome- 

 roon Arawaks beheve that if the koko-bero flies over the house, some 

 one in it will shortly prove pregnant, that or a little baby is about to 

 be taken sick. The voice of the kwa-kwarra brings an evil message, 

 similar to that of the boku-boku. The kareo-obannahu is a small 

 night-bird, so named after its note, karau! karau! and ohannahu (the 

 liver, the color of whicli it resembles). If its note is heard but 

 faintly, some individual must be exceedingly ill: if distinctly, the 

 patient is getting better and stronger. When the beletika cries, some 

 one is about to be married ; hence this token may be both of good 

 and l)ad omen. Another set of bird-tokens may indicate approaching 

 rainfall as well as accident (Sect. 217). There is still another class of 

 omens, indicative of either prospective good luck or bad luck. Thus, 

 when on a hunting expedition, one hears the karrasuri, a small bird, 

 uttering a kind of laugh, he is sure to kill .something, but if it .should 

 cry shirai, he wall get nothmg. Accordmg as the bukulaura, another 

 bird, turns its back or its breast toward a pei-son, so will fortune or 

 misfortune attend that person's wishes in obtaining whatever food 

 he wants. [Furthermore, when walking along the pathway one must 

 not mind if a munirikuti (species of black ant) bites his foot, because 

 this means that he will obtain somethmg very good and sati-sfymg.] 

 Some Indians will never turn their back on a trogon: " He [the Indian] 

 attributed his safety (from drowniing) to th<> strictness with which the 

 Indians had observed the proper respect due to a trogon that had 

 flown over our heads in the morning: they have a superstition that 

 if, on setting out on a journey, they should turn their backs to this 

 species of bird, iU luck will surely follow." (BW, 146: on the Maza- 

 rrnii, with an Arawak and Akawai crew.) The following afc some 

 miscellaneous examples of bird-omens: On the Pomeroon one must 

 not gaze too long on the great red macaw, miless the individual wishes 

 to become bald, presumably in view of the bird having its cheeks so 

 markedly devoid of feathers. The advent of strangers is notified by 

 the warracabba (trumpeter-bird) when it is seen playing about near 

 the house, having in its mouth a leaf with which it is beheved to be 

 building a bauab. On the Ormoco, in token of the Father coming 

 to visit them, the Cacique said that on the previous day he had seen a 

 bird with peculiar feathers and colors passing over his house: it gave 



