278 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS [eth. ann. 30 



(see Sect. 231) is evidently not even known to the Indians who 

 practise them. In Surinam, among both tlie Ojanas (Caribs) and 

 Trios (Caribs) it is customary (Go, 21) to slash arms and legs with 

 a knife, and the scars may be rubbed perhaps with turalla (Caladium 

 bulb). An Ojana told de Goeje that he cut his arm in order to be 

 able to shoot the quatta monkey well. A Trio slashetl his arm and 

 forearm and rubbed earth into it, to become a good hunter; another 

 cut his thigh in order to become a strong mountain climber; some 

 women also had on the outer side of the tliigli scars from wounds 

 inflicted to make themselves strong. With the Island Caribs, the fore- 

 head and nose were flattened artificially (RoP, 4.37). This was done 

 as soon as the infants were born by exerting pressure in such a way 

 as to cause a slight backward slope of this part of the head. Besides 

 being considered a sign of beauty, this shape was said to be advantage- 

 ous in shooting arrows from a tree-top, in securing a foot-hold, etc. 

 (RoP, 552). Among the Yaruro Indians of the Orinoco, in order to 

 become skillful with the bow and arrow the men submit to a sexual 

 mutilation with a sting-ray "barb", which is made to pierce the 

 prepuce (Cr, 570). The Cayenne Caribs never go on a big hunting 

 expedition without drawing a httle blood from their arms to prevent 

 them shaking when pulling the bow: to give them greater strength 

 for paddling, the young men scarified themselves on both arms. 

 Similarly, before undertaking a journey on land they never fail to 

 make incisions at the level of the calves (Cr, 280). Schom- 

 burgk reports seeing Indians bleeding each other as a remedy for 

 over fatigue (ScF, 235). There is still a nose-strmging procedure 

 to be mentioned: "In most Indian houses pieces of thick roughly- 

 plated fiber or cord, as thick as codline, and a yard in length, are 

 seen hanging up in the roof. These have all been used once ... 

 that is, passed up through the nose of the owner of the house, and 

 drawn out by the mouth, for the purpose of giving him good luck in 

 hunting" (Bro, 302). The string tapers "from a very small point at 

 one end to a considerable thickness at the other end, where the fibers 

 hang loosely in a bunch . . . the tliin end [is passed] up his nos- 

 tril . . . employed by Makusis, Arecunas, and Ackawoi" (IT, 228). 

 The "exercising" of the limbs at each new moon may perhaps be 

 regarded in the light of a preparatory ordeal (Sect. 199). 



338. In British Guiana, on the Kaieteur savannah, a fiog is rubbed 

 on the transverse cuts made adown either side of the hunter's chest, 

 a different frog bemg used for difl'erent game. In the same district 

 a small live toad is said to be swallowed for the promotion of general 

 success in hunting." "Having scratched his wrist with the telson or 

 sting of a scorpion to insure precision in darting the arrow from the 

 bow, and cut his arms and legs with the flakes of a broken bottle, he 



' H. W. B. Moore, in Daily Argosy, Aug. 12, 1910. 



