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



chest or thighs, ami thus produces a consideral)ki and very pamful- 

 lookmg rash." This method employed by Makusis, iVrekunas, and 

 Akawais. Or the liuuter may mortify liis flesh witli ants, a practice 

 indulged in by a member of any of these three tribes who — 



Takes a small mat, about six or eight inches square, made of narrow parallel strips 

 of the skin of a reed-like plant [Ischnosiphon] tied together somewhat as are the laths 

 of a Venetian blind. Between each two of these strips he inserts a row of living ants, 

 their heads all one way. The strips are exactly at such distance apart that the ants 

 when once inserted can not extricate themselves. The huntsman then presses the 

 whole mat, on the side on which are the heads of the ants, against his own chest; and 

 the ants, which are of a large and venomous kind, bite most painfully. " [IT, 229.] 



331. While recovering from the effects of his self-inflicted cuts and 

 other injuries, the Carib and Akawai nimrod may be waited upon 

 and nursed by some woman, but she must be past the clLmacteiic; 

 lie is strictly forbidden to take liberties with any female. Though, 

 at fu'st sight, the inconvenience and suffermg entailed by certain of 

 the above procedures might seem to constitute a sort of sacrifice or 

 free gift for favors to come, or at aU events expected, I am afraid all 

 the evidence is in the negative. On the other hand these practices 

 may have a physiological basis of fact, and so of reason. The passing 

 of the nose-striiig would certainly tend to clean the nasal mucus 

 membrane, and so render the olfactory organ more keen; the pro- 

 hibition of women combined with an enforced diet would certainly 

 tejid to make the mdividual more fit and thus get him into better 

 training; the stimulation of aU his sense organs with the particular 

 frog slune may possibly hypersensitize them: while the mfliction of 

 physical pam withm certam limits can reasonably be expected to 

 irritate the nervous system to such an extent as to render it responsive 

 to but the slightest external stimulus — qualities, all of them, advan- 

 tageous for the hunter to insure success in the chase. It is perhaps 

 on somewhat sunilar Imes that, with a view to stimulatmg the child 

 quickly to learn to walk, the Arawak mother will get a tibi-tibi 

 lizard and encourage it to bite the mfant's feet and knees; the child 

 is also mcited to activity by putting a smaU stinging ant on him 

 (Da, 250) . But it is certamly difficult to understand how the artificial 

 flattening of the children's foreheads by the Carib Island mothers 

 can be vindicated in the belief that it helps the victims in years to 

 come the better to fly their arrows from the tree-tops by securing a 

 firm foot-hold for them (RoP, 552) . 



332. Himting dogs are also made to undergo similar ordeals, but 

 whether as part aiid parcel, or independent, of their general training 

 (Sect. 234.) it is difficult to say. On the Pomeroon in addition to, or 

 in heu of, the rubbing of a leaf (Sect. 233) the animal's snout may 

 be rubbed with a certain tree-bark peculiar in that, when squeezed 

 m the hands, a sort of frothiness exudes [ ? a species of Inga]. Or 



