282 ANIMISM AXD FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS [eth. anx. 30 



kinds of fish (Da, 253). As a rule, wt)nieu are supposed neither to 

 see nor to handle such plants thus cultivated. Even in so compara- 

 tively civilized a district as tlio Pomcroon and Moruca, I have col- 

 lected more than a score of such plants, the respective leaves of which 

 in the majority of cases bear some real or fancied resemblance to the 

 animal for which they are reputed to have so peculiar an aflinitv- 

 Thus the bush-hog bina has a leaf easily recognizable by the small 

 secondary leaf on its under surface, representing the animal's scent- 

 gland, though some Indians say that it indicates the tip of the nostril; 

 the deer bina shows the horns, in its general contour, and the color- 

 ation of the fur in its venation; the armadillo bina typifies the shape 

 of the small projecting ears; the lukunanni bina bears a variety of 

 colors resembling those around the fish's gills; the gillbacker bina 

 develops the same yellowish color as the fish which it attracts; the 

 labba bina has the tj'jjical white markings; the powis bina bears the 

 identical shape of that bird's wiug-feather — and so on for turtle, huri, 

 etc. Some of these biiias seemingly must be of comparatively wide- 

 spread use; thus, that for the bush-hog is known in the ilakusi coimtry, 

 those for the turtle, and armadillo, in Sminam (J. Rodway), etc. 



The hunter puts the particuhir plant to use by taking off a young- 

 as-yet-unopcned shoot, and phicing it, in the rough, m his powder- 

 flask, or rubbmg it up into the paint, with which he smears his 

 face and body, but especially all the main joints; or, on the other 

 hand, he may employ only the leaf, which he rubs on his arrow, 

 hLs fish-hook, his gun-barrel, or on his dog. In Cayemie, these bmas 

 {des Tierbes enchanteresses) are said to have been hung up on the trees 

 (LAP, II, 221). 



234. In Cayenne, the dog was also rubbed with "simples," for 

 which procedure Pitou gives the negative reason, "so that the game 

 should not take itself off on its approach" (LAP, ii, 220). The 

 Roucouyennes, a Carib nation of the same colony, cultivate in their 

 clearings the Hibiscus abelmosckus, from which they make a musk- 

 scented infusion for washing their dogs before taking them to Inmt 

 jaguar (Cr, 330): this, however, has nothing to do with the binas, the 

 object of its application being to prevent the tiger biting the dog, 

 owing to the pungency of the smell. Hunting dogs are also rubbed 

 over with i-uku {Bixa orellana) both by Indians (Trios, Ojanas, and 

 others) and Bush Negroes (Go, 3): in British Guiana" ihe practice is 

 said to keep off certain ticks (Ivi, 184). The methods adopted 

 bj^ the Corentyn Ai-awaks for "trainmg" (Sect. 232) then dogs 

 to hunt may be included here. While the procedure may be 

 correctly given, the statements relative to the naming of the 

 particular leaf after the animal which feeds on it and the alleged 

 odor are of course imaginative. These Arjiwaks first choose the 

 dogs for hunting various animals, acccTrding to strength, having 



