288 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS [kth. an.\. 30 



338. There are certam animal binas c()rrespon(lin<; in their action 

 with the plant bmas just mentioned in connection with sexual mat- 

 ters. Among the Pomeroon Arawaks, when the husband is very 

 jealous and ill-tempered, his wife will cut off the head of a small 

 lizard (yamorro), burn it, and put the ashes into the water which 

 she gives him to drink; any man or woman can then make the hus- 

 band do whatever he or she hkes. When one woman wants another's 

 husband she will manage to put marabunta (wasp) eggs into his 

 di'ink, which will make him leave his own •wife and go off with, her 

 (the eggs are pounded up and roasted before mixing) . On the upper 

 Amazons, the native women, even the white and half-caste inliabitants 

 of the towns, attach superstitious value to the skin and feathers 

 of the papa-uira, beheving that the relics wall have the effect of 

 attracting for the happy possessors a tiain of lovers and followers. 

 [The Indians have noticed these miscellaneous hunting parties of 

 bii'ds, but appeared not to have observed that they are occupied in 

 searching for insects. They have supplied their want of knowledge 

 ... by a theory which has degenerated into a myth to the effect 

 that the onward moving bands are led by a httle gi'ay bii-d called 

 the papfi-uira, which fascmates all the rest and leads them a weary 

 dance tlu'ough the thickets. There is certainlv some appearance of 

 truth in this explanation; foi sometimes stray bu'ds encountered m 

 the line of march are seen to be drawn into the throng, and piu-ely 

 frugiverous birds are now and then found mixed up with the rest, 

 as though led away by some will -of- the- wisp (HWTi, .340).] When 

 it is kno\vn to her intimate friends and relatives that an Arawak 

 woman wants an infant, they will give her to drmk of a mixture, in 

 which, milaiowai to her, they have placed the roasted and pulverized 

 remains of either a cockroach (matero), the eggs of a certain spider, 

 or the paw of an opossum (yawarri) . 



239. Tahsmans, the last group of charms to be dealt with, include 

 those which repel evil, bad luck, and the like, and so have a protective 

 or defensive character — those v/hich endow the Indian with siich 

 superior advantages of body and estate as enable him to get the 

 better of his feUow-creatures, human and animal. Matters of com- 

 age, health and strength, power to withstand sickness and his ene- 

 mies, craft to excel in the chase, trade and barter, all find a place 

 here. With regard to the chase, the provisions mentioned in Sect 

 843 might very reasonably be regarded as talismanic. Among the 

 Tiios (Caribs) of Surinam, says de Goeje — 



^Ve saw afresh how one of oiir party rubbed the palms of his hands with turalla 

 [caladium bulb] on arrival at a village of which they had much dread. A young man 

 on the journey thi'ough the forest carried siinti [turalla] in a little palm-leaf box 

 attached to the neck, in order to strengthen his head and shoidders. A child with 

 fever was one afternoon washed by its mother with water into which finely ground 

 siinti had been placed. As after two days, the fever again appeared, it was streaked 

 with ruku paint, with which the same stuff had been mixed. [Go, 14-15.] 



