ROTH] RESTRICTIONS 295 



banks of the stream (RoP, 493). When they have caught anything, 

 they leave it on the spot, and the women were formerly obliged to 

 go and fetch it to the house. 



245. Among the Pomeroon Arawaks, when an animal is killed 

 with an arrow-trap or a gun-trap, its flesh has to be cooked in a pot 

 without a cover, over a fire which is not too large, so as to avoid any 

 water boiling over. Were either of these matters not attended to, 

 there would be no further use either for the arrow or for the gun, as 

 all the game of the same kind as that recently trapped would take 

 its departure to another region. 



246. Among the Arawaks it woidd seem tliat food in general was 

 not allowed to be eaten after niglitfall, any person guilty of this 

 offence being invariably changed into an animal. The story of the 

 man who dined after dark (Sect. 11 4) has reference to this belief. 

 The origin of siicli a custom it is somewhat difficult to trace. That 

 it can not be duo to any desire to prevent exposure to the enemy 

 througli the lights of the fli'cs required for cooking is evident from 

 tlie fact that fires for purposes of warmth, protection from jaguars, 

 and other beasts of prey may be kept burning all night. It may be 

 due to some sucli superstition as is met with among the Jivaros of 

 the Pintuc, the Pioj^s of the Putumayo (upper Amazon), and others, 

 who argue that all food which remains in the stomach overnight is 

 unwholesome and imdigestod, and should tlu^refore be removed; 

 accordingly they have the habit of inducing vomiting every morning 

 by the use of a feather (AS, 9.3). 



247. On the Amazons, "the cliddren, more particularly the females, 

 are restricted to a particular food: they are not allowed to eat the 

 meat of any kind of game, nor of fish, except the very small bony 

 kinds ; their food principally consisting of mandiocca-cake and fruits" 

 (ARW, 345). We must accept wnth caution the opinion implied or 

 expressed by various authorities that each nation as such differs from 

 the othere with respect to the indigenous foods from tlie use of which the 

 people abstain. A certain food may be taboo to any one or more indi- 

 viduals, independently of memberslup in a certain tribe, at the instiga- 

 tion of a medicine-man as a part of the treatment for illness, on account 

 of liis wife's condition, or for other reasons. Wliile we have the defi- 

 nite assurance of Schomburgk that the Caribs never eat monkeys (ScR, 

 II, 434), Gumilla says that each nation is fond of one kind of monkey 

 but loathes the others. Tlie Achaguas are very fond of the yellow 

 ones, which they call ardbata, the Tunevos like the black ones, while 

 the Jiraras, Ajricos, Bctoyes, and other nations prefer the white ones 

 (G, I, 260). The present-day Pomeroon Caribs \vill eat neither arma- 

 dillo, alligator, camudi, nor monkey, but no reasons for such restric- 

 tions are obtainable. Kappler speaks of the Surinam Indians refus- 



