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



flesh of the male turtle (much less numerous than the female) is con- 

 sidered unwholesome, especially to sick people having external signs 

 of inflammation (HWB, 309). 



251. Dogs also are precluded from eating certain foods. In 

 Cayemie CVevaux noticed that his Roucouyenne cooks threw the 

 beaks of the kinoros birds (Ara canga) into the river, in the belief 

 that were their dogs to eat them, they (the dogs) would be poisoned 

 (Cr, 284). Here, on the Pomeroon, in many an Indian house ypu 

 will often find stuck under the eaves of the overhanging troolie roof, 

 or slung up in a basket, the wings and breast-bones of certain birds, 

 and often the bones of a labba or an acouri. It was a long time before 

 I learned that they were placed there for a purpose other than orna- 

 ment or decoration. If a dog were to eat either of those particular 

 bird bones or any bones whatever of a labba or an acouri that it had 

 not itself hunted, such dog would never catch any of these animals 

 again.' 



253. The temporary occlusion of vision, as with tobacco and pep- 

 pers, on the occasion of visiting for the first time any strikingly 

 pecuUar landmark of natural scenery, especially in the way of moun- 

 tains, or even on entering a new region, would seem to have been a 

 custom very prevalent among the Indians. From the examples 

 which I propose here submitting it will be seen that the procedure 

 specially concerns the particular Spirit with which such landmark or 

 region is connected. Its object, partly perhaps to placate this 

 Spirit, and so turn aside the sickness or any other evil it might other- 

 wise choose to send, is mainly to prevent the visiting individual 

 attracting it toward himself. The procedure is protective or defensive 

 in the sense of thwartmg evil. On first gaining sight of the .Vrissaro 

 HiUs, Essequibo River, the Caribee Indians, who had never ascended 

 the river so far, had to undergo an initiatory sight, which consisted in 

 squeezing tobacco juice into their eyes (ScG, 229). So again, at the 

 Twasinkie or Coomootie Mountains, much superstition, as usual, was 

 attached to them, and those who had never seen them before were 

 obliged to drink lime juice, and to have tobacco water squeezed into 

 their eyes to avert the Evil Spirit (ScG, 231). Im Thurn (36S) 

 speaks of peppers (Capsicum) being employed for a similar purpose, 

 and says: "Once, when neither peppers nor limes were at hand, a 

 piece of blue indigo-dyed cloth was carefully soaked and the dye was 

 then rubbed into the eyes." While on the Cuy^\'ini, writes Barring- 

 ton Brown: "We passed a place one afternoon where the river was 

 studded with high granite rocks two of which rose ten feet or so 

 above the level of the highest floods. . . . Our guide, Edward . . . 

 turned his head away and would not look at them. Eruma, one of 



1 The alligator skull stuck up in the Carib houses serves a different purpose; it keeps away the Bush 

 Spirit, the Yurokon. 



