BOTH] RESTRICTIONS 299 



our Caribs, took some tobacco, and dipping it into the water, leaned 

 back and squeezed the juice into his eyes, and as soon as the tears 

 thus produced had subsided, he calmly gazed upon the rocks" 

 (Bro, 30). Xear the mouth of the Cuywini River, upper Essequibo, 

 to quote the same author, "were some large granite rocks in passing 

 which our Carib . . . turned away his face in an opposite direction, 

 l^pon questioning him a.s to his reason for so doing, I learned that if 

 he looked at them, he would get fever" (Bro, 244). Another interest- 

 ing extract is from Jemnan (23): 



We met on the Savannah about a hundred Indians of all ages and both sexes, resting 

 on their way down to the hill to the landing at Tukoit, going down to the Mission. 

 It was the first time they had passed the "Kaietuk" (Kaieteur) as they called it, 

 though they were careful to keep almost beyond the sound of its roar and far out of 

 sight of it. Each one, from (he newly-born baby in arms, to the oldest man and 

 '.voman. had pepper-juice ap|)lied to the balls of the eyes, carefully inserted within 

 tlie lidf, with a small loop made of a finely twiistod piece of Tibesiri [Mnuritia fiber] to 

 avert any evil which might otherwi.se befall them from having come near the Fall 

 and into a new part of tlie country. Its ai>plication appeared to give acute pain for 

 a short time, and brought a copious flow of tears. Some courageously just kept the 

 eyelids open without touching them; others, with less nerve, had to hold theirs 

 open. . . . The pepper-juice . . . was applied by one man, a middle-aged person. 



The prosent-day Arawaks when visiting any new place for the 

 first time, whctlicr now connected with Spirits or not, i)ut creek water 

 or river water into their eyes: the}' tell inc here that it Is witlithe 

 object of placating any spirits that may be lurkmg in the vicmity, 

 for should they neglect the custom, the Yawahus might not only 

 send them sore eyes, but many other sicknesses. One woman main- 

 tained that, inde])endcntly of any evil spirits, the very novelty 

 of tlie scene might give her sore eyes, in the absence of the usual 

 precaution. 



253. Warraus assure me that on looking at a mountain for the 

 first time the eyes are shut to prevent the person attracting or draw- 

 ing the Shadow of the Spirit toward him (Sect. 190). Wlien one 

 person looks at another, the former draws or drags the latter's shallow 

 (Sect. 68) toward him, a principle on which these Indians explain the 

 taking of a photograph. The Ishuid Carib corjjse is laid out with 

 two weights on the eyes, that he may not see his parents th\is making 

 them ill (Sect. 80). Catlm gives an amusing instance among the 

 Conibos of the Amazon, of the local medicine-man preventing liim 

 painting any more portraits by exhorting the tribesmen as follows: 

 "These things are a great mystery, but there you are, my friends, 

 with your eyes open all night — they never sluit: this is all WTong and 

 you are very foolish to allow it. You never wHl be happy afterwards 

 if you allow these things to be always awake in the night. My 

 friends, tliis is only a cunning way this man has to get your skins; 

 and the next thing they wUl have glass eyes, and be pla.ced among 

 the skins of the wild beasts and birds and snakes." (The medicine- 



