KOTH] BESTRICTIONS 301 



occurrence reported from the Parou River in Cayenne may find 

 place here: "In a retired spot, I surprise a little girl who, like the 

 ostrich, hides her face in a hole, leavuig her body entirely exposed" 

 (Cr, 273). It is possible that the peppering of the witch's eyes 

 before clubbing l\er was intended to prevent the j)oor ■nTetch attract- 

 ing toward hei-seh the Spu'its of those people she might otherwise 

 have looked at (Sect. 319). Compare also the binding of the girl's 

 eyes in the puberty ceremony (Sect. 271). 



256. The closing of the eyes and the concurrent expression of a 

 wish I am unable to obtaui explanations for, except on the hj-po- 

 thesis of some Spirit being supplicated, and deal with the practice 

 here only as a matter of convenience. Mentit)n is made of the custom 

 in the Carib story of — 



"Shut Youk Eyes and Wish!" (C) 



There were two brothers, ami each had set a spring trap to catch Maipiiri [tapir] 

 but it had prove<l too smart for them. One day the younger came home and said, 

 " I have caught a bush-cow. ' ' This made the elder one jealous, and hence his remark, 

 'If you have fooled me, I %rill kill you." So they went together into the bush, and 

 sure enough there was the tapir caught by the leg in the trap. The elder brother 

 thereupon killed the beast, cut up the meat, and took it all for himself, leaving only 

 the entrails for the younger. The latter returned home, and telling his mother how 

 greedy her first-born had been, prevaileduponher to leave the place with him. ANTien 

 they had traveled a great distance, they reached a hill, ami the son said: "Mother! 

 Shut your eyes, and say. ' I want a field here, w-ith plantains and potato >s, together 

 with a house right in its very center.' " The old woman did what she had been told, 

 and lo, and behold! there she had exactly what she had asked for. The two of them 

 remained there for a long period, quite happy and content, but the mother was getting 

 old now. So the son said. " Mother! Shut your eyes, and say, ' I want to be a young 

 girl again.'" Tliis she did. and her wish was immediately granted, she becoming 

 so verj- sweet and attractive that her son became quite proud of her and wanted 

 other people to see her also. Indeed, this made him say, "Mother! Shut your eyes, 

 and say, ' I wi.^^h my big son would come see me.' " No sooner said than done, and 

 the elder brother put in his appearance. Now that they had a visitor, they must of 

 course have paiwarri, so the younger brother told his mother as before to shut her 

 eyes and wish for drinks — and accordingly they had a big jar of paiwarri. All three 

 of them drank, and the big brother became beastly intoxicated, so much so that he 

 commenced trj-ing to take liberties with the pretty young woman. " How dare you! " 

 expostulated the younger one. " Don't you know that she is your mother?" "No! 

 I don't." replied the elder, "and what is more, I don't believe it," and as he insisted 

 upon attempting to carry out his wicked designs, the two men fought. When the 

 elder brother finally awoke from his drunken brawl, he found him.self all alone in a 

 strange broken-down old hut. and so he returned home disconsolate. 



The Makusis also would seem to have had similar ideas about 

 wishing, for in their legend of Pia and Makunaima the former tells 

 his mother that whatever of good she desired she would obtain if 

 she would bow her head and cover her face with her hands wliile 

 .she expressed her wish (Sect. ^1). 



257. It was a superstition of the Indians in Cayenne that the first 

 person to see the dancers airive at the actual place of entertainment 



