306 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS [bth. ANN. 30 



The name bestowed subsequently in this tribe by the piai takes 

 place about the period when the child begins to creep; he asks the 

 Spirit in the maraka (rattle) to give the name. "An offering of con- 

 siderable value is necessary on this occasion, as, according to the fee 

 given to pro{)itiate the pe-i-man, is the virtue of the incantations 

 pronounced: an unnamed Indian is thought to be the certain victim 

 of the first sickness or misfortune that he may encounter : accordmgly, 

 only the very poorest of them are without names" (HiC, 229). At 

 the present time, it would seem that the piai gives a name only if 

 he has been called m to attend a child when sick; under such cir- 

 cumstances he will say that he has dreamed that the child requires a 

 name, and the parents accordingly ask him to give one. Such names 

 are given with regard to the personal appearance, to birds or other 

 animals, to tobacco (e. g. Yuri-niro, Yuri-tukoro = tobacco flower), 

 after the piai's kickshaws, etc. (e. g. Shibari, "stone," KalUko-yang, 

 "crystal," Wara-maraka, a name derived from his rattle), or "after 

 some quality or title." With the Makusis it was either the grand- 

 mother or grandfather, who, on the conclusion of the couvade, gave the 

 infant one of the names customary in the family (ScR, ii, 3 15) . Among 

 the Tukanos it is the father, under similar circumstances, who gives the 

 name, generally that of an annual (KG, i, 313). So also on the Islands 

 the Caribs do not bestow names immediately after bh'tli, but wait for 

 twelve or fifteen days when they call in a man and woman who take 

 the place of sponsors, and jiicrce the child's under-lip and nostril. 

 The majority of the names which the Caribs impose on their children 

 are taken from their ancestors or from various trees which grow on 

 the islands, or from something that has happened to the father 

 at the time of his wife's pregnancy, or during her lying-m (RoP, 

 552-3). A convalescent patient may start life afresh with a new 

 name (Sect. Sft5). 



365. The circumstances vary under which the name abeady given 

 may be changed. As already mentioned (Sect. 26 J^, this was the 

 case with the ^Vrawaks on recovery from prolonged sickness. On the 

 Carib Islands the names given to the male children shortly after 

 birth were not retained throughout life; they changed them when 

 old enough to be received mto the rank of wan-iors, or if they had 

 borne themselves bravely m battle and had killed an Arawak chief, 

 they took his name as a mark of honor (RoP, 552-3). Both on the 

 Islands and on the Mainland names were exchanged in testimony of 

 great affection and mviolable friendship (RoP, 513): "When they 

 want to make friends, they ask for our names and give us theirs. To 

 show affection and friendship they want us to exchange names" 

 (BBR, 237-8). In Porto Rico "Juan Ponce de Leon, m fact, was 

 received into the bosom of the family, and the Cacique exchanged 

 names with hhn, which is the Indian pledge of perpetual amity" 



