310 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS Feth. ANN. 30 



skilful, clever, and industrious; and certainly the obligation of pub- 

 licly braving severe bodily suffering has an assured intrinsic value 

 (Go, 21). If the parents had not previously submitted themselves 

 to these ant and wasp tests and other ordeals the Cayenne Ajialais 

 and Roucouyennes believe that ''only emaciated and sickly cliildren 

 would be born to them" (Cr, 307). It is noteworthy that in both 

 Surinam and Cayenne the insects above referred to "are held in 

 frames of bizarre shapes fringed with feathers, representing quad- 

 rupeds and birds (Cr, 245-50). In such cases it certainly seems a 

 very fair question to inquire whether it is the properties and qualities 

 of the particular quadruped or bird represented in the shape of the 

 frame, or those of the old stranger, piai, or other individual applying 

 it, that are supposed to be impressed on the young person's character; 

 unfortunately the evidence thus far collected is insufficient to furnish a 

 satisfactory answer. But in the following example the object of 

 applying the ants at all would seem to be — though the suggestion 

 after all may be wrong — to obtain the personal characteristics and 

 qualities of the European traveler: "On entering the Apalai village — a 

 custom we did not find among the Ouayanas — they brought me 

 a framework of palm leaves to which were attached at their centers, 

 some big black ants. All the people of the tribe, irrespective of age 

 or sex, presented themselves for me to apply it to their bodies, loins, 

 thighs, etc." (Cr, 300). 



270. The Warrau boys had to undergo at initiation greater ordeals 

 than the girls, to demonstrate their strength and manly prowess. 

 These ordeals consisted principally in the infliction of painful wounds 

 upon the breast and arms with the tusk of the wild boar or the beak 

 of the toucan. If the boy endures all this without showing signs of 

 pain, he can rank thenceforth with the men; if not, he has to submit 

 to the ordeal on another occasion (ScR, i, 168). The Carib girl of the 

 Pomeroon is operated on by the piai, who with the incisors of the 

 Dasypi'octa [acouri] makes deep incisions down her back, and from 

 shoulder to shoulder; he then rubs pepper into these wounds, without 

 the poor tortured creature daring to utter one cry of pain (ScR, ii, 

 431). So also in Cayenne, a number of bloody incisions are made in 

 her body, and it is only subsequent to this that she is allowed to 

 wear the apron-belt (kewe-yo) : the young man is allowed to wear the 

 lap-cloth only after having passed the necessary ordeals (PBa, 225). 

 In Cayenne again, the girl is said to have her teeth filed down by the 

 piai at her puberty initiation (LAP, ii, 2G7). 



271. On returning from her first bath [after the first menstrual 

 period] the Makusi girl must during the night sit upon a stool or 

 stone, to be whipped by her mother with thin rods without raising 

 the slightest cry to wake the sleeping occupants of the hut, an occur- 

 rence which would prove dangerous for her futm-e welfare. The 



