316 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS Ieth. ANN. 30 



would give way on that particular point. On the other hand, suppos- 

 ing his aim to have been linally .successful, the girl would be as wife 

 to him, and he would take up residence in his father-in-law's house. 

 The next thing was for the old Arawak paterfamilias to mark out 

 a piece of 'ground, which within so many days the young man to 

 whom he presented an ax for the purpose, had to cut and clear for a 

 provision field. The time specified was usually short, the young man 

 having to work with might and mabi, starting early and returning 

 late, but finally completing the task. A similar ordeal was exacted 

 among the Makusis and other tribes (ScR, ii, .316). But th?re was 

 still something else for the Arawak would-be bridegroom to do. For 

 during the time occupied in cutting the field, the old man had busied 

 himself in collecting a large number of crab quakes (baskets), and 

 subsequently he would accompany the lad out to sea, and would 

 himself watch to see that within the one day the youngster really 

 filled all the baskets through his own exertions, and did not obtam 

 the assistance of friends. This completed, the youth became hence- 

 forth one of the legal heirs of the house. Should, however, the lad 

 not have cut the field nor filled the requisite number of quakes within 

 the allotted period he would have been laughed and jeered at when 

 attending subsequent paiwarris. The two ordeals, just described, 

 however, were never so essential as that of the shooting of the arrow 

 into the woodpecker's nest. 



378. A Warning to Wives (A) 



You must remember that in the days of long ago we Arawaks would never accept 

 a suitor for our daughter unless he gave us some proof that he was skilful in the chase, 

 and able to support a wife. Among such tests were those of shooting into a wood- 

 pecker's nest from off the bows of a swiftly paddled corial, the filling of so many 

 baskets with crabs during the course of a single tide, and the clearing of a field witliin 

 a certain specified period. The first of these was a severe test, it is true, and grad- 

 ually fell into disuse, though the others were long retained. It was just about the 

 time when the first-mentioned ordeal had been done away with, that a young man, 

 'courting a girl, thought he would have no difficulty in gaining permanent possession 

 of her, now that all he had to do for his father-in-law was to catch stime crabs (Sect. 

 365) and cut a field. So when he went and asked the old man for liis daughter and 

 obtained his consent, he had no compunction in settling down at his new quarters, 

 for with us a husband always lives with his bride before he completes the tests: on 

 their fulfilment, however, will depend his fate — whether he retains permanent pos- 

 session of her. Two or three weeks having been spent on the honeymoon, the old 

 man talked to the lad about going to sea, after the usual manner, to catch crabs, 

 and advised liim to get his quakes (baskets) ready for a certain day. The youth 

 went into the bush with his companiijus to cut the necessary mulru [the Creole term 

 applied to the material used in weaving baskets], and, on his return, sat down to pre- 

 pare it (that is, to split it into strands, and to tie them into bundles). As a matter 

 of fact, he did not know what else to do with them! And when his comrades, who 

 were already weaving baskets for themselves, saw that he had stopped operations, 

 they inquired the cause, and were told that he intended making his when he 



