322 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS [eth. ann. 30 



the rest of the house. With the bath that she takes within a com- 

 paratively few houi-s after the interesting event has occurred, her 

 isolation, and with it any dangerous influence of her recent condition, 

 ceases. The woman is her own accoucheuse; even during the night 

 and in wet season she will leave the house and retire to a secluded 

 spot near by. She occupies herself with her daily affairs until the 

 last moment: she may come home with a quake contammg the baby 

 instead of the usual cassava; and "on the morrow she is prepared 

 to undertake all the indoor work of the household " (Da, 248). Con- 

 finement takes place either in the forest or in some little hut ; she is 

 always alone unless some difficulty presents itself, when an old woman 

 will attend (PBa, 226). With the Makusis and Wapisianas, both 

 parents engage m a "lying-in" for a shorter or longer period after 

 the appearance of baby. The Makusi father takes to his hammock, 

 placed near that of his wife, until the navel-string falls oft' ; but before 

 doing this, if he has no separate building, he will prepare a pahn-leaf 

 partition in the hut (ScR, ii, 314). When the partition was finished, 

 the [Wapisiana] husband hung up in it both his own and his wife's 

 hammock, and therein they lay to "take to bed" {die Wochen zu 

 hulten) like the Makusis (ScE, ii, 389). During the lymg-m of the 

 mother, or couvade of the father, they are considered equally unclean, 

 such uncleanness being occasionally regarded as persisting for long 

 afterward. Thus, the Mainland Carib (in Cayenne) is obhged to devote 

 hi:nself to the service of an old Indian and to leave his wife for some 

 months ; durmg this period he has to be submissive and regard himself 

 as a real slave (PBa, 223-4). When in couvade a visitor enters his 

 house, that visitor's dogs wiU soon die (Cr, 241). The Arawaks and 

 Warraus say that if a man durmg the period he ought to remam in 

 couvade indulges in sexual relations with any woman other than his 

 wife, the infant will die through inability to exert its emunctory powers. 

 After lighting her fire and supplying her with drinkuig cups it is the 

 duty of the female Wapisiana population to keep as far away from 

 the lying-in woman as possible for the few days that she is deemed 

 unclean (ScR, ii, 389). With the completion of the couvade, on the 

 upper Tiquie River, among the Tuyuka and other Indians, the grand- 

 mother "smokes" the pathway leaduig from the malol:a to the water, 

 as well as the water itself, before the parents have their first bath 

 (KG, I, 312). With the Uaupes River (Rio Negi'o) Indians, when a 

 birth takes place in the house, everything is taken out of it, even 

 the pans and pots, and bows and arrows, tiU the next day (ARW, 

 345). 



381A. In coimection with this question of couvade, it is of interest 

 to note that from among the Caribs I obtained a trace of an idea of 

 the male acting as the parturient parent. 



