ROTH] SEXUAL LIFE 325 



then can the father ... go out to the forest or field to use an ax or cutlass, when 

 the Spirit of the child which follows him as a second shadow might be between the 

 ax and the wood? How climb a tree, if the infant spirit i.« also to essay the climbing, 

 and fall, perhaps to the injury of the infant Ijnng in the hammock? How hunt when 

 the arrow might pierce the accompanyinf, spirit of the child, which would be death 

 to the little mortal at home? If, traveling through the woods you happen to meet a 

 tairu leaf, which is formed very much in shape of a corial, floating on a stream or pond 

 of water, and furnished with a tiny wooden seat and paddle, cut out and placed therein: 

 or should you, in stejiping over a fallen tree discover two sticks each placed from the 

 ground to the trunk of the tree, disturb them not. . . . When the father wades through 

 the water, the toddling spirit . . . must paddle over in the tairu-leaf boat: and when 

 his sire crosses over the stump, the little temporary bridge enables the infantile Spirit 

 to cUmb over. . . . But notwithstanding the greatest vigilance, the little Spirit is 

 sometimes lost, and then the body pines and dies if the Piai doctor is not fortunate 

 enough to recover it. [Da, 249.] 



For my o\vn part, I am very mucli inclined to believe that this 

 little Baby Spirit is identical with the Famihar Spirit (Sect. 93 A). 



284. In view of the facts mentioned throiif;hmit this chapter it is 

 as well to note that, on the Orinoco, when an infant (male or female) 

 was bom with any defect or monstrosity it was put to death (G, ii, 

 60). Similar procedure was in vogue in Cayenne (PBa, 227), while 

 Schomburgk states that "the shocking practice of destroying 

 d(>fornied children is not so general among the savages of Guayana 

 as has been supposed" (ScF, 219). On the Amazon there was the 

 curious custtmi of killing all the first-born cliildren among the Xima- 

 nas and Cauxanas, tribes met with between the If a and Japura 

 Rivers (ARW, 355). Among the Zaparos of the Napo River (upper 

 Amazon), when a mother having a very young child dies, the cliild 

 is sometimes buried alive (Sect. 76) with her (AS, 175). On the 

 Orinoco, among the Sahvas, twins were considered a sign of dishonor. 



They call the mother nicknames; some say that she is of the rodent family, which 

 bear little rats four at a time, etc. Directly a Saliva savage gives birth to a baby and 

 feels that still another remains, she will bury the first rather than put up with the jokes 

 and chalfing of her neighbors, or merit the frown with which her Imsband regards it. 

 The husband's view is that only one of those twins can pos.sibly be his; the presence 

 of the other is a sure signof hiswife'.sdblo>alty. One of the Indian captainsgives his 

 wife a whipping in public for having dared to bring forth twins; and warns the other 

 women as to the serious beating he will give them it they do the same. [G, i, 189.] 



The same thing takes place on the River Cuduiary, among the 

 Kobewas, at the present day, the second-born of the twins being 

 killed, but if of different sexes, the girl is sacrificed (KG, ii, 146). 



284A. There arc certain!}- traces of a belief in sexual relationships 

 having no necessary connection with the production of children. 

 Even at the present day women can cohabit with Water Spirits 

 without disastrous consequences resulting (Sect. 186). On the 

 other hand women can get babies if they want them, by eating certain 

 binas, plant or animal (Sects. 237, 238) ; in a case of this kind the 



