328 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LOHE OF GUIANA INDIANS [etu. ANN. 30 



(Bri, 55). On the other hand, there is not a single recorded instance 

 of the Guianese IncUan priesthood ever having submitted those of 

 their people holding religious views different from their own to either 

 torture or the block. The Creole term for the priest-doctor is piai- 

 man, a hybrid that seems to have been first recorded by Waterton in 

 the form of pee-ay-man, who is an enchanter; he finds out things lost 

 (W, 223). In its simple form, the word of course came into use much 

 earUer, and is seemingly derived from the Canh piache, which Gumilla 

 employs, and is still met with among the Pomeroon group of these 

 Indians as piesan. Brett (Br, 363) derives it from the Carib word 

 puiai, which denotes their profession. The Akawais call it piatsan. 

 Dance seems to derive the name from that of the tribal hero, 

 Pia (Sect. 4^)- Crevaux in Cayenne speaks of piay, de Goeje in 

 Sm'inam of piai, and Bates, throughout the extent of the Amazons 

 visited by him, of paje. The Warrau word for the priest-doctor is 

 wishidatu (wisidaa, according to Brett), similarly apphed to the 

 kickshaws. In some of the Orinoco nations, they call these men 

 Mojan: in others Piache: in others Alahuqiii, etc. (G, ii, 25). 

 The Piapocos Indians of the lower Guaviar River speak of them as 

 Eamarikeri (Cr, 526) ; the Caribs of the lower Caroni River as Marirri 

 (AVH, III, 89), and the Island Caribs as Bove (RoP, 473). The 

 Ai'awak designation is of equal interest and also of extended range: 

 it is Semi-tcMchi or Semi-cihi, the same term apphed generally to 

 the kickshaws and various apparatus employed in the pursuit of tlie 

 craft (Sect. 55). 



286. Both ahve and dead, the medicine-men had the respect and 

 fear of the community. They were the teachers, preachers, coun- 

 sellors, and guides, of the Indians; "regarded as the arbiters of hfe 

 and death, everything was permitted, and nothing refused them; 

 the people would suffer anything at their hands without being able 

 to obtain redress, and with never a thought of complaining" 

 (PBa, 210). They thus lived "in clover," (G, ii, 24), better than all 

 the rest of the people (St, i, 399). And yet in a sense they were 

 restricted : they must not partake of the flesh of the larger animals, 

 but limit themselves to those only which are indigenous to their 

 country (ScR, i, 173); they had religiously to abstain from certain 

 fish and game (PBa, 211); no animal food was publicly tasted by 

 these priests, while tliey abstained, even more strictly than the laity, 

 from the flesh of oxen, sheep, and all other animals that had been 

 transported from Em-ope (Sect. £4'^) and were "umiatirral" to their 

 country (St, i, 399). They were said to renew their piai power from 

 time to time by drinking tobacco juice, but in doses not so strong as 

 at the time of installation (PBa, 211). As stated above, even dead 

 the medicine men were still respected. 



