BOTH] THE MEDICINE-MA>r 331 



bird while alive. A string of beetles' wings ma}' be superadded. 

 Gumilla (i, 155) states his behef that the Ai-uacas [.\i-a\vaks], the 

 cleverest of the Indians, were the inventors of the mardka, which 

 even in his day, some two centuries ago, had "also been introduced 

 mto other nations." From the fact that, according to Indian tracU- 

 tion (Sect. 185), the original rattle was a gift from the Spirits, Dance 

 (290) accounts for the great veneration in which it is held even 

 by Christian converts who have ceased to use it. Brett (Br, 3G4) 

 confirms this, saying that there are Indians who fear to touch it or 

 even to approach the place where it is kept. I have liad personal 

 experience that the same holds true today m the Pomeroon. So 

 again, on accoimt of the agates being put to use in the construction 

 of the apparatus, Bancroft (21) records how these white and red 

 stones remain untouched where they are found in abundance above 

 the cataracts of the Demerara. In speaking of the Warrau rattle, 

 Schomburgk says: "If the sick man dies, the piai buries his rattle 

 also, since it has lost its power now, and with the sick person its heal- 

 ing properties die" (ScR, i, 172). I can not, however, find this state- 

 ment anywhere confirmed. 



290. Gumilla (i, 155) says that the medico makes the Indians 

 beUeve that the mardka speaks with the Spirit (demonio), and that 

 by its means ho knows whetlicr the sick person will live or not. This 

 statement does not exacth' agree with the evidence handed dowTi to 

 us by other rehable authors, nor does it quite agree with what I have 

 been taught and have seen put into practic^e. The object of the 

 rattle is to invoke the Sj)irits only; it is rather the business of the 

 manikin, or doll, to give the prognosis, to lend assistance, etc. Men- 

 tion is made of such an object in Timehri (June, 1892, p. 1S3) : "Some 

 few months ago, a gold expert and prospector while traveUng along 

 the Barima River, came upon the burial-place of an Indian Peaiman 

 or Medicine-man. The house under which the bm-ial had been made 

 was hung round with five of the tj^pical peaiman's rattle or shak-shak, 

 and over the grave itself was placed the box of the dead man, con- 

 taining the various objects wliich had been the instruments, or cre- 

 dentials, of his calling. The contents of tliis box . . . were a carved 

 wooden doll or baby." The doll, or manikin (fig. 5), which I saw 

 used for the purpose on the Moruca River, was a little black one 

 about 2i inches long, balanced "gingerly"' on its feet, which bore 

 traces of having been touched with some gummy substance : if during 

 the course of the special incantation it remained in the erect position, 

 the patient would recover, but if it fell over, tliis would be a sure 

 sign of his approaching death. In parts of Cayenne the doll is 

 replaced by the Anaan-tanha, or Devil-figure (Sect. 311), which is 

 unmercifully thi'ashed with a view to compelhng the Evil Spirit to 



