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



I will not tell it to you. You must find it out for yourself when you are a medicine- 

 man." Komatari again made his way home and put the stones into the calabash. 

 Just as he was finishing the work the killing Hebu again appeared, asking him as 

 before, what he intended doing with the calabash. The answer was, "This is to kill 

 you wiih, and to prevent you killing other people," and as Komatari shook the cala- 

 bash, which was now a finished maraka rattle, the Hebu began to tremble and stagger, 

 and almost fell, but he managed to pick himself up and get away just in the nick of 

 time. He ran to his Aijamo [head-man, chief] and said: "There is a man who has 

 an object with which he nearly killed me and I must get my payment [i. e. my 

 revenge]. I am going back to kill him." "All right!" said the Aijamo, "I will go 

 with you." So they went together, and brought sickness to a friend and neighbor of 

 Komatari's; for they were afraid of attacking Komatari himself. However, his sick 

 friend sent for him. Komatari went, and played the maraka on him, and took out 

 his sickness. So the kilUng Hebu made another man ill, but Komatari took the 

 disease out of him also. The Hebu next afflicted a third victim, and again Komatari 

 was \'ictorious. But when he attacked a fourth one, Komatari was out hunting. 

 AMien he returned, the poor fellow was in a bad enough condition: so strong did the 

 sickness come, that Komatari could not cure him — he had "stood too long.." The 

 killing Hebu then explained to Komatari that it would always be thus: some patients 

 he (Komatari) could save, and other patients he could not. Of course Komatari had 

 been able to find out the names of all the Hebus that had lent him assistance in the 

 manufacture of his maraka, and it is to these different Hebus whom the present-day 

 medicine-men are said to "sing" and call on when they cure the sick. For instance, 

 the name of the Hebu that procured the tobacco seeds for Komatari was Wau-uno 

 [=Arawak Anura], "the white crane." 



397. The apprenticeship of the medicine-man in the olden days was 

 very far from iDemg the proverbial bed of roses. Among other tests, 

 he had for many months to practise self-denial, and submit under 

 a stmted diet to the prohibition of what were to him accustomed 

 luxuries. He had to satisfy his teacher in liis knowledge of the 

 instincts and habits of animals, in the properties of plants, and the 

 seasons for flowering and bearing, for the piai man was often con- 

 sulted as to when and where game was to be found, and he was more 

 than often correct in his surmises. He also had to know of the 

 grouping of the stars into constellations, and the legends connected 

 not only -with them, but with his own tribe. He had likewise to be 

 conversant with the media for the invocation of the Spirits, as chants 

 and recitatives, and also to be able to imitate animal and human 

 voices. He had to submit to a chance of death by drinking a decoc- 

 tion of tobacco in repeated and increasing doses, and to have his eyes 

 washed with the infusion of hiari leaves (Sect. 169); he slowly 

 recovered, with a confused mind, believmg that in his trance, the 

 effect of narcotics and a distempered mind, he was admitted into the 

 company of the Spirits, that he conversed with them, and was by them- 

 selves consecrated to the office of piai priest-doctor (Da, 285). 

 Bancroft (316) says that the novitiate "is dosed with the juice 

 of tobacco till it no longer operates as an emetic." Sometimes, as 

 among the Oyambis on the Oyapock Kiver in French Guiana, other 

 things were mixed with the tobacco, for example, a plant called 



