348 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS [eth. ANN. 30 



Slimed to be conversing with him. Apparently two voices arc often 

 heard. When it is remembered that the Spirit may be anything 

 from a tiger to a powis, even another piai, the various modulations of 

 voice and speech which he has been trained to reproduce can be better 

 imagined than described. He does not know beforehand which one 

 has wrought the mischief; hence he has to invoke and interrogate 

 each one. This manner of invocation, according to the fee given, 

 may continue until two or three in the morning — there is a limit to 

 the doctor's powers and endurance — when all the kickshaws will 

 be put away in the specially constructed pegall. Our medicine-man, 

 seated on his divining stool, wiU proceed to smoke and dream, and 

 in his dream he will discover at whose instigation the sickness has 

 been sent, and whether the illness itself is due to a dead person's 

 Spirit (as a Bush Spirit) , to a living one's Spirit (a Kanaima), or to the 

 Oriyu, or Water Spirit. At the same time he also learns the mode of 

 cure. Next morning he will retail this information either to the 

 patient or to his friends, as soon as he is paid something over and 

 above the fee (as cloth, beads, money), which he has already received. 

 The cure may be such as can then and there be carried out, as the 

 extraction of the evil by suction, or the disease may prove of so 

 serious a nature that it is a matter for the Spirits alone to deal with. 

 At any rate the medicine-man then gives careful directions as to how 

 the patient and his relatives are to be fed — with bird, fish, or otherwise, 

 as the case may be — but there is always the stipulation that whatever 

 is ordered {a) must never be added to, or taken away from, for 

 example, no salt, peppers, seasoning, etc., and no "trimming off;" 

 (6) must be cooked with the doctor's own fire, or with another 

 specially made for the purpose by means of two pieces of stick, care 

 being taken in both cases that it is not touched by a stranger; (c) must 

 not be allowed to boil over the edge of the pot. If during the course 

 of the day the patient should not improve, the doctor will repeat the 

 treatment the same night — smolcing, singing, and dreaming — but on 

 this occasion, addressing the Spirit which has caused the mischief, 

 he implores it if possible to restore the health which it has impaired. 

 He may even repeat all this the third night if the patient's grave 

 condition warrants so doing, and he is paid an adequate fee. At any 

 rate, when he finally completes the treatment the doctor invariably 

 tells the patient, unless the latter is actually moribund, that he will 

 recover, but that both he and his family must be very careful as to 

 the foods prescribed, for should the sufferer unfortunately die it is 

 always because one or other of the stipulations regarding diet has 

 not been properly obeyed. When, during the course of the treatment, 

 rain happens to fall, the proceedings are immediately postponed to the 

 following evening. 



