356 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS [Exn. ann. 30 



331. As alread}' hinted, the Kanaima may just as ofteii be in the 

 form of an ankual. "Many of the Indians believe that these 

 'Kanaima' animals are possessed by the spirits of men who have 

 devoted themselves to deeds of blood and cannibalism. To enjoy 

 the savage dehght of killhig and devourmg human beings, such a 

 person will assume the form, or his soul animate the body, of a jaguar 

 [Sects. lJf.6, 147 , 148], approach the sleeping-places of men, or waylay 

 the solitary Indian in his path" (Br, 373). One can tell, by the 

 effects, the particular animal whose characteristics Kanaima has 

 assumed. Does he give a blow that stretches his victim on the 

 ground ? Then he is a "tiger." Does he in wrestlmg find his arms 

 encircling the neck of him devoted to destruction ? Then he imbibes 

 the s])irit of the camudi, and like the constrictor, strangles (Da, 277) • 

 He may appear also in the form of a bird, and may even enter a 

 person's body in the form of an insect, a worm, or even an inanimate 

 object. 



323. When a person dies it is only the piai who knows whether the 

 death is due to an evil Spirit, or to the "poison" [blood-revenge] of 

 another Indian. If to the former, he is buried with the usual cere- 

 monial, but if the verdict is that he was sacrificed for some offence, 

 the corpse is carefully examined, and should only a blue spot or 

 sometliing unusual be found on it, the piai will show that here the 

 victim was wounded with the invisible poisoned arrow (ScR, ii, 

 496).i 



333. Once the handiwork of Kanaima has been recognized, the 

 piai's powers, as such, are not brought into fm-ther requisition, in the 

 way of retahation or revenge on the particular individual with whose 

 connivance this terrible Spirit has wrought the mischief. It is not 

 the Kanaima but his human agent who is sought for punishment. 

 The retahation and revenge are matters for the victim's relatives 

 and friends to deal with, and various measures are adopted by them 

 to discover the particular individual specially concerned. [Among 

 the Arawaks] in order to ascertain this a pot is filled with certain 

 leaves [and water] and placed over a fire: when it begins to boil 

 over they consider that on whicliever side the scmn first falls, it 

 points out the quarter from whence the miu"derer came (Be, 57). 

 Among the Makusis, above the Waraputa Falls, Essequibo River, 

 Schomburgk relates the following striking instance: "A Makusi boy 

 had died of dropsy, and his relatives endeavored to discover the 

 quarter to which the Kanaima, who was supposed to have slain 

 hun, belonged . . . the father, cutting from the corpse both the 

 thumbs and httle fingers, both the great and the little toes, and a 

 piece of each heel, threw these pieces into a new pot which had been 



1 For further information concerning this particular arrow, see Sects. SSO, SSI. 



