360 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LOEE OF GUIANA INDIANS [eth. ANN. 30 



Brett thus talks of an Akawai murdered on the banks of the Mana- 

 warin, a branch of the Moruca: "The deed was perpetrated by a 

 'Kanaima' devotee in the usual manner, and close to the Indian set- 

 tlement: A loud shout was heard in the forest, and when the friends 

 of the victim ran to the spot, they found Inm on the ground with his 

 back and neck bruised, but not bleeding. He had been deprived of 

 speech by the murderer according to the cruel system followed in 

 those crimes" (Br, 269). 



338. If the sufferer is found by his friends and carried home, the 

 perpetrator of the deed, the Kanaima, is obliged to hover near, to 

 discover the place of burial (Br, 357-60), for reasons already stated 

 (Sect. 3^7). But the victim's friends are equally shrewd in burying 

 the corpse so secretly that its whereabouts shall not be known to him, 

 hence every precaution is taken to insure this object. Should the 

 site of burial be ultimately discovered by the Kanaima, however — 

 and the friends of the victim wiU take no chances — they will either 

 poison the corpse or stick " pimple rs" (pahn-spmes) into it. Thus, 

 a man having been kUled by Quio, the corpse was laitl out naked, 

 with a basm of water under it, into which the pimplers of the parepi 

 palm were placed. The body was then washed with the water, and 

 a portion of the spines were broken, and forced into the body. When 

 laid in the grave, the remaining spines were strewn over his body: 

 this, they said, would kUl the man who tasted of the juice of the tlead 

 body (Da, 278). Or again, so as to make certain of revenge on 

 Kanaima, if the grave is molested by him, some of the deceased's 

 friends will open the body, take out the liver, and put a red-hot ax- 

 head in its place. If after that is done, the Kanaima should disturb 

 the corpse, the intense heat which was in the ax-head, when placed 

 there, will pass into the Kanaima devotee's body, consuming liis 

 vitals and causing him to perish miserably. An Akawai told Brett of 

 another plan that is sometimes followed, namely, wurali poison is 

 placed on the dead body (Br, 359-60). 



339. On the thii-d night the Kanaima visits the grave and sticks 

 a pointed staff into the body: upon drawing this out, if there is blood 

 on it, he will lick it off, and all the dangerous consequences of his 

 act are paralyzed for him, with the result that he returns contented 

 to his settlement (ScR, ii, 497). He has undergone purification, so to 

 speak.^ He cannot be released from the power of the evil Spirit 

 which possesses him \mtil he has performed this act. If this, which 

 is an offering to the Kanaima Spirit within him, be accomplished, 

 he becomes like other men, and can return to his family, but if not, 

 he wanders on till madness or some other dire consequences, through 

 the agency of the disappointed Spirit, are believed to come upon him 



1 Compare the licking of the switch by the girl at puberty (Sect. £71). 



