Chapter XIX 



MISCELLANEOUS INDIAN BELIEFS CONCERNING MAX 



AND ANIMALS 



Dwarfs, People witli llieir Feet Turned Backward, Touvingas, \\'hite and White- 

 haired Folk, Acepliali (SS;i); Amazons (S33-SS4)- Orang-Utang, etc. {335-336)-, 

 Warracaba " Tiger " (337); "Tigers" in general {SS8); Tapir (.J,S9); Armadillo (,J.^); 

 Bush-hog and "Skunk" {S41); Anteater {34-2); Sloth {S43); Turtle, etc. (344); Alli- 

 gator {346); Gecko {S46); Snakes in general {347); Camudi {34S); Frogs {S49)\ Birds 

 {350); Fish {351); Insects {351 A). 



332. What moro njitunil from the primitive nmii's point of view 

 than that hike people and river people, more often in the water than 

 out of it, should come to be looked on as fish; that men invariably 

 wearing their headdress in a manner usually considered appropriate 

 only for the opposite sex, should be regarded m the light of women; 

 and that monkeys, grown in imagination to man's size, should come 

 to be the dread of unprotected females? We have our Fish folk 

 (Sects. 152, 178), our Amazons (Sects. 157, 296), our Orang-utangs 

 and the like (Sects. 1S8, H-OA) in Guiana folk-lore. But there are 

 other peculiar people to be reckoned with also. The Toupinambous, 

 inhabit mg a large islam! ui the River Amazon below the Rio Negro, 

 told Father Acuiia (158) that on the south side near their island — 



there are two Nations among others upon the Continent that are very remarkable; 

 one of them are Dwarfs as small as little children, and are called Guayazis, the other 

 is a Race of people that come into the world with their feet turned behind them, 

 so that those that are unacquainted with their monstJous shape, and should follow 

 their Track, would run from them instead of overtaking them. They are called 

 Malayus, and are tributary to the Toupinambous, whom they are obliged to furnish 

 with Hatchets made of stone to fell great trees with, when they have a mind to clear 

 a piece of ground; for they frame these Hatchets very neatly, and it is their whole 

 business to make them. 



According to the idea current among the Trios, people were origin- 

 ally like wood and stone, and had no faces (Go, 12). On the upper 

 Parou, French Guiana, Cr^vaux (284) passed a small stream up 

 which the Ouayanas never venture, owuig to the reputed presence of 

 white-haired Indians who sleep by day and walk by night. HLstory 

 does not say whether it was the unusual coloration or the nocturnal 

 perambidation that rendered them so uncanny to his native com- 

 panions. Brown (Bro, 281), when at the.Orindouie Falls on the 

 Ireng, saw on distant ridges to the eastward Indian villages, the 

 inhabitants of which, his Cumumaring guide informed him, were 



363 



