366 ANIMISM AND FOLK-LORE OF GUIANA INDIANS [eth. ann. 30 



that prompted exaggeration on the part of those writers of the sLx- 

 teenth century who have given most reputation to the Amazons 

 of America, in their tendency to find among the newly discovered 

 nations all that the Greeks have related to us of the first age of the 

 world, and of the maimers of the barbarous Scythians and Africans 

 (AVH, II, 400). 



335. The orang-utang of Guiana, as we are told with all due 

 solemnity by Bancroft (Ba, 130), is much larger than either the 

 African or the oriental, if the accomits of the natives may be relied 

 on. He does not find that any specimens have been seen by the 

 white inhabitants on this coast, who never penetrate far into the 

 woods. These animals, in all the various languages of the natives, are 

 called by names signifying a -wild man. They are represented by the 

 Indians as bemg near five feet in height, maintaining an erect posi- 

 tion, and having a human form, thinly covered with short black 

 hair; but Bancroft suspects that then- height has been augmented by 

 the fears of the Indians, who greatly dread them, and instantly flee 

 as soon as one is discovered, so that none of them has ever been 

 taken ahve, much less any attempts made for taming them. Tlie 

 Indians relate many fabulous stories of these animals, and, like the 

 inhabitants of Africa and the East, assert that they will attack the 

 males and ravish the females of the human species. It is to be noted 

 that this author's description nearly agrees with that of the Spirits 

 of the Forest, the Tukuyuha of the Arawaks, etc. (Sect. 95). 



Humboldt also makes mention, on the Orinoco, of a — 



hairy man of the woods called salvaje, that carries off women, constructs huts, and 

 sometimes eats human flesh. The Tamanacs call him achi, and the Maypures vasitri 

 or "great devil." The natives and the missionaries have no doubt of the existence 

 of this man-shaped monkey, of which they entertain a singular dread. Father Gili 

 gravely relates the history of a lady in the town of San Carlos, in the Llanos of 

 Venezuela, who much praised the gentle character and attentions of the man of the 

 woods. She is stated to have lived several years with one in great domestic har- 

 mony, and only requested some hunters to take her back, "because she and her 

 children (a little hairy also) were weary of living far from the church and the sacra- 

 ments. " [AVH, n, 270.] 



With regard to the black monkey, the Arawaks have the following 

 proverb: Ka'to Jiure hobaldi; l-enna titina l-eheldi; bowajilida (Ut. 

 "When black monkey shot; and blood Hcks; hvely, active"), refer- 

 rmg to a man working hard (pulling a paddle, etc.) all day, a hint 

 that a little stimulant (paiwarri) will re^dve him. 



336. The IMaroon negroes of the ]\Iaroni, when they kill a howling 

 monkey, preserve the vocal apparatus, out of which a cup is made; 

 if a child is given 'ts drink out of this cup for some months, it will be 

 cured of stammering (Cr, 159). Humboldt was told by Ixis guides 

 [ ? Indians] that to cure asthma it is sufficient to drink out of the 

 bony drum of the hyoidal bone of this creature (AVH, ii, 70). 



