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



female (Sects. 31, 55, 56). He is also the progenitor of the human 

 race (Sects. 5J^, 55), the source of origui of all the binas (Sect. 235), 

 and his skin has given their natural color to all the birds (Sect. 162). 

 For reasons already given (Sect. 64), he is symbolic of everlastmg life. 

 Certain snake dances have been referred to (Sect. 47). There is also 

 a connection between snakes and ram (Sect. 213). 



348. There are one or two curious beliefs concerning the camudi 

 snake, or huio, of the Orinoco. The Jirara Indians designated it 

 aviqfa, but other tribes, and the Indians of Quito, named it "water- 

 mamma" {madre del agua) because it ordinarily lives in the water. 

 This is how, a couple of centuries ago, the camudi was believed to 

 capture its prey: 



As soon as it hears a noise, it raises its head, and a yard or two of its body, and when 

 it sees its prey, be it tiger, calf, deer, or man, it takes aim, and opening its terrible mouth, 

 emits so poisonoxis and foul an exhalation as to fix the \'ictim, stupefy him, and render 

 him unable to move. For this reason, no one dares to travel alone by himself, either 

 for fishing or hunting, no matter where the journey may be: at least two have to go in 

 company, so that in case the buio, hidden or discovered, should take aim at one of 

 them, the other, either with his hat, or with a tree-branch, will shake and cut the air 

 intervening between his friend and the monster. [G, n, 148.] 



With regard to the foul exhalation just referred to, it is curious 

 to note Schomburgk's remark concerning the coulacanara [kole- 

 konaro (Sect. ^35)] boa-constrictor: "If anyone approaches the crea- 

 ture when hissing, he is met with a musky khid of stench" (ScR, ii, 

 250). Bancroft tells us that the white inhabitants of the colony 

 spoke of the camudi by the name of Sodomite Snake owing to the 

 peculiar manner in which it was believed by the Indians to kill its 

 prey when larger than a duck or goose, namely, by inserting its pointed 

 tail into the creature's rectum (Ba, 205); this extraordinary belief I 

 have found existing among the present day Pomeroon Arawaks. 



349. Mention has been made of the frog being regarded in the light 

 of a divinity by the original Carib tribes in the way of sending rain 

 or fine weather, of its being kept as a domestic animal, and whipped 

 when the wishes of the votaries were not fulfilled (Sect. 4^)- The 

 frog is very generally spoken of as a female (Sects. 12, 24) ; she it was 

 who brought fire out of her mouth (Sect. 34), food-starch and cassava 

 out of her neck and shoulders (Sects. 34, 37), taught music (Sect. 12), 

 and showed folk how to hunt (Sects. 12, 144, US). As a preparatory 

 charm for hunting, she is accordingly employed, either by being 

 swallowed or by being rubbed into the incisions made on the hunter 

 (Sects. 228, 229). She is depicted on the neck-ornament of the 

 medicine-man (Sect. 292). One particular frog is used by pregnant 

 Arawak women as an omen (Sect. 



1 With the Gran Chaco Indians the frog is also represented as stealing the fire, and bringing it away in 

 its mouth (Nor, 254, 314). 



