BOTH] MISCELLANEOUS FOLK-LORE 381 



always good to eat.' After they had gathered sufficient eggs to fill their baskets, they 

 proceeded with their bows and arrows to shoot birds, and were verj- successful. The 

 old house-master's son-in-law, however, went off by himself in quite another direction, 

 where there was plenty of drj' timber and sliot only woodpeckers, of which he brought 

 back plenty. When they got home again the wives made cassiri for them. The old 

 man and his friends gave to the son-in-law of their big stock of various sea-birds, 

 and the latter gave them woodpeckers in exchange. In the course of conversation, 

 they asked why he had shot only land-birds when he was supposed to have come out 

 to shoot sea-birds. He replied that he did not mind whether they had come from 

 land or sea. so long as they were birds, and that he was quite content to eat one or the 

 other. 



367. The Old Woman Who Died ok Shame (W) 



A very old woman once took her little grandson with her into the bush to gather 

 honey. She looked up at a tree, and, seeing some bees coming in and out of a hole, 

 told the boy she was going to climb it. Now, as these were biting [stinging] bees, 

 she told him also that she intended blowing into the hole so as to keep the insects 

 quiet. When, however, she reached a convenient height, and commenced blowing, 

 she soon recognized that she was dealing with wasjis, not bees. She got terribly 

 stung, and in beating a hasty retreat, her foot slipped, her kiiyu [apron-belt] caught 

 on a small projecting branch, and she fell naked to the ground. Of cour.'W, she did 

 not dare go home in that state, and so her grandson shot an arrow into the apron, 

 hanging a long way up on the tree, and brought it down for her. They went back 

 home, and the old woman told the child on no account to tell his parents what had 

 happened, because she was so afraid of being laughed at. Thus it was that she always 

 kept the little boy near her, lest he should talk about the incident. One day, how- 

 ever, the youngster slipped away to his father and mother, and told them of the old 

 grar'dmother's adventure with the wasps, and how she had come down the tree 

 without her clothes. They roared with laughter as the little boy mimicked the old 

 woman's actions. The poor old soul heard them both laughing, and began to cry 

 for verj- shame; and she cried so long that she died. 



368. The Man who Interfered with hi.s Brother's Wife (A) 



There were once two brothers. The elder went one morning to the field to clean 

 up, leaving his wife at home to grate cas.sava. The younger, who lived at a distance, 

 had a habit of visiting his brother's hou.se always at a time when he knew full well 

 that he would not be at home. So it happened on this very occasion. lie asked 

 his sister-in-law where her husband was, and she told him quite truly that he had 

 ju.st gone to the field. "And when is he coming back?" to which she replied, "In 

 the evening." He thereupon asked her whether she would like him to take liberties 

 with her, an offer which she indignantly refused. So he tried to obtain his desires 

 by force: she repelled him: they wrestled with one another: she ran away into the 

 bush, he following her closely. . . . She only got back home again late in the 



' I am well aware of the statement often made (for example, by Boddam-Whetham, p. 250; im Thum, 

 p. 2G5) about Indians not eating birds' eggs: this, liowever, applies only to eggs of domesticated birds, as 

 noted by Schombm'gk in liis visit to the Takuta (Sc.T.70): "Fowls are the only animals which the Indian 

 of Guiana domesticates . . . ; but he raises them only for his diversion, as he makes neither use of their 

 eggs nor of their flesh." Crtvaux (IW), in French Guiana, speaking of fowls and eggs, says that these 

 are not eaten by the Oyambis, nor by the Roucouyennes, On his asking the chief for the reason, the latter 

 told him that, in spite of his advanced age, he still wished to have chUdren and that the eggs of all species 

 of birds were preserved for the old people of both sexes. I am given toimderstand that the aboriginal 

 Guiana receipt for cooking eggs is as follows: Break a number into a pot oTer the fire, stir with a wooden 

 spoon, add salt, when procurable, to taste, and then serve. — W. E. R. 



