KAKSTEN] BLOOD REVENGE, WAR, AND VICTORY FEASTS 19 



those a Jibaro has to observe after he has killed an enemy of a 

 foreign tribe, and essentially consist in fasting and sexual abstinence. 

 During the two first days the slayer or slayers must abstain from 

 drinking manioc heer {nihamdnchi) , the national beverage of the 

 Jibaro Indians. His food consists of boiled and mashed manioc, a 

 dish called namna, or of another kind of root fruit resembling the 

 manioc, called sangu by the Jibaros and maiidi in the Quichua lan- 

 guage. He likewise eats a dish prepared of manioc and the leaves 

 of the plant sangu^ called ambi. He is forbidden to eat pork and 

 chicken, as well as the flesh of the large wild hog {unta pakki) , and of 

 any kind of monkey. On the other hand, he is allowed to eat the 

 small peccary {ya)ikipi) and the small rodent agouti (kayiika). 

 He eats only the small birds of the forest which are killed with blow- 

 pipe and nonpoisoned arrows. He eats only the smallest kinds of 

 fish existing in the rivers, sardines, and small shellfishes {chumakai 

 shdchma). This diet is continued for two or three months. During 

 the first montli after having killed the sorcerer the Jibaro is likewise 

 forbidden to sleep in his house, and passes his nights in a small 

 ranch made on the bank of the river. After the lapse of the month 

 he goes to a natural small waterfall {paccha or sasa) and takes a 

 cold bath, letting the water fall on his naked body. After this puri- 

 fication he returns to his home and may sleep in his house, not with 

 his wife but in the fore-room or department of the men (called 

 tangdmasha). This sexual abstinence is observed as long as the fast- 

 ing, namely, for two, or, among some Jibaros, three months. If the 

 rules mentioned are infringed by the slayer the soul of the killed 

 enemy, Avho constantly follows him thirsting for revenge, will take 

 his life. 



Whereas this blood revenge within the tribe is most often carried 

 out simply through assassinations, the feuds fought out between the 

 different tribes are naturally on a larger scale and with more reason 

 deserve the name of " wars." In all his feuds, however, the Indian, 

 if possible, avoids open fights, having recourse to treachery, assas- 

 sinations, and sudden, generally night, attacks. But if a real 

 combat and hand-to-hand fighting ensue, the Jibaro warrior (pi. 

 4, h) often displays both valor and contempt of death, a fact that is 

 fully proved by the history of the Indians. Not to take flight, not to 

 abandon his comrades in such a situation, but gallantly to meet the 

 enemy with lance and shield, is the ambition of every real Jibaro 

 warrior, and, as we have seen, the education of the boys from the 

 beginning aims at imparting to them the qualities necessary for such 

 behavior. 



The general expression of the Jibaros for a war, and more par- 

 ticularly one that is fought out against a foreign tribe, is meseta. 



