44 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY t bull. 79 



ing and ornaments, manage lances and other weapons, go hunting 

 and fishing, take part in feasts, sleep with his wife, etc. In one 

 word, he can in the main return to his former normal life with the 

 exception that he is obliged to continue keeping diet. Even in this 

 respect he has however, far more liberty than before. With regard 

 to food he has to observe the following rules : The slayer must abso- 

 lutely abstain from eating pork and chicken. He is allowed to eat all 

 fruits cultivated by the Jibaros. the manioc, however, only boiled, 

 but not roasted. He must not eat the flesh of the tapir (pmnd) , oi the 

 great wild hog (unta pakki), of the paca {Ccelogeni/s paca, called 

 kasha) by the Jibaros), or of any kind of monkey. Of birds he must 

 not eat the toucan, the Avild turkey, the paugi, or other larger birds 

 commonly hunted by the Jibaros, but only such small forest birds 

 as are shot by blowpipe and nonpoisoned arrows. On the other 

 hand, he is recommended to eat the small peccary (yankipi) and the 

 rodent guatusa or agouti {Dasyprocta aguti). Of fish he is recom- 

 mended to eat the large napi (Spanish, hagre)^ and thewdmhi (Span- 

 ish, hocacMipa), but is forbidden to eat the kanga (Spanish, hoca- 

 chico), the commonest fish in the South American rivers. He may 

 also eat small fish or sardines [chumakai). If he infringes these 

 rules he runs the risk of falling ill and dying, and the object of the 

 whole feast will fail. 



The dietetic prescriptions just mentioned depend on the following 

 ideas: The sla3'er must, as a general rule, avoid eating the flesh of any 

 animal through which the spirit of the slain enemy may get an op- 

 portunity to harm him. The most important mission of the tsantsa 

 after the feast sua mart inyu is to promote the increase of the princi- 

 pal domestic animals, the swine and the chicken {kilchi, atdshi 

 pambdrt'mj/u), and more particularly for the final great feast. 

 From the very reason that the power of the tsayitsa is in a mysteri- 

 ous Avay effective in the domestic animals mentioned, it is consid- 

 ered dangerous for the slayer to eat swine's flesh and chicken during 

 this critical period, for that power may then prove destructive to 

 him. The prohibition especially refers to swine's flesh. If the 

 slayer eats of it, he may fall ill and die, and that is then the Avork 

 of the wakdni. This superstition is seemingly supported by the 

 fact that the flesh, and especially the fat, of the swine in the tropi- 

 cal regions easily causes affections of the liv^er and other disturbances 

 of the digestive processes. With the Indians such diseases often end 

 fatally. The danger of an uncautious diet in this respect must of 

 course be greater for a man who during many months has observed 

 that strict abstinence with regard to food which has been described 

 above. 



The tapir is an animal which the Jibaros in general look upon 

 with superstition and the flesh of which they therefore rarely eat. 



