PREFACE 
The ethnographical area which I have attempted to review in the 
following pages comprises that portion of the South American 
Continent bounded, roughly speaking, by the Atlantic seaboard, 
the Orinoco, and the northern limits of the watershed of the Rio 
Negro, and the lower Amazon; it also includes in a measure the 
Antilles, an early home of the Carib and the Arawak. 
In a former work, published in the Thirtieth Annual Report of 
the Bureau of American Ethnology, I dealt with the animism and 
folklore of the Indians; in the present one I discuss their arts, crafts, 
and customs. 
The European war has prevented me from carrying out my orig- 
inal intention of examining the earlier and best of the Guiana collec- 
tions displayed in certain of the continental museums, for, as is 
unfortunately the case with the majority of our British possessions, 
one has to visit foreign countries in order to complete the ethno- 
graphical study of our autochthonous populations. In this con- 
nection a glance at the nationality of the authors im the following 
bibliography is sufficient commentary. 
I spent the major portion of the year 1914 visiting the hinterland 
borders of our own colony from the upper Rupununi to the Ireng 
and to Mount Roraima. There is still a vast amount of field work 
to be undertaken, not only there, but in Surinam and Cayenne, 
and if haste be not made, the information which it is now possible 
to glean will probably be lost forever. The so-called opening up of 
the country for the trader, the rancher, the timber getter, the balata 
and the rubber bleeder, et hoc genus omne, may or may not exert a 
beneficial influence on the welfare of the Creole, the Negro, and the 
European; but for the aboriginal Indian it means ruin, degradation, 
and disappearance. 
I commenced this work in the early part of 1907. 
Watrer E. Rors. 
Mar_LBogoucH, PomEroon River, 
British GuIANA, JUNE, 1916. 
In the interval consequent on the postponement of publication due 
to the World War, I have made two further journeys in the interior— 
a second trip to the Rupununi, and a tour along the upper reaches of 
the Barima and Barama. Many additions have been made to the 
original text. W. E. R. 
CHRISTIANBURG, DEMERARA River, 
BririsH GuIANA, JANUARY, 1921. 
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