Cuarrer XV 
ETIQUETTE OF EATING AND DRINKING 
Carrying and cutting up of the food (272); food may be shared (273); no 
fixed hours for meals, sexes usually dining separate (274); cleaned hands 
(275) ; avoidance of certain foods (276) ; drinking and eating are independent, 
“excuses ” for drinking (277) ; ceremonial of drinking (278) ; male or fenyale 
attendants (279) ; intoxication (280) ; “ pick-me-ups” (281). 
272. Whatever game or fish he may have caught, the Arawak, 
Warrau, Carib, or Akawai hunter will never himself bring it to the 
house, the invariable rule being for him to leave it either at some dis- 
tance on the pathway or at the waterside, whence it is the business of 
the women to fetch it. Immediately a bush hog is killed the dorsal 
“stink” gland is cut out and removed, while the pizzle is next in- 
cised, drawn out, and tied in a knot. Two slits in the skin are cut 
down one side of the neck, and through them is passed a fiber string 
of vine, which is wound around the snout so as to draw the creature’s 
head well down and over to one side. Each front leg is next tied to 
its corresponding hind leg, and the hunter will now carry the beast 
on his back by passing his arms through the tied limbs, just as if 
they were side straps of a shoulder basket. The fixation of the ani- 
mal’s head prevents it dangling over the person carrying it. A deer 
is carried in similar fashion. It is the woman’s business to cut up 
and clean all the smaller game, such as acouri; and man’s work to cut 
up the larger, such as tapir, deer, and bush hog, though to the woman 
falls the lot of cleaning and preparing their entrails. The Taruma 
men hunt singly and bring in their own game, clean in the boat the 
fish that they have caught, cut them up ready for the pot, and bring 
them to the house. The Parikuta men will likewise clean the fish in 
the boat before reaching the landing, but will send their women to 
fetch them (JO). 
273. In those cases where the people live in community the food 
so brought in may be proportionately divided by the “ chief.” Thus, 
on the Orinoco, the fishermen, leaving their canoes without touch- 
ing a fish in them, proceed up to their houses to rest. The women 
and boys, according to the different clans (capitanias), load up the 
fish and heap it before the doors of the captains. These divide the 
spoil in due proportion among the heads of families, according to 
the smaller or larger number of children (G, 1, 173). 
235 
