ROTH] ETIQUETTE OF EATING AND DRINKING 237 
avoided pig, turtle, and manati, and to have eaten game or anything 
salted only when entertaining their guests (RO, 500) ; while among 
certain Surinam Carib snakes and large sea turtle were taboo (AK, 
188). Schomburgk likewise noted the variations of food eaten by 
different tribes (SR, u, 434). Of course, among all the tribes certain 
foods were taboo at various times and seasons, as during pregnancy, 
while traveling over water, at certain ceremonies (e. g., puberty, mar- 
riage, death), and particularly so because of their “ foreign ” origin. 
Such foreign element refers to stranger Indians as well as to Euro- 
peans. The Makusi eat this fish (Doras sp.), but our Akawai threw 
it next morning into the water (Da, 227); while of the Orinoco In- 
dians Gumilla says you would not find a Jew who had such a horror 
of sucking pig and the domestic hog as those said gentiles had; but 
after being instructed and baptized they would go mad after it (G, 
1,119). Schomburgk was asked not to eat sugar cane or sugar while 
his Indian friend was making the curare poison (sec. 122). In a 
former work (WER, v1, sees. 242-951) I have fully detailed the whole 
subject of food taboo. 
277. It is true that Indians drink but little or nothing at their 
ordinary meals until they have finished eating, and then commonly 
drink one draft; but when they assemble together for a drinking 
party they keep up the revelry until they have drunk up all their 
liquor; and this may, on occasion, last for three or four days (GB, 
50-52). As soon as an individual has drunk all he can he will vomit 
it up and drink more. This vomiting is to some extent part of 
the festivities, because he never once leaves his seat (AK, 186) or 
hammock. Coudreau has seen an individual drink after this fashion 
4 or 5 liters of cassiri in half an hour (Cou, un, 311). At Poika, in 
Surinam, Joest describes meeting with a “drinking” canoe having 
a capacity of 2,000 liters (WJ, 91). As with their more civilized 
brethren, excuses for such debaucheries were never lacking: Hold- 
ing a council of war; the return from such an expedition (whether suc- 
cessful or not); the birth of their first born male child; the cutting 
of their children’s hair; upon reaching the age to join in battle; 
upon the clearing of a field (when the drinking party is known by 
a special term—e. g., massaramanni (Ara.), kai-appa (War.)) ; 
launching a new ship; convalescence after illness, etc.; all helped to 
serve the Island Carib with opportunities for a good old “ drunk ” 
(RO, 511). In Cayenne the mainland Carib would have a drinking 
feast when commencing to build, as well as when launching, the vessel 
(GB, 50-52). Such drinking is invariably combined with dancing. + 
278. Perhaps dependent upon the object for which the drinking 
feast was given, so might variations take place in its so-called cere- 
monial. The following account is given by Schomburgk of what took 
