ABQ ARTB AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [W1t, ANN, 38 
resented, The deer sprung roundabout, the turtle crawled, the bush- 
hog stamped his trotters while, in a threatening manner, he shook 
iis head at a maid who played the role of a parrot or dove. Suddenly 
all the performers raised strenuous cries of distress, An Indian, 
enveloped in a jaguar skin, or painted in imitation of one, sprang in 
between the company and tried to make away with a bush hog, In 
another quarter a boa constrictor was winding round a water haas. 
Then followed a great uproar, the performance being suspended for 
a while to give the women an opportunity for handing around the 
dvinks. All the above and other dances of the good old times were 
executed in large houses which served besides for places of general 
assembly, where war and blood-revenge dances were executed (PIEN, 
1, 173-174). Unfortunately, all these larger festivities are falling 
more and more into disuse, Then again there are certain dances in 
most of the tribes where men will display the so-called dance clubs, 
which have all the appearance of fighting weapons in miniature, The 
Wapishana speak of these dancing implements as drui; the Makusi 
differentiate the paddle from the block shaped ones (sees. 152, 153) 
as putubang and taiké, respectively. Whether the performances in 
which such dancing clubs, spears, and even shields are used are rem- 
nants of so-called war dances it is difficult to determine. Good de- 
seriptions of certain special dance apparatus and costume are re- 
corded from the upper Rio Negro area. (See under “'Panz” in 
index to KG.) 
Df. The many dances, with no special ornaments, apparatus, or 
decorations, executed on occasions of ordinary festivity, and, ap- 
parently, in not a few cases, only imitative of the antics, movements, 
peculiarities, ete., of some particular animal, bird, or person, do not 
need very much more than passing allusion, As might have been 
expected, the “steps” will accordingly show variation, with the 
objects, elc., represented or signified, but often a more or less com- 
plicated movement will be met without a correspondingly adequate 
interpretation. In the case of the monkey dance (where notice is 
usually given to the house master beforehand so that everything 
breakable may be removed to a place of safety) the performers will 
jump and climb inside and out the dancing place until, what with the 
excitement and drink, they have to be tied up with ropes or in their 
hammocks, a duty customarily devolving upon the women, ‘The fol- 
lowing, handed to us through Brett, from the Warrau of the Coren- 
tyn, was intended to represent the antics of a herd of bush hogs: 
It was little more than a measured series of steps, accompanied 
with stamping, while the persons advanced or receded, sometimes 
in single vank, sometimes in two ranks facing each other, having 
their right arms over their right-hand neighbor's shoulders, and their 
