554 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH. ANN. 38 
Akawai settlement, Konosa, on the Isororo branch of the upper 
Pomeroon, and seeing a pack of dogs ranged on a long table, each tied 
to a bar of wood, the total number of dogs being six and twenty. On 
inquiry from the old housemaster he learned that the dogs were of a 
remarkably fine hunting breed, which he had purchased in a far 
distant region and was rearing and training for sale (BrA, 195). 
Schomburgk says that he never saw so many or such beautiful dogs 
as at Maripa, a Makusi village on the upper Takutu (SR, 1, 95), 
whither people come from far and wide to buy (SR, m1, 82). Accord- 
ing to him, the finest among theirnumber was, however, a dog from 
the Taruma nation, with which he was so much pleased that he 
induced the owner to part with it for a gun. Its name was Tewanau. 
The Woyawai and Taruma are considered the best trainers of dogs, 
and these animals constitute a kind of merchandise or article of 
barter between them and their neighbors. This dog was of an un- 
commonly large size [between a greyhound and pointer, with details 
given]. He had only to regret that it was emasculated, a custom 
which the Taruma follow under the supposition that they grow fat 
under it (SceT, 65). For further information concerning the dog 
trade the reader is referred to section 827. 
720. Besides being regularly and carefully fed, these hunting dogs 
may be supplied with special benches, fixed at varying heights from 
the ground, to keep them, so it is said, out of the way of chigoes and 
other ground vermin. Thus, in a house up on top of a hill behind 
Wakrapo (a Makusi village at the back of Toka on upper Rupununi), 
I saw just within the entrance a raised bench about 2 feet high and 
4 feet long. It was made of four uprights, supporting two laths, 
upon which four crosspieces were tied. On top was placed a sheet of 
bark, and here was resting a beautiful, well-fed, and well-cared-for 
dog that had been especially trained for hunting deer. Elsewhere 
these benches may be seen to be fixed between 4 and 5 feet from the 
ground. 
721. While, as already mentioned, hunting dogs are fed regularly, 
the useless curs live as best they can on scraps, bones, vegetables, and 
air. St. Clair was, I believe, the first observer to point out the 
adaptability of so naturally carnivorous an animal to the almost 
entirely vegetable diet with which it is usually supplied (StC, 1, 
315). Some of the curs follow the women to the cassava fields .. . 
and are looked upon as a protection from wild animals; for should 
a jaguar pounce down upon the party, he will be quite satisfied with 
seizing and carrying off a dog, giving the women time to escape 
(BB, 53). Ifa dog acquires the habit of stooling in too close prox- 
imity to a house, the Pomeroon Arawak will take the sen-sen, a 
species of bee, and make it sting the animal just beneath its tail. 
