564 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS . [ETH, ANN. 38 
kind of snake. There are still other tales about snakes going the 
round of these same Carib, among others the snake spirit, the tulala, 
etc. (PEN, 1, 56). At the mouth of the Waini Schomburgk came 
into possession of the Chelichthys psittacus, which the Indians call 
wurwurima, and whose bite they say is fatal. According to the 
statement of Warrau, the Akawai prepare a deadly poison out of 
this fish, which they dry and powder up finely (SR, 1, 456). 
735. Wassi poison is especially met with among the Akawai, they 
obtaining it from the Serekong, living at the sources of the Maza- 
runi, who alone know how to manufacture it, possibly from an 
arum. In Van Sack’s Reise nach Surinam mention is made of an 
especially poisonous arum called punkin, the Arwm venenatum suri- 
namense of Woelfers (SR, 1, 457-459). It is probably the white 
powder which the Kanaima is believed to rub into the flesh of his 
victim (SR, 1, 323). Wisi [? wassi] was the secret poison of the 
Surinam Bush Negroes (AK, 261). Coudreau, on the Uaupes River, 
talks of a poison extracted from the taya plant, a species of arum, 
which was mixed in the cassiri and drink (Cou, u, 168). The 
plant which bears the caruna poison is a small tree covered with a 
brown bark. Its leaves are small, oval, and of a light green color. 
At the end of the branches grows a reddish-colored blossom, which 
falls off and is succeeded by small nuts covered with a thick husk. 
This nut has a hard shell and contains a farinaceous kernel. This 
kernel is a slow poison, which is said to be made use of by some tribes 
of Indians to destroy their enemies (Bol, 265). Bancroft describes 
the plant as a sort of cashew. The kernel is said to be a principal in- 
gredient in the composition of a white farinaceous poison in the 
hands of the Akawai, which they sometimes conceal under their 
nails (sec. 279) when they intend to revenge an injury until an 
opportunity offers of putting it into the drink of the destined vic- 
tim of this secret and slow but fatal vengeance (BA, 97-98). Gu- 
milla speaks of apparently professional poisoners, yerbateros, so 
called from the fact that the poison they employed to slay their 
enemies was extracted from grasses, and for these poisons there were 
no known antidotes (G, m, 143). 
736. With regard to theft there is but scanty information to be 
gleaned from the literature. If the Island Carib suspected anyone 
of having stolen something from them they endeavored to lay hold 
of him and cut him over the shoulders with a knife or the tooth of 
an agouti, as a mark of his crime and their revenge (RO, 523). Of 
the Orinoco Indians it has been said that all those nations had a 
horror of thieves, and yet had great propensity to steal, and knew 
how to do so with dexterity. Nevertheless, the things that their 
minds and hands hankered after were mean and of little value 
(G, 1, 182). In describing the Indians of the upper Rio Branco, Ule 
