566 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [BTH, ANN. 38 
time for work to commence, the whipping of these young men takes 
place, and, notwithstanding the cuts and marks which their bodies 
receive, neither groan nor complaint escapes them (G, 1, 188). In- 
stead of a whipping, a clubbing took place with the Akawai young 
men (sec. 752). On the other hand, this flagellation may have had 
quite another interpretation with a view to insuring a bountiful 
harvest from the Spirit of the Cassava (WER, v1, secs. 165, 166). 
739. Among the Pomeroon Arawak, Warrau, and perhaps the 
Carib, there is to be met a framework made of split akkoyuro 
palm leaf, into the meshes of which certain stinging ants are fixed in 
such a way that their heads all project on one side and their tails 
on the other; some 30 or 40 insects may be employed at one time. 
This framework (fig. 333) is plaited into the shape of a riband (A) 
or a diamond (/) in such manner that the more the instrument is 
stretched the tighter are the insects clinched. It is used by parents 
ex 
Ss 
Sis 
NOX 
\ 
OKON\ 
me 
VON 
Ne 
Ne 
6) 
xe 
a 
RY 
00 
JOO 
90 
KOC 
aioe 
oy) 
i) 
NOX 
Ni 
ys 
W) 
OXON 
ONG 
MN) 
OC 
1K 
we 
Xe 
() 
x 
CWO 
OO 
B 
Fig. 3383.—Ant frames as instruments of punishment. 
with their refractory or disobedient children, boys being held by 
men, one at each arm, and girls by women. The frame is pressed for 
a few minutes at a time, with the tail ends to the flesh, on various 
parts of the body, the shoulders, breasts, waist, arms, and legs all 
having a turn. If the victim should happen to curse too much, it 
might be clapped over the mouth. The Arawak speak of the special 
kind of ant so used as yoku, and of the frame as yoku-toburado or 
yoku-ekke. Another method of punishing young people may be 
adopted by using the ants without any frame at all. Thus, the in- 
sects may be placed in the youth’s hammock and he or she then thrown 
in and tied there. This is not an uncommon trick for the old Pom- 
eroon Arawak to play upon some well-known lazy boy or girl at a pai- 
warri. It is not easy to believe, as has been elsewhere stated, that an 
Indian will ever willingly be bitten by ants in this manner just to 
show his courage (BW, 249) or capacity for the endurance of pain 
(Da, 266), except, of course, as a preparatory ordeal; e. g., puberty 
and marriage (sec. 884; WER, v1, secs. 269, 276), or success in the 
chase (WER, v1, sec. 280). 
