Cuapter XXVIT 
THE CHIEF, AND EXERCISE OF AUTHORITY 
On the mainland (740); on the islands (741). 
General respect Shown to the chief (742). 
Status of the medicine man compared (748). 
Chieftainship by heredity or marriage (744) ; by force and violence (745) ; by 
election after ordeals, on the Berbice (746); on the Orinoco (747); in 
Cayenne (748); on the islands (749). 
Women chiefs (750). 
Insignia and symbols of authority (751). 
Chief’s obligations, rights, and duties (752, 753). 
Hereditary privileges (754). 
740. In the absence of sufficient data it is somewhat difficult now 
to define the exact degrees of authority as met with among the more 
settled of the tribes. At any rate, with the most advanced there 
would seem to have been in the eastern Guianas a headman or 
tamtichi commanding the settlement or village, responsible to the 
chief of all the country, or yapotari, as he was known to the Oyana 
(Cr, 257). Peito (sec. 754) among the same people was the name of 
a male unit, warrior, etc., as a subject distinct from his chief or 
tamuchi (Cr, 226, 236, 241). The original meaning of these terms 
is not obtainable, though in connection with the word peito it is 
noteworthy that Schomburgk speaks of the slaves he met with the 
Carib being known as poitis (SR, u, 430). Humboldt talks of 
serfs or slaves as poitos (AVH, 1, 333, 337). On the Orinoco 
Gumilla speaks of the chief central authority of the nation as a 
cacique or regulo (G, 1, 21, 56), to whom the capitans apparently 
owed allegiance. This term of capitan or captain evidently corre- 
sponded to the tamuchi of Cayenne, and this again with the tuchao 
or tushatia (lingua geral) of the Amazon and its tributaries, though 
this might signify not only the headman of a settlement or the 
oldest man in the maloka (KG, m, 82) but the chief of the tribe or 
nation (HWB, 241, 244). Other names for chief or captain 
are wil in Surinam, kaibisaka among the Waiyamara (ScF, 220), 
kobe-naharo with the Warrau, and nafudi among the Arawak. The 
last mentioned would, however, speak of the governor of the colony 
by this term. Manarwa is a common name or title among Carib chiefs 
(BrB, 40): Cf. mahanarva (sec. 751). 
567 
