568 ARTS AND GRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH, ANN. 38 
741. On the islands there were similar divisions of authority and 
several sorts of captains. There was (a) the captain of the carbet 
or of a village, whom they name tiouboutouli hauthe. This is when 
a man hath a numerous family and retires with it to a certain dis- 
tance from others and builds houses or huts for to lodge it in, and 
a carbet where all of the family meet to be merry or to treat of the 
affairs which concern it in common. Hence it is that he is named 
a captain of a family or of houses. (6) A captain of a piragua—that 
is, either he to whom the vessel belongs or he who hath the command 
of it when they go to the wars; and these are named tiouboutouli 
canaoa. (c) Among those who have everyone the command of a 
vessel in particular, they have also an admiral or general at sea, 
who commands the whole fleet; him they call nhalené&. In fine, they 
have the grand captain or commander in chief, whom they call 
ouboutou. ... This is the same whom the Spaniards call cacique 
. as some other Indians and sometimes also our savages do in 
imitation of them ... Of these there are but two at the most in an 
island. They are also commonly the admirals when a fleet goes out. 
Or haply that charge is bestowed on some young man who is desir- 
ous to signalize himself on that occasion (RO, 518). 
742. Though the authority of the chief might vary with the tribe, 
with the conditions of life—peace or war, etc.—he was nevertheless 
more or less respected at all times. .The head of a Makusi settlement 
is represented by Schomburgk not only as being assiduously waited 
upon by his attendants but also as dining in solitary state (ScT, 63). 
He received his food regularly from the others and was said to speak 
in the first person plural (SR, m1, 239, 321), just as the Surinam Carib 
children employed the plural when speaking of either of their 
parents (BON, 57). There were also certain insignia special to his 
rank and person (sec. 751). In the presence of the island cacique no 
man speaks if he do not ask or command him to do it (RO, 521). 
748. Elsewhere, on the mainland, the authority of the chief was 
closely run by the medicine man or piai, whom Schomburgk re- 
gards as the second chief person in a settlement (SR, 1, 169). Other 
authors would seem to look upon the medicine man occasionally as 
chief of the tribe (AK, 170). Indeed, it is quite possible that orig- 
inally the temporal and spiritual heads of the tribe were centered 
in the same person. 
744. A man might arrive at the chieftainship by inheritance, by 
marriage, by force, or by election. The son of an Oyampi chief is 
also tamuchi from the day of his birth; he is heir presumptive (Cr, 
171). Among the Manwarin River Carib the old chief, John Wan- 
yawai... had died of smallpox ... but one of his sons named 
Peter had recovered from the disease, and succeeded to his father’s 
