ROTH] CHIEF AND EXERCISE OF AUTHORITY 569 
office (Br, 161). The succession of these chiefs [tushaua among the 
Uaupes River Indians] is strictly hereditary in the male line or 
through the female to her husband, who may be a stranger. Their 
regular hereditary chief is never superseded, however stupid, dull, or 
cowardly he may be (ARW, 347). Crévaux mentions an interesting 
case at Atures, on the Orinoco, of the captain being an Achagua, i. e., 
the son of an Achagua mother and Guahibo father, while the villagers 
were Guahibo (Cr, 351). This author gives another example of chief- 
tainship by marriage among the Roucouyenne (Oyana): Taliman is 
not the son of a chief; he obtained the diadem of cayman scales by 
marrying the daughter of the late chief, notwithstanding the latter 
had left behind some male children older than the daughter (Cr, 280). 
Schomburgk some 40 years previously had also pointed out the suc- 
cession in the female line among the Warrau: nationality is recog- 
nized only through the mother. The offspring of a Warrau woman 
and Arawak man is reckoned a Warrau. Right of succession also 
follows on the same lines. The sons of the daughters of a chief 
inherit the honors of the grandfather—not the sons of the chief— 
although this is not invariably insisted on (SR, 1, 169). The Pari- 
kuta have two chiefs, a Waiwai and a Parikuta, while a Mao- 
pidyan is the chief of the Taruma (JO). But often, though in- 
heritance be a qualification, birthright may have to be supple- 
mented by certain ordeals the successful accomplishment of which 
is considered as proof of fitness for the office. Thus with the 
Carib Islanders, when one is to be made a captain, a bird called 
onachi is caught. The father assembles the oldest of the tribe, 
makes his son stand on a little seat, and, after exhorting him 
to vengeance on his enemies, he takes the bird by its legs and 
breaks and smashes the head. He must show no sign of grief, 
otherwise he will pass for a coward. The heart of the bird is 
torn out, and he is made to eat it so that he may have the courage 
to eat those of his enemies. He is then scraped and rubbed with 
the bird soaked in pepper water. He is then made to fast for a 
couple of days in his hammock, and his food is taken to him, not 
by a woman but by a man, or he would be less generous. Some can 
not stand the whole initiating (PBR, 250). Talking of the Pomeroon 
Carib, where the chieftainship was certainly hereditary, Schom- 
burgk says that only courage and valor claim respect. The more 
foolhardy this one, the more conspicuous that one, the more shone 
the hero’s name in the war songs. When a new chieftain has to be 
chosen, the candidate must submit to some of the most ghastly and 
terrible proofs to demonstrate his courage, endurance, and stoicism. 
Such ordeals consisted of a long especially strict fast, which con- 
60160°—24——37 
