ROTH } CHIEF AND EXERCISE OF AUTHORITY 571 
he was recovered went through some strange performance to inspire 
him with fresh courage. His broken skin was now again greeted by 
each of the said captains with eight or nine whip lashes, so that 
he looked like a beggar whose rags and tatters were hanging off him. 
This ceremony must take place again two or three weeks later before 
he can be raised to the dignity of captain, on which occasion, if he 
has a wife, she gets a lash or two so that she also may participate 
in the glory of her husband, though she does not wait for more than 
two or three cuts, but immediately runs away. After all the torture 
mentioned, the patient is brought back to his quarters, being a small 
four-cornered apartment, partitioned off in the house, just large 
enough to sling his hammock in. In the meantime the drinking 
went on steadily, and the wives appeared very happy at having such 
courageous husbands, who would never fear going to their deaths 
to take vengeance on their enemies; and singing songs brimful of 
their own husband’s heroic deeds. When we speak of their war 
expeditions we shall have an opportunity of stating at the same time 
what deeds have to be carried out in order to be able to receive the 
dignity of a captaincy. So far as concerned the man of whom we 
have just been speaking, he had in a certain war faction beaten an 
old woman half dead, and furthermore thrown her into the water, 
had martyrized her in it with a thousand agonies, and had finally, 
under unspeakable torture, put her to death. This is what their 
bravery consists of, to wit, to endure blows and to perpetrate the 
most gruesome cruelties imaginable (BER, 46-48). Van Berkel 
elsewhere mentions that when a man is raised to the dignity of cap- 
tain his hair is cut off up to the ears, otherwise it generally hangs 
to the shoulder (BER, 19). 
747. Gumilla has left us details of the necessary preliminaries for 
the choice of a captain as met with in the early eighteenth century. 
His experiences probably refer to Carib folk. “The candidate,” 
he says, “has first of all to gather around him all his kinsfolk, 
and the others, either attracted by his valor or else influenced by 
him, his relatives, and friends. When he has, say, 100 men in his 
retinue he provides drink, invites the caciques and captains of his 
nation, tells them of his brave deeds, and finally seeks admission into 
the ranks of the captains. The judges being convened, he is placed, 
as naked as when born, in the very center of the house where the old- 
est captain with a whip made of well-twisted kuraua twine (pita) 
lashes him unmercifully from top to toe. The thong is then handed 
to the next oldest captain, who repeats the flagellation, and so on, 
with the remaining ones. The caciques and the large audience which 
is present keep strict silence. If they hear the slightest groan or ob- 
