RoTH] WAR AND WARFARE 583 
break which was soon over, for every man retired when he felt in- 
clined ” (G, 1, 184). 
671. Beyond the few references already and further to be hinted 
at in making preparations for war, Joest quotes Quandt in saying 
that the Indians [Surinam] used to make sticky the face and upper 
portion of the body and thus cover it with a sort of white feather 
down (WJ, 80). The Island Carib not only took food supplies 
on their expeditions but also made arrangements for obtaining it 
en route. As was said of them: Their custom is to go from island to 
island to refresh themselves, and to that end they have gardens even 
in those which are desert and are not inhabited. They also touch 
at the islands of their own nation, to join their forces, and take in as 
they go along all those that are in a condition to accompany them; 
and so their army increases, and with that equipage they get with 
little noise to the frontiers (RO, 527). It is recorded, in the early 
days of the conquest, that certain Carib who had been on a maraud- 
ing expedition along the neighboring coasts [Gulf of Paria] shut 
themselves up at night in a stockade which they carried with them, 
issuing forth by day to plunder the villages and make captives 
(WI, 621). Schomburgk has stated that if the Carib [mainland] 
undertake a warlike expedition, women and children are left behind 
(ScA, 332), while Brett speaks of the warriors being paddled by 
captive women (BrB, 40). The island members of this nation also 
took along with them to the wars a certain number of women to 
dress their meat and look to the boats when they got ashore (RO, 
526). The business of the women was also to pick up the dead 
(sec. 762), look after the prisoners (sec. 771), etc. They were even 
sometimes armed, as in Surinam (PEN, 1, 67). 
762. Open war, to judge from the accounts that have been handed 
down to us, must have been comparatively rare. The following is a 
description of such an occurrence among the Makusi: If the oppos- 
ing parties meet each other in the open, the proceedings begin with 
a war dance, wherein the contortions and gesticulations of the one 
side, combined with songs of contempt and derision, inflame the 
passions of the other. The fray begins at a distance with poisoned 
arrows, of which each warrior takes seven to the field. [Seven also 
constituted the complete outfit of the Siusi Indians’ poisoned arrows 
(sec. 147).] When these have been shot, the battle follows with war 
clubs and man against man. If one side has to retire, they seek their 
dead before anything else to prevent them falling into the hands of 
the enemy, a business which the women have to see to, they follow- 
ing the men like pack animals. As the chief in times of war is given 
implicit obedience, he is distinguished by more sprightly feather 
ornaments, better weapons, and a special painting of the body. The 
