590 ARTS AND GRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [BTH, ANN. 38 
course, acquire too much prominence. To produce these ghastly 
objects the skin is cut around the base of the neck and the entire 
covering of the skull removed in one piece. This is then dried 
gradually by means of hot stones placed inside it, until the boneless 
head shrinks to the required size. They also wear their slain ene- 
mies’ hair in long plaits around the waist (AS, 90). Again, another 
focus in South America where the habit of scalping prevailed 
was in northern Argentina, Paraguay, among the Chaco peoples 
(NOR, 132), but the source whence it was derived is not traceable 
(GF, 431-432). 
768. In connection with cannibalism a distinction should be under- 
stood between the actual ingestion of human flesh, a practice to which 
the term is specially applied, and the drinking of fluid in which 
human ashes, powdered bones, ete., have been mixed (secs. 851, 854). 
The former habit would appear to have been associated with their 
slain enemies, the latter with their deceased chiefs, friends, and rela- 
tives, but not strictly so, because among the old-time Pomeroon 
Carib the enemy’s heart would have been drunk in this manner and 
the flesh eaten in the orthodox fashion (SR, 1, 430). So, also, 
among the Carib Islanders the Arawak victims’ fat was preserved: in 
little gourds, from which a few drops were poured into the sauces 
at their solemn entertainments (RO, 539). There is evidence of 
its practice as a matter of ceremony, for taste, hunger, or vindictive- 
ness, while records of its existence are obtainable throughout the 
length and breadth of the Guianas, including the islands. Indeed, 
so prevalent was the custom that it is not surprising to learn, on the 
authority of Bishop las Casas, that the conquerors actually made 
special provision for this weakness of their Indian allies. Thus these 
inhuman creatures [Spaniards] were wont, when they declared war 
against any city or province, to bring with them as many of the 
conquered Indians as they could to make them fight against their 
countrymen. ... But because they were not able to furnish them 
with all necessary provisions, they allowed them to eat those other 
Indians whom they took in war, so that in their camp they had 
shambles stored with human flesh. Infants were killed in their sight 
and then broiled and eaten. Men were slaughtered like beasts and 
their legs and arms dressed for food, for the Indians lke the taste 
of these parts better than others (LaC, 46). The Holy Roman 
Church, through its ecclesiastical subordinates, also regarded can- 
nibalism, under certain circumstances, in no sinister light. So fully 
were the missionaries persuaded that the only way to bring the 
savages [Indians] within the pale of the church was to give them the 
tastes and habits of civilized life that it became a matter of dispute 
whether they ought to be permitted to eat human flesh. And what 
