ROTH] TRAVEL, OVERLAND 603 
bleeders, who make similar marks, the cuts that used to be made in 
the bark are now more or less discarded here and some other sign 
employed to denote, for the information of those following, the direc- 
tion taken. Thus a stick with another (the pointer) fastened on top 
may be stuck in the ground, or else two or three big leaves, tied by 
their stalks, may be hung up on an overhanging bough; but as often 
as not there is a preconcerted arrangement as to what the exact 
signal post or sign is to be. 
779. What may possibly have been other signs or signals on the 
road in the Cotinga district, Barrington Brown observed on the sides of 
the paths over the savanna mountains. These were small artificial 
heaps of stones, some 3 or 4 feet in height, to which the Indians with 
him, in passing, had added by picking up a stone near by and drop- 
ping it on the heap. He could never learn their object in'so doing, 
for when questioned about it they only laughed (BB, 276). [In the 
Gran Chaco the Indians, upon going over a pass, will place a stone 
on the ground so that they should not get tired on the way (NOR, 
314).] I might draw attention here to other methods in which the 
stones may be placed. The following example of rocks placed in lines 
is of interest in that it has been visited at an interval of something 
like 40 years by Barrington Brown and myself, each of us being sup- 
plied with absolutely different explanations, only common in that 
they were commemorative of an apparently important event. “On 
my way from Cara-Cara to the Ireng,” says Brown, “we passed a 
number of lofty mountains of about 3,000 feet in height, named 
Waetipu, near the foot of which our guide pointed out a row of 
small white quartz rocks, placed close together, and occupying a 
length of some 50 yards. These, he said, had been deposited there 
ages ago by a party of Carib Indians who came from the westward 
to kill a gigantic ‘tiger’ which lived in a cave near by. Whe tiger 
was an exceedingly fierce black one, but the brave band surrounded 
its lair and transfixed it with poisoned arrows as it tried to escape. 
To commemorate the event they painted some figures in red on the 
rocks of the cave, which were pointed out to me, and each man then 
picked up a stone and, standing in a line with his comrade, placed 
it on the ground. If this be correct there must have been about 300 
warriors engaged in the undertaking” (BB, 189). In comparison 
I am furnishing the reader with a transcript of my diary, taken 
in 1914. I passed a series of stones lying on either side of the 
track which I was told had been placed there by Patamona, on 
the last occasion that they had come to fight their compatriots 
at Caricaparu. I was also informed that, in the old days, when 
people set out on a fighting expedition, each individual shifted a 
stone from a certain heap or circle and made a fresh heap or circle 
