608 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH, ANN. 38 
head of the party, a man, in front. On the Canje Creek one man, 
who had three wives, packed upon their backs very neatly the whole 
of what he had to carry away. Then, taking up a long staff he 
marched on before with lordly step, the wives following him in silent 
train, one after another (Pnk, 1, 485). [In Surinam] the head of 
the party always walks in front with some attire to distinguish him 
from the others (FE, 87). But occasionally those in the van may 
have cause to fall back to the rear, as was the case with certain 
Orinoco tribes when on the march. The nomad Guajiva and Chiri- 
coa were wont to wander thus in file: First of all, the robust young 
men, armed with bow, arrow, and spear. Now, the grass which 
grows on these plains ordinarily exceeds the height of a man, and 
so the individual in front has the labor of opening and pressing it 
out on either side. as well as trampling upon it with his feet to open 
a pathway. But what with bare feet and the grass cutting him, he 
soon gets tired and wounded, drops out of line, lets it pass—it is a 
league long—and resumes a position at the very last. The path that 
he now treads is a good one, and thus all those in front manage to 
rest themselves in turn. After the robust young men come the mar- 
ried ones, with weapons, bearing the youngsters on their shoulders. 
Then the old men, who can still travel afoot, with the weak and old 
women. Next come the married women, burdened with their baskets 
containing plates, cooking pots, ete., and often with one infant 
squatting on top and another at their breast. The bigger children 
walk close alongside their mothers. Bringing up the rear are In- 
dians of very great strength, each one supporting a crude basket 
in which is an invalid—man, woman, old man, or boy. The pro- 
cession closes with the fighting people and those who, tired out, have 
retired from the van (G, 1, 253). The Indians’ habit of walking in 
file is so natural to them that they keep it up when going from one 
house to another at their settlements (Cr, 115). Furthermore, their 
peculiar habit of walking, with the toes inward, enables them to 
walk the smallest path with comfort. . . They ridicule our [Euro- 
pean] method of walking and observe that in a wood we take up too 
much bush room (ScG, 247). 
786. Speaking generally, the Indian does not like to leave his wife 
and children at home when he undertakes a journey of several weeks’ 
duration, partly from jealousy, partly from indolence, having all 
his wants provided for by his spouse (SeG, 241). The women might 
accompany their husbands on their fighting expeditions, as with the 
Carib Islanders, to provide victuals for them, and look to their vessels 
while they were engaged with the enemy, etc. (sec. 761). Old Arawak 
on the Pomeroon have informed me that it was customary for the 
woman to accompany her husband on his hunting and fishing ex- 
cursions up to the birth of her first baby. 
