640 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [PYH. ANN. 38 
chiefs of the Pomeroon (Br, 125). When one of their companions 
dies on the road, Carib, Makusi, and Akawai erect a palm-leaf 
thatched shed over the burial mound to prevent the body being dam- 
aged by the bad weather (ScO, 187). From the very general custom 
of exhumation and the uses to which the bones were generally sub- 
sequently put it is very probable that burial of the body was not 
regarded in the same light as it is by more civilized people, a con- 
venient method for its final disposal, but rather as a means toward 
an end, namely, the cleaning and preservation of the bones. All the 
main Indian nations—Carib, Otomac, Betoya, Saliva, and very prob- 
ably Arawak previous to contact with European influences (sec. 
841)—practiced exhumation, the evidence for the Makusi alone 
(and these are a Carib stock) not being forthcoming. Warrau 
attained the same object by leaving the body for some time in 
water to be exposed to the ravages of flesh-eating fish. It is there- 
fore a matter of but little surprise that earth burial varied from 
an excavation or pit covered with earth to a shallow grave uncovered 
(Piaroa) or to a surface burial in a corial, ete. (Warrau), supported 
on forked sticks, the place of sepulture in both the latter circum- 
stances being protected with a palm leaf or other shelter; 1. e., a spe- 
cial house for the dead. Even in cases of earth-covered graves, both 
among Arawak and Carib, notice should be drawn to the fact that 
direct contact of the body with the earth was prevented by means of 
sticks, hurdles, canoe benches, palm leaves, etc., which one may be 
inclined to regard as analogous to the palm-leaf shelter of the sur- 
face burials, a view to which confirmation is lent by the six posts 
temporarily surrounding the grave (G, 1, 184) dug within the de- 
ceased Saliva chieftain’s hut. The place of sepulture was taboo, and 
the women who had been responsible for the cleansing, etc., of the 
corpse considered unclean. 
833. The posture in which the corpse was placed for burial was 
either vertical or prone, reasons for which are forthcoming from 
the Akawai, or in a more or less sitting (described by many 
authors as the “ foetal”) position. The Oyana cremated their dead 
in the sitting position, the back being supported by a stake. The 
body was usually decorated and ornamented; sometimes washed, 
combed, and painted (e. g., Oyana, Island Carib). 
834. The property of the deceased was either buried or destroyed 
by fire, such burial or destruction not being necessarily in the same 
grave as the corpse, or even contemporaneous with it. But, how- 
ever disposed of, such property might include his corial, hammock, 
his weapons and domestic ‘goods, his dog (Warrau), even his wife 
(Orinoco Carib), or slaves (Island Carib). In many cases he was 
supplied with food. Though thus provisioned and accompanied, as 
