642 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH. ANN. 38 
their eyes they may, as they pretend, on all occasions be put in 
-mind of death. But certainly if they did it for this intention, one 
would think that they should keep the remains of their dead in 
better order than they do” (AC, 99). Other purposes to which dead 
men’s bones were put are witchcraft and prophecy (WER, v1, sec. 
78). Exhumed bones or bodies among some of the tribes were burned 
and the ashes, mixed with liquor, drunk, e. g., Arawak (Tariana), 
Saliva, Betoya, Island Carib. Wallace gives an unsatisfactory ex- 
~ planation of the practice by certain of the Uaupes River Indians in 
that they believe that thus the virtues of the deceased will be trans- 
y aami77/ 
=Y7 
| BD) 
a) 
Fic. 338.—Pit with excavated chamber, showing. urn burial. (After Goeldi.) 
mitted to the drinkers (ARW, 346). Barrére’s reason that such a 
mortuary custom is more honorable for the deceased than if they 
left his bones a prey to worms and corruption (PBA, 231) is equally 
untenable. As I have pointed out, among the North Queensland 
natives, so among the Guiana Indians, a warrior celebrated for his 
prowess would disdain the attributes of a female or of a youngster. 
839. The final burial festivities, which close in the period of 
mourning, take place a “ year” or “twelvemonth ” after, or upon the 
“anniversary ” of the death, but these intervals of time thus given 
by the various travelers are only empirical. As was originally 
pointed out by Schomburgk—a fact which I have been able to 
corroborate among Carib, Warrau, and Akawai—these final cere- 
