ROTH] DEATH AND MOURNING 643 
monies were enacted so soon as the cassava planted by the deceased, 
or after death on his behalf, was of a quantity sufficient to supply 
enough paiwarri for the visitors to be invited, and with newly 
planted cassava the time thus occupied would vary from 9 to 11 
months (SR, um, 318). Though in these festivities song, dance, 
drunkenness, and venery ran riot, there were certain performances 
special to the occasion, among the most important of which was the 
emancipation or remarriage of the surviving partner and sometimes 
the employment of the whip. For instance, the widow was now dis- 
posed of according to the usages of the different tribes, e. g., she 
might be taken to wife by her late husband’s brother or, on the other 
hand, her connection with his family might be henceforth severed 
(sec. 897). 
840. With regard to the employment of the whip, this took the 
form of a mutual castigation in the Makuari dance of the Arawak 
(secs. 842, 843) and Warrau; of a cruel chastisement of the widow 
and her future husband among the Guahiba (sec. 853) ; of a harm- 
less cracking in the air at the Pono dance of the Oyana, a Carib 
stock (sec. 865). As will be seen farther on, the Makuari whip had 
a more or less sacred character in that it was never allowed to touch 
the ground (sec. 844). Indeed, I am inclined to recognize in the 
thongs placed in the Makusi grave to give the deceased a chance of 
tying up his spirit slayer when caught (sec. 863) either an origin 
or a development of the whips above mentioned. Nay, I am pre- 
pared to go further and suggest that the stick-whacking game of 
the Toulé dance of the Oyana (sec. 865), the pliable osiers consti- 
tuting the feathered dome in the burial dances of the Saliva (sec. 
851), the Makusi thongs, the Makuari and other whips, e. g., the 
Dabucuri (Cou, tm, 186) are all more or less intimately connected 
with the idea of driving or keeping away certain spirits, e. g., of the 
dead, much after the same manner as the magic whip of wolf skin 
of the Eskimo. As a matter of fact it was an Arawak piaiman who 
emphatically assured the Penard brothers that the principal reason 
for the Makuari whip dance’ was to expel Yawahu, the Evil Spirit 
(PEN, 1, 176). It seems to me reasonable also to suppose that the 
whipping of visitors as a salutation ceremony, e. g., among the Pari- 
kuta, may similarly bear relation to the spirits which the host, in 
his welcoming speech, trusts that the visitors have not brought with 
them (sec. 813). 
841. The following are abridged accounts of the mortuary customs, 
written with more or less detail by travelers among the more impor- 
tant of the nations occupying the Guianas: 
Arawak—The Orinoco Arawak was buried with many ceremonies 
[unfortunately not detailed by Gumilla]. His weapons go with him 
