652 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH, ANN. 38 
etery. There were several “coffins” inside it (Cr, 612). On the 
upper Moruca, in the case of a male, as the grave was finished, the 
corpse was rolled up in its hammock and buried in the sitting posi- 
tion. The deceased’s property and weapons, some bread, fruit, and 
dried fish were next put in, and then his faithful hunting dog killed 
and buried with him. While the grave was yet half closed, the 
widow and sisters jumped in and trampled down the earth, wailing 
all the time. A fire was subsequently lighted on the mound, where 
it was kept burning for several days, the widow and female relatives 
squatting around. Immediately upon completion of the burial, other 
women proceeded to the provision field, and on their return started 
to make paiwarri as quickly as possible. .. . Neither the widow nor 
relatives took a hand in these preparations, but sat in a circle round 
the grave, breaking out ever anew with their song of mourning, 
which was approximately as follows: “ Why have you left your wife, 
children, and friends who loved you so dearly? Why have you left 
your home and your field where the yams and cassava were thriving 
so well? Oh, Yawahu!” [Schomburgk evidently in error gives 
here the Arawak name of the bush spirit instead of Hebu, the War- 
rau term.| ‘“ You must have taken him from us by force. He would 
never have left his fields and his people of his own accord. Return 
him to his friends, from whom you robbed him, so that he may hunt 
aguti and ape and find yams and cassava. Who is going to catch 
aguti, ape, fish, and turtle for me now?” (SR, 1, 446.) Tf a captain 
or any other individual of influence dies, the corpse is put into a 
canoe and all that he possessed when alive. On his heart is placed a 
looking-glass, and into his hands his bows and arrows. His favorite 
dog is killed and its carcass put with him into the grave, but not in 
the canoe, to assist him in procuring his food in the untried world. 
The corpse is always buried on the same spot where the person ex- 
pired, and a fire is kept burning there for many weeks. The relations 
and friends bewail the deceased ... for several months together 
(BE, 53). Schomburgk mentions the case of a Warrau piaiman 
being buried in the house where he died, the building as well as the 
whole village being burned (SR, 1, 159). McClintock is the author- 
ity for the statement given by Brett, that when the death of the 
deceased is believed to have been brought about by unfair means, 
the bow and arrows are placed at the side of the corpse that he may 
have the means of keeping off “ malignant spirits” in his passage 
to the other world (Br, 356). 
[A variation of the arrangement above described was observed 
among the Warrau at Warrapoke, Waini River, in 1900, by a reliable 
correspondent, who reported the facts to me. About a week sub- 
sequent to the death of a male, the performers all danced in a ring 
