ROTH] MARRIAGE, POLYGAMY, DIVORCE, WORK 685 
other Guiana tribes more frequently than might be expected. It is 
said of the Island Carib that they never touched pregnant women 
(RO, 548). Schomburgk says he never witnessed a quarrel be- 
tween man and wife while he was in the interior. On the coast, 
where they are debased by European vices and spirits, the Indian 
may be passionate and tyrannical in his conduct toward the woman, 
but not so among his own tribe (ScE, 173). 
891. As with the Carib, a Warrau does not talk to his mother-in- 
law; but I have noticed the latter doing so at a distance in a lowered 
tone of voice, and with head turned in a different direction. She 
turns her face away whenever he passes anywhere near. Arawak 
have told me that “in the old days” their women used a large basket, 
under which, inverted, they would crouch and hide their heads on 
the approach of their son-in-law. How much or how little truth 
there is in this I can not say. 
$92. Polygamy was practiced throughout the length and breadth 
of the Guianas, including the islands. The number of wives among 
the island Carib was not limited . . . They had as many as they de- 
sired and could obtain (RO, 547). [In Cayenne] all were polyga- 
mous (PBA, 222). Among the Nourague and Acoqua, where there 
was one man to be found that had but one wife, there were six who 
had each of them two or three (GB, 27). [In Surinam] polygamy 
was admitted among them (St, 1, 384), though this was denied by 
Fermin, who explained its absence as due to the liberty the Indians 
had of separating themselves from their wives when they liked or 
ridding themselves of them and taking others on the instant (FE, 
80); [in Demerara] it: was universally allowed (BA, 319). 
In his History of the Orinoco, Gumilla says: “ Polygamy, handed 
down from father to son, is so constantly met with that there can 
not be the slightest doubt as to whether it is lawful or not. But, 
generally speaking, there are few who have many wives, not because 
they do not want them, but because they can not get them; or, 
granted they can get them, because they have not the wherewithal 
to pay the parents for them or because they do not care to complete 
the necessary tasks that have been already referred to (G, m1, 287). 
With the upper Rio Negro Indians men generally have but one wife, 
but there is no special limit, and many have two or three, and some of 
the chiefs more (ARW, 346). Among the majority of the tribes one 
finds Indians having two or three wives, generally sisters (Cou, 11, 
405). Polygamy is common among the Arawak, and a chief often 
possesses as many as four or five wives (SR, 1, 227; 1, 460), while 
records of its occurrence among particular tribes, e. g., Wapishana, 
Warrau, Akawai (ScT, 41), Arekuna (EU, 292), Makusi (ScF, 200; 
SR, 1, 369) are repeatedly met with. 
