686 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH. ANN. 38 
893. Several factors, singly or combined, would seem to have led to 
the practice of polygamy. Gumilla mentions that the Orinoco 
chiefs were accustomed to have, more by way of pomp and vanity 
than anything else, as many as 10 or 12 wives, and at times more. 
The Captain Yaguaria, chief of the Carib nation, a few years ago 
had as many as 30 wives, each one of a different nation (G, 1, 135). 
We have the same authority for the statement that the caciques, 
captains, and certain vainglorious ones who excelled in bravery or 
in glibness, and eloquence of tongue, as well as their meglicine men, 
were those who, either owing to their authority and valor or to their 
impositions and frauds, had two to three women. Some might have 
as many as eight and even more (G, u, 287). The larger number 
ot wives held by the chiefs and medicos as compared with the com- 
mon crowd is repeatedly noted elsewhere. The plurality of wives 
was also proportionately dependent upon the ability of the husband 
to support a larger or smaller household. Thus, of the Island 
Carib, some had six or seven wives in different places, and were it 
not that they had to feed them, they would have taken more (PBR, 
251). Polygamy is allowed and practiced by all those [Arawak] who 
have the means of maintenance, etc. (HiC,228). Each man takes as’ 
many wives as he can conveniently maintain (Pnk, 1,520). Those 
| Wapishana] who can maintain several women practice polygamy 
(ScT, 41),etc. Among remaining factors that have to be taken into 
consideration is the economic one of the value of woman’s work and 
the number of women available. Gumilla, for instance, originally 
pointed out that careful observation of the circumstances [1. e., po- 
lygamy on the Orinoco] shows that this mustering (agregar) of so 
many women arises rather from the advantages accruing from their 
field work (and from feelings of pride and snobbery to be considered 
wealthy and popular men) than from any other less decent motive 
(G, 1, 287). Schomburgk expressed the opinion that a plurality of 
wives was indulged in at Curutza as a consequence of the number of 
women | Wapishana or Pianogotto} far surpassing that of the men 
(SeF, 214). On the other hand, the field and other manual labor of 
the females may be of so arduous a nature as ultimately to tend to- 
ward a diminution in their numbers, and thus lead to a condition of 
affairs very much the reverse of polygamous and one which Von Hum- 
boldt did not fail to take notice of. It was this author who said that 
the whole weight of labor being supported by these unhappy women 
we must not be surprised if in some nations their number is extremely 
small. Where this happens a kind of polyandry is formed (AVH, 
11, 455). 
894. The comparative frequency of the wives being sisters may 
perhaps indicate a condition of affairs met with among other races 
