696 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH, ANN. 38 
birth. With newly born children the middle of the skull is very soft 
end pulsates with the respiration of the heart. In prematurely born 
children the attachments are even open, which perhaps has given 
cause for the supposition that the child before birth is nourished 
not through the navel-string but through the skull, and that its spirit 
penetrates through a little hole in the skull into its brains. As long 
as this spot is thus not hardened, it is believed that the little spirit 
is not yet entirely freed from that of the father. Thus it was sup- 
posed the life of the child depended entirely upon that of the father. 
He was also forbidden to undertake any heavy work or to hunt, be- 
cause his arrow might strike the little infant. If he climbed over a 
tree trunk he always placed two little sticks as a sort of bridge for the 
child’s little spirit that always followed him. If he crossed a river 
or creek, a calabash or fruit shell then served to facilitate the passage 
across of the child. He everywhere trod cautiously and carefully 
around, avoiding thorny places. And if he by chance met a jaguar 
he did not speed away, but courageously advanced on the beast. 
Verily his child’s life depended on it. The little spirit nevertheless 
could get a fright and lose its way in the forest. Even at night the 
father had to take care to save his child pain. However badly some- 
thing bit him, he must scratch very carefully, because his nails could 
harm the infant. And woe to him if he forgot himself and at- 
tempted, in too rough a fashion, to get rid of a louse that was wor- 
rying him, because the bare pate of his little darling suffered for it. 
There were likewise various foods that the father was forbidden to 
eat out of fear of hurting the child. Among other things, it was be- 
lieved that water-haas meat caused spots. This abstention took 
place before as well'as after the birth of the child. If the child, in 
spite of all the father’s care, took sick, the latter then visited the 
piaiman who, by calling upon the spirits in the usual fashion, speed- 
ily recognized the cause (generally a stranger) of the trouble. Ifthe 
cause was not due to the snake spirit, the kanaima, the father was 
advised to make certain incisions on his breast and arms. Mixed 
with water, the infant was then given the blood to drink; or the evil 
spirit was, with the help of certain ants, bidden out of the child’s 
body, or charmed away with tulala. ... We believe that the cus- 
tom of the couvade affords the proof or means whereby the man is 
placed in the position of determining whether it is his child or an- 
other’s. For it is believed that if the father does not abide by the 
rules, the death of his infant results. If the latter lives, then every- 
thing is in order; if not, it must be an imputation that it is the off- 
spring of its mother’s prostitution. Verily, the guilty man will keep 
no couvade for fear of the righteous wrath of the deceived husband 
(PEN, 1, 159, 160). 
