THE INDIANS OF GUIANA. 65 
drunk, the husband being carried afterwards with great 
pomp to his wife’s house. 
A woman being delivered of twins is considered by 
most of these Indians a sure sign of adultery haying: 
been committed, she gets jeered on the occasion, and is 
severely punished by whipping from the husband; to 
prevent which, they have the custom to destroy and 
bury one of the twins, or both if ill-shaped, before the 
husband becomes aware of it. The Salivas have the 
custom of circumcising their children on the eighth day, 
but they understand the operation so little, that many 
of them die in consequence. This custom is observed. 
by the Guamos and Othomacs, both residing at the 
Oronoque. Amongst some there is also the custom that 
on the birth of a daughter the mother’s first work is to 
wind round very tightly under the knees and above the 
ancles of the child, four broad and thick bands, made 
of the threads of Pita, which they must preserve round 
their legs until death; the flesh pressed out by these 
bandages, gives towards the calf of the leg, by which 
means they swell into an ill-shaped form, but is with. 
them considered a beauty. Not less ridiculous is the 
custom which the wives of the Abani have at the Oro- 
noque; they perforate on the tip of the ears of their 
daughters, when young, a hole, which now and then they 
widen, so that on arriving at puberty a piece of flesh is 
depending from each ear, in which an egg might be 
inserted ; these are not the only ones who disfigure their 
ears. 
_ HERRERA assures us, that when the Spaniards landed 
at the gulf of Honduras, they found the ears of the 
women similarly bored, wherefore they called the Coast 
A 
