Glimpses of the Guiana Wilderness. 3 



The Mazaruni is one of the best rivers of the colony foi - fish ami 

 game, and in the forests along its banks one sees many striking and 

 beautiful birds and strange animals. One of the most remarkable of 

 these is the giant ant-eater or ant-bear. This chap has an enormously 

 long tongue with which it laps up the ants, as shown in this photograph. 

 The queer creature is impervious to ant bites, and many a time, when I 

 accidentally have stepped in an ants' nest, I have envied the ant-bear. He's 

 a pretty formidable beast, too, and when angry or wounded can inflict 

 terrible wounds with his powerful hooked front claws. Even the jaguar 

 gives the ant-bear a wide berth. 



But to me, the human denizens of the bush are far more interesting 

 than even the birds and beasts, and it was for the purpose of studying 

 the Aboriginal Indians that I have made my numerous trips into the 

 interior. On the lower Mazaruni there are few Indians but above the 

 falls, and back in the bush on the small creeks, are numbers of Indians 

 living as primitively as did their forefathers bef re Europeans stepped 

 ashore on the New World. My picture shows an Indian shooting fish, 

 with bow and arrow, the common method of obtaining fish, and very 

 expert the Indians become in this art. The most remarkable part of the 

 feat is their ability to see the fish in the foaming water of the rapids. 

 Sometimes, when no fish are visible, the Indians call the fish by beckon- 

 ing with their hands and whistling. I don't pretend to say why this 

 attracts the fish, but it usually does so, nevertheless. 



Another method of hunting employed by the Ind ans, is by means 

 of the blowpipe and deadly poisoned arrow. With this silent weapon 

 the Indians kill both birds and animals. They are incredibly accurate 

 marksmen, and I have seen an Akawoia put five darts into a visiting card 

 at 50 paces. The basket on the man's side contains the poisoned darts 

 which are very carefully guarded, as cold or damp injures the poison. The 

 Wurali, as it is called, is prepared with a great deal of secrecy and cere- 

 mony, and the exact method of its preparation is known only to a few 

 individuals. It kills almost instantly, a bird struck by the dart usually 

 flutteiing but a feet before it falls, but it is not poisonous to eat. It is 

 said that, by administering doses of cane juice and salt its effects may be 

 overcome, but I have yet to find an Indian who would demonstrate 

 this antidote on himself. 



Most of the Indians now use guns. Here is a husky Indian hunter 

 of the Waika tribe bringing in a bush hog or peccary, but ammunition is 

 expensive and far back in the interior the Bucks still use the blowpipe and 

 bows and arrows to great extent. The hunter shown in this picture was a 

 wonder and he performed one feat which still puzzles me. He 

 started out with seven cartridges and returned with four bush hogs, two 

 akuries, a parrot and three cartridges ! 



This picture shows an Akawoia in full dancing costume, feather 

 crown, feather mantle, necklace and dance trumpet. The object 

 on the end of the trumpet is a bit of wood carved to represent 



