2 Timehri. 



accepted that the pictures are connected with dances, and that the dances 

 were celebrations of events that were of sufficient importance to be 

 memorised. It can easily be understood that, given a migration of stran- 

 gers who passed on, the people of the country who had escaped were 

 ignorant of the meaning of the record left behind. Hence the general 

 answer of our aborigines that Timehri pictures were made by some hero 

 in a forgotten age. In the Rio Negro, Yaperikuli, the ancestor of the 

 Tarianas and Icanas, was credited with the work, in spite of the fact 

 that pictures are still beiDg made. 



Indian dances consist mainly in marching round and stamping to 

 the beat of drums. This is very old and possibly was once connected 

 with sun worship. Probably however there was even something earlier, 

 connected with the seven stars at the pole which appear to swing round ; 

 in four aspects they may have suggested the original wheeled cross or 

 swastika, so common on the Indian aprons. Crosses are also found on 

 the Timehri rocks and it is possible that the swastika is a dance emblem 

 as well as a suggestion of the little Bear. 



Our Indian dances are described by Schomburgk ; he says the 

 Warraus have a bird dance, a monkey dance and several others in which 

 they imitate the voices and actions of the animals represented. He 

 mentions the Macusi dance as the most amusing ; it represents incur- 

 sions on the Macusis by the Caribs who carried off the females. I may 

 mention here that some tribes of cannibals in Peru did not eat women ; 

 they were tabooed for food but capture as slaves. In the Macusi dance 

 we have evidence not only of rejoicing for a victory but also a comme- 

 moration long after the event and therefore it is not going too far to say 

 that Timehri pictures may also be commemorative of a festive dance 

 in honour of a victory. 



The word Timehri appears to be Carib. We find it in the name of let- 

 ter-wood, Piratinera, a word made up from paira and timera figured or 

 marked ; Laet called it Piratiminere and Aublet Latinised it. It may be 

 noticed that similar figures on rocks exist in St. Vincent, once inhabited 

 by Caribs. Historical evidence points to the probability that tribes of 

 Caribs or people from the same stock were not fixed long in one area 

 and we may safely affirm that thos.e who once gave our coast the name 

 of Caribana did not entirely die out but moved into the interior. If the 

 pictured rocks commemorate the progress of a very slow migration with 

 stoppages, they are consistent with the evidence. 



It may possibly be considered far-fetched to call attention to the his- 

 tory of the conquest of the West Saxons in England, but there is a sug- 

 gestion of something like what may have taken place here. The Saxons 

 entered Britain by the rivers and gradually overran the country. For 

 about a century they made little progress into the interior, but iu time 

 they occupied Wiltshire and probably cut out the figure of the White 

 Horse near Westbury as a sign of possession. Later, another white 



