" Timehri " or Pictured Rocks. 3 



horse was cut in Berkshire near a place called Eastdown which repre- 

 sented the eastern limit of Wessex as Westbury did the western bound- 

 ary of the time. They are generally considered to have been memorials 

 of the victories of King Alfred, but probably the idea that they recorded 

 progress is more consistent with facts. The Caribs were the Saxons 

 and Normans of the West Indies, a tribe of hardy pirates, who entered 

 the rivers or landed on islands to pick up food, mainly in the shape of 

 human flesh. They were stronger than the cassava-eaters of the Islands 

 and Guiana and therefore generally gained the victory. We might fancy 

 a party going up the Essequebo and dragging their corials through the 

 rapids. The enemy finding them engaged in this difficult work, attacked 

 and were defeated, with the result that a great feast was held and a dance, 

 commemorated at Waraputa and other places. 



There is always much difficulty when we try to get peeps into the 

 minds of primitive people. The theory of animism may be convenient 

 for the anthropologist but we can be sure that the Indian has never for- 

 mulated anything of the kind. The beena cult suggests that the aim of 

 the man is to succeed in attaining his object entirely regardless of beasts, 

 birds, fishes or even other men. We can hardly go so far as to say that 

 the Indian believes in the fairy-tale notion that a sucking-pig would 

 run up into his arms to be eaten, and yet there is a kind of propitiation of 

 the game animals to make them more easily procurable. Some of the 

 dances suggest that by carrying figures of game animals they hope to 

 either curry favour with them or even cheat them. The childish idea is 

 what we might expect aud what we get, e.g., a fisherman catches a small 

 fish, tells it to invite its friends to the bait aud then puts it back into the 

 water. The only fundamental idea is to get what he wants no matter 

 how ; " get it honestly if you can, but get it." Sometimes there is a sug- 

 gestion of cunning in the huntsman who has to carry on his struggle 

 with others as sharp as himself. We may draw up our theories of 

 animism for convenience, but the Indian has no theories ; in most cases he 

 doee things because others did them when he was a child. We see the 

 same principle in mothers Mien they say " Naughty chair to hit baby." 

 No one could affirm that our mothers think the chair has a mind or per- 

 sonality. There is some idea of a taboo in connection with the Timehri 

 rocks, but this is vague, for our Indians have not gone far enough to 

 consider anything really sacred. It has been reported that Indians turn 

 their heads away when passing pictured rocks aud sometimes drop pep- 

 per juice in their eyes as if to close them against the sight. Mr. Verrill 

 says that the costumes used in the Parasara dance are hung on trees 

 as if they should be preserved as long as possible, or as if it were wrong 

 to wilfully destroy them. Here is a suggestion of a commemoration of 

 the dance for a short time, while the pictured rocks are possibly an 

 enlargement of the idea. 



Whether the people who carved the figures had any idea of their 

 possible value to their friends is doubtful. We may safely state that 

 there wonld be many invading parties and that the record of one victory 



