Letter to the Editors. 209 



native work of the famous peninsula, and that the custom was to place 

 offerings of food to the Gods in pots ornamented with their images, in 

 the fields, and that during the subsequent drunken devotions the removal 

 of the offering and the breaking of the pot signified the acceptance of 

 oblation. He believed that the piaiman was responsible for the breaking 

 but I am inclined to think that he too participated in the "devotions" 

 himself, though I believe in the more primitive state he did not dance or 

 participate. 



The old chief who came from Venezuela to Morawhanna and was 

 photographed by the Swedish Officer in 1912 with a motion camera, 

 merely directed the dance and took no part in the function. So it may 

 be thai the piaiman saw that tbey were destroyed or the labbas, agouties 

 and monkeys would do the work equally well, in his absence, I have no 

 doubt. 



This custom will account for the finds being so thoroughly broken 

 up and so scattered about the land suitable for agriculture, and not 

 too far removed from fresh water - prings. 



My sole word of hostile criticism must be the word Ossororo. 



In Warao Ho Sororo means Water Falling, which fits the site exactly. 



Issororo is said to have an Akawaio meaning and is the official name, 

 but Ossororo is not the name of the hill. 



The skeleton of the Akawabi chieftain was protected by an earthen- 

 ware umbrella, this is, I expect, a variation of a well-known feature in 

 similar Celtic burials where large stones cover the body in a conical pit. 

 I remember an instance discovered by my father in a railway cutting, 

 near Basingstoke, Hants, in the early 80's. It was then agreed that the 

 stones were to protect the corpse from beasts of prey, and I take it that 

 the large dish would have greatly discouraged such animals in the case in 

 point and that probably this will be found to be the solution of the riddle, 



