xviii - 7TINi:rakv. 



being known by name ; but, curiously, they seldom use any remedy for 

 sickness. This may be due to the fact that they ascribe all illnesses to 

 Kanaima, in which case medicine would have no efi'ect. During our 

 stay we only saw one native remedy used, and this was applied un- 

 willingly, after a firm request from Quelch, for a skin disease not 

 unlike ringworm in appearance. 



If a man is ill he lies in his hammock, ami little notice is taken of 

 liim — in some cases which came under our notice he was not even 

 fed. When worse and near dying, he is left absolutely alone and then 

 buried by his relatives ; if he is friendless he is often left unburied 

 lying in his hammock. 



A short time ago a large tree at Waraputa fell down and injured a 

 man. holding him down to the ground, and, although this was in the 

 middle of the village and in broad daylight, no one came to his 

 assistance until noon the next day ; he was still alive when taken up, 

 but died two hours afterwards. This gives some idea of the unsym- 

 pathetic nature of the people with whom we had to deal, and the 

 difficulty we experienced in ingratiating ourselves into their favour, 

 so as to persuade them to accompany us through the district belonging 

 to a tribe with whom they had no friendly relations on our way to 

 Roraima — their wants being so small, offers of pay had little effect in 

 inducing them to work for us. 



There is a strange religious mania — or, rather, mania for going to 

 church — all over this part of the savanna, but any kind of performance 

 given in the church .satisfies the people. About ten days after our 

 arrival, an Arecuna named Bagot, who had lived at Bartica for some 

 time and could speak EnglLsh well, appeared on the scene and pro- 

 c<^eded to hold service ; he would ring a bell and a.s.semble the people 

 several times a day, and repeat the alphabet over and over again, 

 perhaps twenty times. Nearly everyone would be there, the old chief 

 especially being a regular attendant, taking with him a prayer-book 

 which he could not read, and Bagot, who did not know one letter from 

 another, would turn over the pages pretending to show him the part 

 of the service then being performed. The game was a paying one, 

 for w'hen he left he took a goodly number of hammocks and lived free 

 in the chief's house during his stay. 



AVe stayed at Kwaimatta neai-ly six weeks before starting for 

 Roraima, waiting for the return of the despatch boat with letters, and 

 trying to get on intimate terms w'ith the people. During this time we 

 were unable to make any small trips to the Kanuku ISIountains and tlie 

 Takutu, as we had pi-eviously arranged, owing to the flooded state of 

 the savannas ; the water was al.so too high to allow us to look for 

 arapaima or cayman, of which we were anxious to .secure specimens. 



When we had been at the village a few days, about a dozen Arecunas 

 arrived from Roraima, and informed us that, hearing we were anxious 

 to go to their part of the country, they had come to e.scort us. It wa.s 

 a mystery to us how they could have leceived this information, as their 

 home was nine day.s' fast walking from Kwaimatta, but news travels 

 quickly by some unknown means in the .savannas. It w\as impo.ssible 

 for us to stArt then, and we were oV>liged to tell them to return in a 

 month, so after examining our barter and expiessing their s«'itis- 



