ITINERARY. IxiX 



I required at the time, but, on going to tlie house next d:\y, I found 

 she liiid been taken away to some other place, wliitlier I was quite 

 unable to ascertain. I could not really at heart reirret my action, but 

 I wondered whetlier perhaps my interference had done more harm than 

 good for the girl, and might expose her to greater suffering in new 

 surroundings unfamiliar to her. It was not a pleasant thought, and, 

 being quite unable to do anything, I realised that it may not be always 

 wise to interfere in tribal matters, unless one has the power to shoulder 

 the responsibility. That sa,d face and figure of suffering, with its gentle 

 pathetic voice and spirit of loneliness and resignation, has always been 

 a living memory with me since. 



Though they are yery undemonstrat»ye in their affection, exhibiting 

 little or no sign of welcome, or of regret and fai-evyell at parting, there 

 is yet ordinarily a very real affection between the various members of 

 a family, seen particularly at times between husband and wife, and 

 parents and children, but always in a very quiet, iniobtrusive way. I 

 was once particulaily sti-uck, on a trip on the Upper Berbice river, by 

 the devotion shown by the parents of a sick child that was ra})idly 

 wasting away with consumption, hastened by the attacks at night oi 

 blood-sucking bats, which may be veiy troublesome to men and animals 

 in certain localities. The parents kept watch night after night to pit)- 

 tect the child, but in their lonely vigil they would at times unintention- 

 ally doze ofl', always to find that, however short the interval, the bats 

 had been at work on some exposed part of the child, the nose, ear, or 

 chin, if the toes and fingers were covered in the hammock. Unprovided 

 with nets or any substitute, the situation was a hopeless one from the 

 beginning, for they were of the forest Indians, living in houses not 

 enclosed at the sides. 



During much travelling on the first journey in the Makushi countiy, 

 we had become quite at home, reciprocally so, with the peojile, who, as 

 a rule, are as open in their dealings as the plains they inhal)it, if they 

 are handled sympathetically. Reports of us were S[)read everywhere, 

 and we were always Avelcomed, whole parties at times wanting to 

 accompany us ; and on our leaving, baby after baby would be held oxit 

 to us to be blown upon three times, a protective proceeding of their 

 menfolk, especially of the peaimen or medicine-men, as they would be. 

 This might be regarded as a sign of farewell, but it had no reference to 

 the mother, only to the welfare of the child ; and, as such, it was an 

 iiuimistic rite. At first sight, it would appear as a direct blowing away 

 of the ills and evils that might affect the child, a literal blowing for 

 good luck : in reality, it seemed to be something deepei-, a leaving i)ehind 

 of tlie spirit of tlie Ijlower, as a sort of guardian spirit for the protection 

 of the child, explicable only by a real comprehension of their ty[ie of 

 animism, with its wi<le i-ange of belief in the power and agency of 

 spirits. 



We met with a very different state of things among the people 

 of the little-visited districts al)out the ujiper Kotinga, which may l)e 

 regarded as on the outskirts of tiie Makushi tribe. Here they lied to 

 the forest when possil)l(; on our approadi, and where tho houses wei'e 

 far out on the savannah, they took lofuge in their h.-unmocks, or hid 

 away behind the various objects in the houKes, until their fears of us. us 



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