ITINERARY. XXVU 



These dances always comprise the same kind of lurching steps, the 

 right foot being brought heavily to the ground, and making altogether 

 a loud clattering sound, which, combined with that of the rattles and 

 the deep-sounding hollow poles, produces a sort of ^rhythmic swing 

 with the tones of the men and women. On big occasions the chant 

 may vary a good deal, according to the resources of the .leader. Thus 

 there may be frequent repetition of the description of an event or 

 thing, or even a sort of narrative, as of the difficulties and success of a 

 hunt, or the dangers and terrors of a journey like that to Roraima, 

 always with a, sort of intermittent accompaniment like that of " he-ah, 

 he-ah." The preliminaries, too, vary a good deal according to the 

 occasion. The men at times may be decorated with their beautiful 

 feather crowns, and with elaborate armlets and necklaces (the latter of 

 the teeth of the peccary) with pendants of feathers, bird- skins, beetles' 

 wings, seeds, etc., or decked out with strips of palm-leaves arranged 

 in a tall crown for the head, a wide shoulder wreath around the neck, 

 and a sort of kilt around the waist ; while the women may appear 

 equally decorated with all their beads, seeds, and buttons, arranged as 

 necklaces, armlets, wristlets, leglets, anklets, and even in loops across 

 the body, or rarely the whole body may be covered with stripes, dots, 

 and patterns (like those on the bead-aprons) in red and blue-black dyes 

 and white clay — some of the men also even thus vai-ying their 

 decoration, though never as elaborately as the women, so far as my 

 own experience goes. The face and hands are often thus marked. 



On these more special occasions, which may last over a couple of 

 nights, the number of people gathered together from all dii'ections may 

 be considerable, and the drink-supplies equally so. Enormous gourds 

 are filled ready, as well as large boat -like vessels, roughly hollowed out 

 of the trunk of a tree and ornamented with the roughly carved heads 

 of the armadillo and the tortoise, one at each end as a sort of handle to 

 the vessel. One is always surprised at first by the small quantity of 

 food eaten at these times, but in reality paiwarri is not a niere drink, 

 for it contains a large quantity of finely comminuted cassava bread, 

 and is thus to some extent a food also. 



The celebration for our people was not on a -very big scale, as the 

 date of our arrival could not be known in sufficient time, and paiwarri 

 will not keep good for more than three or four days — it becomes a 

 purge soon after, — but such as it was they were not fit for much on the 

 next day. Still, it had been an occasion — a good time — for all con- 

 cerned, and brought about a much better state of feeling between the 

 men of the two tribes. The guides, no doubt, had been the medium of 

 the easy fraternization, as the paiwarri was the incentive. 



In the morning we reaped' another benefit in a very large supply of 

 fresh meat, fish, cassava bread, yams, pumpkins, papaws, and sugar- 

 cane, for which Lanceman was quite willing that the people should be 

 paid in money — small silver pieces. No doubt, the guides and our men 

 had vouched for our characters. Apart from the trip, we were well- 

 known on the great savannahs from having passed there on our first 

 journey. At any rate, we had no further difficulty, and McOonnell gave 

 money or barter, sometimes both, as was most convenient or desirable. 

 He gave some special presents and large silver pieces to the chief in 



