Ixvi ITINBRAKY. 



Roraima, he had regulai'Iy carried on church. The imitation of the 

 manner and ceremonial of the parson was so perfect that it was alv^ays 

 like pure comedy to witness it, though it was painful in a way, since 

 one saw that underlying it all thei'e was real deep feeling, with the 

 desire to learn and to worship something that could be but a species 

 of Mumbo-Jumbo in reality to them. Neither Jeremiah nor any 

 other could read, though they knew by heart many parts of the service 

 of the Church of .England printed in the Akkawoio language, which 

 the other Carib tribes understand. Many of them could only pick out 

 some of the capital letters in the book of the services which the chief 

 had, but they could repeat many of the chants, the collects, and parts 

 of the prayers and Psalms, and knew exactly where they were in 

 different parts of the book, pointing to the places, though they repeated 

 merely from memory, and were quite at sea if dodged about. Some 

 of the older women spent the day in the church teaching the younger 

 to learn these parts as " school," and they would point with a stick, 

 word by word, as they had seen the teachers do in the mission school- 

 houses — at times, however, at what had nothing whatever to do with 

 the words they were repeating. 



Lying in my hammock ill, and in no happy frame of mind from 

 the waste of precious time, so far as the trip was concerned, I was an 

 unwilling listener and observer through the whole procedure for many 

 days ; and when I was sufficiently recovered as to be able to draw the 

 letters of the alphabet and the numbers up to 10, after repeated entreaty 

 from Jeremiah, and to help him and others to learn them — which they 

 did in surprisinglyquick time — I was considerably taken aback in finding 

 that these also became a part of the church teaching, with loud and fre- 

 quent repetition. They sang the chants, however, in a remarkably 

 pleasing manner ; and the whole service was an altogether astonishing 

 performance, in which the sermon was not the least peculiar, for Jere- 

 miah was constantly posing, with rapid and emphatic gesticulations, 

 sometimes with his head rested on his hand on a high desk at which he 

 stood, or his hands outstretched or raised aloft, his fingers pointing or 

 clenched, his voice modulated in tone, either subdued and pleading, or 

 ringing with denunciation. I must confess I sometimes wished that I 

 was sufficiently familiar with the language to follow what he said, in 

 which No, yes, good, bad, dead, come, go, to-day, I tell you, do you 

 understand, God, Jesus Christ — the last especially — frequently recurred 

 in varying tones. 



The deacon had evidently been High Church, and Jeremiah's sepa- 

 ration of the sexes, and his bowings and bendings before the altar, were 

 quite a feature. The altar was represented by a small wooden table, on 

 which were a large dressed doll, a wooden cross, and some bible and 

 general newspaper illustrations, of which there were others suspended 

 around. Jeremiah is shown in his parson's dress in the illustration 

 opposite p. xxvii, Vol. I. Under an old frock-coat there is a wide band of 

 white cloth hanging down to the feet ; around the' neck a narrow white 

 band; and overall a large piece of mosquito-net, as a surplice. His 

 wife appeared for service with a small piece of mosquito netting over 

 her head, causing McConnell at once to dub her as "the Bride." 

 Perhaps it was the distinctive dress for the chief schoolmistress and 

 choir-leader. It was all very comical and yet pitiful. 



