(770 THE ARAWAKS. 



for weaving excellent and durable hammocks of cotton — a 

 plant which they cultivate for that purpose. 



When a chief died, his bones, after burial for some time, 

 were cleansed by the women, and carefully preserved in their 

 houses. Several other tribes follow a similar custom ; allow- 

 ing, however, the bones to be deprived of flesh by the raven- 

 ous little caribes. After being carefully dried, and tinged with 

 red, they are placed in baskets and suspended from the roofs 

 of their houses. Among those who have embraced Chris- 

 tianity, these and many other barbarous customs have been 

 abandoned. 



The object of many of their raids of later years was to 

 obtain captives to sell to the Dutch. When slavery was 

 abolished by the British, this incentive to cruelty no longer 

 existed. The fierce Caribs were, however, very indignant at 

 the new order of things. A Carib chief arriving with a 

 slave, offered him for sale to the English governor. On the 

 refusal of the latter to make the purchase, the savage dashed 

 out the brains of the slave, deelaring that for the future his 

 nation would never give quarter — one of many instances of 

 their fearful ferocity. The Carib club is made of the heaviest 

 wood to be found. It is about eighteen inches long, flat, and 

 square at both ends, but heavier at one than the other. It is 

 thinner in the middle, and wound round with cotton thread, 

 with a loop to secure it to the wrist. One blow from this 

 formidable weapon — which is called " patu " — is sufficient to 

 scatter the brains of the person struck. Sometimes a sharp 

 stone is fixed in one end to increase its weight. 



THE ARAWAKS. 



Differing greatlv from the Caribs, the Arawaks, who live 



