Manners and Customs of the Arekunas. 
189 
good-bye with liei- beautilul head ol' hair. We gazed upon the picturesque 
caravau lor loug, until it disap])eared behind a bit of rising grouud iu 
the southward. It \\'as just like a fairy tale or a passing dream : we were 
yet to meet sweet Cummiyaure once more. 
435. The interesting sijeetaele that we had hitherto provided in 
almost every settlement ihut we stayed at, was also repeated here: hardly 
a day passed but processions of red-]>ainted Arekunas came over the 
mountains to our settlement to whom it appeared equally suitable, as it 
had done to us, to (puckly; build their own huts. In the course of 12 
days our village included seven houses more, on account of which almost 
all the palms in the oasis naturally disappeared. 
436. The Arekunas are evidently a l)rother tribe of the Macusis: 
language, manners and customs apparently correspond with one another. 
Tlie variations in the first-mentioned are purely dialectic, and in con- 
nection witli the last there is specially wanting but one characteristic, and 
that is, cleanliness. The dirty halüt of painting the entire body and not 
only the smoking of tobacco, but also its chewing in fair quantity — a 
liabit that had not hitherto been noticed in any tribe — were, in their 
naive slovenliness the two chie!f causes that continually gave them an 
unwashed appearance. For chewing purposes, tlie tolvacco leaves are 
not dried but are cut up very fine while fresh, and mixed with a black 
nitre-containing earth found on the savannahs, tlien kneaded into a dough, 
and so rolled into small marbles ready to be stuck in the mouth. The 
overflow almost always settles as a dirty black juice upon the lips and 
around the mouth : T have never seen women chewing it. Even before 
dawn the people leave their hammocks to bathe in the neighliouring 
Kukenam, after which comes the dabbing and streaking of the whole of 
the body with paint. Almost all the men wear the hair-belt fMatnpa) 
over the hips, some also have a belt manufactured of S]mn cotton some- 
thing after the style of a sausage : the women have necklaces made of 
the teeth of small rodents. The blo'^^'-gnn. as T have already stated, 
appears to be their chief weapon. Thev barter the poison Vi'^Wh the 
Macusis. to whom thev give in exchange either the compJeted implement 
or only the rougli stalk of the AriimJinaria Schomhiirf/Jcii , which they in 
return receive from the ]Maionckong. TTere also tlie mother snckles 
the child ur> to the third or fourth year, and when finding herself about 
to give birth to another, will hand over the last baby to the grandmother 
who fulfils all the functions of a, mother to the orandcliild : an abilitv 
that I have proved to be true even witli the oldest Indian females. Their 
chieftains exert greater influenee and power than do the Macusis. Everv 
order of Kaikurauff's was "iven in an earnest yet firm tone: immerliate 
obedience followed it. Kaikuranc always snoke in the first person 
nlural. The Arekunas are onlv in lU'^l'roct relations with Georijetown 
through exchanging spun cotton, hammocks, dogs, and feather- 
decorations for small articles of European manufacture with the 
Akawais who are not afraid of the dangerous journey up the Cuyuni or 
Mazaruni. Owing to the district being so poor in mammals and birds, 
and their mountain-streams only harbouring fish as small as one's finger 
belonging to the SUurohJ family, particularly to the genus ITypostoma, 
