Ideas op Cosmogony;, 
253 
sick, and I can only account for tliis custom so generally present among 
the aborigines of South America by the religious conviction according 
to which the spirits of the dead haste to a spot where they will find all 
that they wish, all their friends who have gone before. For the rest they 
refer the good and bad to one and the same ])lace. When I told them this 
might not be satisfactory I got the reply every time "We know nothing 
else, we have heard from our forefathers that all spirits get there." Some 
tribes of the Orinoco fix a more pleasant spot* mthout being able to 
define it more clearly, for those who were good in life : the wicked ones 
come to a tree Avherein burns a continual fire, but if they sing, say the 
medicine-men, certain songs acceptable to the Supreme Being, their 
spirits fly over it and away without danger. The Otomacs maintain 
that the spirits of all hurry to the west, to a place where they can live in 
vepose Avithout trouble or work; a huge Ivird, known as the Tighitigh. the 
enemy of nmnkiud, that begrudges tliem their occidental paradise uever 
theless encounters them beforehand and accordingly seizes and swallows 
them as soon as they neglect to show a. bold front. The (immoderate 
lamentations of the survivors at the onset of deatli stand out in curious 
contrast with the preceding absolute neglect of the sick. 
581. I have already, during the course of my narrative, mentioned 
something about their remainüng religious convictions, their connection 
with a Supreme Being, and his position as regards man, as well as their 
views on the whole of creation in general. As Avith Caribs and Arawaks, 
the Supreme Being, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, is called Maku- 
naima (One who works by night), the One in opposition being Epel, just 
as their cosmogony almost exactly tallies with that of the Warraus, 
Oaribs, and others. After the great and beneficent spirit Makunaima 
had created the earth Avith its plants and timbers, he came down from 
on high and climbing a tall tree, cut away Avith his mighty stone axe 
some pieces off the bark, Avhich he threw into the river coursing along 
beloAv and thereupon changed them into all kinds of animals. When lu; 
had called all (hese into life he made man. The latter fell into a deep 
sleep and Avhen he Avoke he found a Avoman standing by his side. The 
Evil Spirit obtained the masteiy on earth, and Makunaima sent great 
floods: one solitary man es(a])ed in a corial from Avhich he despatched a 
rat to see if the waters had subsided, and it came back with a maize cob.t 
582. The cosmogony myths of tlie Arawaks differ essentially from 
these in their main features. According to them man and AA^oman were 
created by two different higher Beings. The creator of Man they call 
Knrurumany,:;: that of Avoman Kulimina. Kunimmany is their gcfod 
Being, from whom good alone proceeds. When Kururumany once ui)on a 
time came upon the earth to see what the people were doing, he found 
they had become so bad that he Avanted to kill them : he accordingly took 
aAvay their everlasting life, and conferred it on those animals that change 
their skins, e.g., snakes, lizards and cockroaches. Aluberi,t the TTigliesI 
*P. Salvator Gili "Saggio di Rtoria natnralf. civile e sacra, etc." Roma 1782. 
t Tlie cnrrespondeiice of this with tlio Rihlical stoi'v oiilv too (jluai'ly establi.slic.s I lie 
influence of indirect, missioiiary or other Cliristian cnter])rise. (Ed.) 
t These are the tribal heroc« Kororotnantia and Haburi (Alidnri) of which detailed 
iiccouiits are given in Roth's Animism and Folklnre etc. (Ed.) 
