310 A. Tame Toucan Gets in Trouble. 
746 Ou the third day after our arrival, the population of Watu- 
Ticaba was increased by one young citizen of the world. The mother, 
with her lirst-born in her arms, had been in our house a short while 
before, and hardly half an houri later appeared at her own, quarters, that 
immediately adjoined the strangers' house, with her new baby to Avhich 
she had given birth in the neighbouring brushwood without any outside 
assistance. Here she sat herself on the ground with the infant in her 
lap, and waited until her husband had fixed up a small palm-leaf 
partition. After two women had lighted a fire for her and placed some 
drinking vessels with water close by, the remaining female portion of the 
population kept away from her as far as possible, because for some days 
to come she was considered "unclean." On completion of the compart- 
ment the husband hung his own as well as his wife's hammock up in it, 
and both parents prepared for the lying-in, like the Macusi.s. The child 
was small, tlio liead already covered with thick hair: the nostrils were 
uncommonly thick and the nails well formed. 
747. The aversion to the flesh of the European pig was never pre- 
viouslv 1n'oug)it into such sharp prominence ;by any tnbe as it was bv 
the Wapisianas. The most conscientious Jew could not cherisli 
a greater horror of it than did these people. One old Wapisiana, 
lioth of whose boys accompanied us from Torong-Yauwise to 
Rorainia. onlv allowed them to go on the solemn promise that we 
would never give them swine-flesh hr any food prepared by our 'cook on 
account of the nossibilitv of the unclean flesh being cooked in one of 
the pots. Ro nlso in Watu-Ticaba the indisposition of a little girl 
whom our cook Adams hnd "helned rnrrv wood and water, only gave rise 
to tlio opinion tliat he had supplied the child Avith salt pork. 
748. Among the numerous t.nraed animals that I found in Watu- 
Ticaba, T got a particularly ffond lot of amusement out of a pepper 
eater, Rhawphasitost cyi/throrhj/uchin^. that had risen to be ruler with 
unlimited powers not only over all the feathered creatures gathered 
there, Imt even over the Inrcer four-footed ones, and whose iron sway thev 
all, great and small, willinirly obeved. If any ^contention arose be- 
tween the tame trumpet-birds, hokko-hens. yakus and other fowls, they 
all immediately dispersed if only the powerful tyrant let himself be 
seen: even granted that if in the heat of the altercation he came up mn- 
noticed, a few painful bites with his ue:lv beak tauscht the contending 
parties that their sovereiijn would stand no strife amoncr his sub- 
if^cts. If we thr^w br^nd or bones .nmono'st the thickest of the domec^- 
firriforl rro'^vdq portp of Iiis two or four-footpd subordinates would dnre 
pick un pven the smallest morsel before his lordship had soucrht Out what 
he considered neees'^ary for hims<^lf. Indeed his thirst for power and 
tvranny reached such a pitch that he set nt \nought all international 
riffhts. and let every strancre do£!i: that might be accompauvinir the 
neis:hbourin<r Indians ■^\'ho were anxious to pav us n visit, feel without 
pity what the law in his kingdom really was by liiting and hunting it 
all round the village. The tonnented subjects nevertheless were to be 
freed from this despotic exercise of power the day before my de- 
