How Kanaima Protects Himself. 
397 
till now had been inteutionallj or nninteiitioiially kept hidden from me 
— perhaps also because they were special superstitions which the 
Arawaks alone believe in. 
997. If one of his patients dies, it is only the piai who knows 
whether the sick person has met his death through the influence of an 
evil spirit or by the poison of another Indian. It is always upon the 
answer to this question that the life and dcatli of another Indian Avill 
depend. If the evil spirit was the cause of death the l)ody will be buried 
with the ceremonial already known, If the verdict be that he was 
struck down as the victim of some injuiy, etc., the cor])se is carefully 
examined and should only a black spot or something otherwise unusual 
be discovered, the piai points this out as the place whei'e the deceased 
was wounded with the invisilde poisoned arrow. To discover the mur*- 
derer, often the victim of the piai's i^ersonal revenge, he now proceeds to 
adopt the imeasures of which I was a mtness at Waraputa with the only 
dffiference, that in place of the cut-off limbs of the deceased, he throws in 
the leaves from a certain tree : the culprit will be found on the side upon 
which the first leaf is tlirown out over the edge by the l»ubbling water. 
The piai now gnVes a more deta;iled description of him, and if anyone, be 
it man, woman or child, has incurred his hatred, or if he himself perhaps 
Insts for the Avoman of another Indian, the one oi- the other will l»e 
charged with the death. 
99S. A member of the honse <>f mournina' now starts off as a 
Kanaima. If he happens to meet Avith the Indian indicated in some oufi 
of the way place all alone, he tries to shoot hini, in the linck with a pois- 
oned arrow: if he kills him on the spot, ho straightway buries him wiMi- 
orit going deep, exaetly wliere he falls. On the (bird night (bo kanaima 
returns, and drives a pointed stick into the grave and body of bis victim : 
if on pulling this out there is blood on it, he licks it off, when all dan«^'-^!' 
of any reprisals is removed and he can make his way back content to hi'=i 
settlement. 
999. If the injnry be not immediately fatal, and the victim still 
retains sufficient strength to get home, he begs his relatives to bui*y hito 
secretly in some out-of-the-way place where his grave cannot be found 
by anyone: the Arawak is firmly convinced that, if the kanaima cannot 
on the third day lick up his blood, he (the kanaima) will go mad and 
die mad. If the piai accuses a. woman or child of the ontrage, (he 
kanaima employs no poisoned arrow,. but the poison-fangs of a snake as 
already mentioned : he throws his^^ctim to the ground, and with the tooth 
slits her tongue, whieh, before the victim can reach lionie, is so swollen 
that speech is already lost and the murderer cannot be named. 
1,000. I must mention here yet another pecnliar idea with i-egard to 
the spiritual residence of people deceased. If an Arawak shows himself 
cowardly or faint-hearted at any Imsiness, or s]if)nld it happen that', 
though a strong drinker, he nevertheless now and again snecnnibs to the 
influence of drink, he is called a ^raggubnrugua, a man without sense: 
if on the other hand he is of blameless conduct, and has reimained a 
stranger to that weakn<*ss, he is a Gaggnburngim, a brave man. When 
