128 
Maternity llABtrs. 
plenteously offers them practically everything that they hold dear, 
leave the greater part of the day unoccupied. From out of his ham- 
mock the Warrau hastens to his meal, and back again when finished : in it 
lie sleeps, blows his simple reed -Hute, or pulls out the scanty hairs of his 
beard. In his hammock he carries on conversation with the occupants 
of his own and neighbouring houses, or admires his beauty if he owns 
a looking glass. For hours at a time he gazes with gratification in the 
eyes of his double, wherein he finds the most faithful servant of his 
vanity and with pride that is never satisfied daily admires the picture 
afresh. As master of the house he thus passes the whole day in indolent 
repose in a condition between sleeping and waking: already roused in 
the earliest hours of the morning he tries to dispel the ennui until break 
of day by keeping up a conversation with his neighbours, an evil habit 
which, when we first went to stay among the Indians and before Time 
made us indifferent to it. excited our lively indignation. The slavish 
service of the women is not even interrupted at night: from sundown 
until daybreak they keep the small fires burning underneath the ham- 
mocks, to drive away the mosquitoes and keep the house warm. 
437. For the rest, a few features in the social life of these children 
of nature show that feelings of chastity and the sense of shame lie deep- 
rooted in primitive human nature. This is especially the case with the 
women : they appear retiring in the presence of strangers, disclose a shy 
modesty (which is less conspicuous among the men) in their gait and 
bearing, and as soon as their accouchment begins to draw near betake 
themselves out of the village where their husbands and relatives reside. 
Alone, in a house in the forest, they await their time, which is without 
danger for them,, and return with the new-born child to their own peo- 
ple, without having claimed outside assistance. 
438. Upon one of my excursions I myself came across such a lying- 
in woman who was contemplating with the deepest maternal love the 
little citizen of the world that had just been born. The colour of the 
baby’s skin was almost as white as that of a European girl, except that 
the white verges slightly into yellow. The mother divides the navel- 
string with her teeth, and ties it with a thread made from Bromelia Kar- 
irfas fibre. The Wai raus, however, do not .seen i quite to understand 
the tying business as yet, because almost all kinds of abnormalities are 
to be seen at this spot. 
439. After the mother has bathed herself and the new-born child 
in the neighbouring stream, she hurries back to the village, where the 
father of the house receives the congratulations of his friends, while his 
wife goes about her business as before. It is strange that the children 
are usually weaned only in their third or fourth year, so that the elder 
often stands quietly in front of its mother, and takes its accustomed 
nourishment from the one breast while the younger in its mother’s arms 
is sucking at the other. It nevertheless looked extremely laughable 
when such a strapping youngster, as the one we had just noticed in the 
extreme top of a Carica Papaya, suddenly climbed down the tree and 
laden with its fruit hurried off to quench its thirst from mdther. Our 
astonishment however was still further increased when we noticed four- 
footed foster-brothers and sisters among the sucklings, to which the 
mother, while perhaps her own child was already sucking nourishment 
