Religious Convictions. 
131 
out with other tribes. Power and influence are here not alone based 
upon worth and position: this is determined by the degree of bodily 
strength and the spirit of enterprise. 
452. Tribal relationship is never derived from the father but always 
from the mjother: the child of a Warrau buckeen and an Arawak is re- 
garded as a Warrau. By the law of tribal-claim that of inheritance is 
also regulated. The sons of the chief's daughters inherit the honours 
of the grandfather and not his sons, although this is not by any means 
strongly insisted upon, because at the chief’s death each one who feels 
in bimself the strength and ability for the honour may arise as pretend- 
er without the late sovereign’s family feeling their rights infringed or 
demanding satisfaction. The Piai, Piatsong or Pache who is at the 
same time sorcerer and doctor is regarded as the second important per- 
sonage of every village after the chieftain. The Warraus regard these 
Piais with all the greater esteem and awe since the pride of their tribe 
is bound up with them : they believe that their own sorcerers and doc- 
tors are mightier than those of other Indians. 
453. In their religious convictions almost all the tribes of British 
Guiana correspond, at least in their main points. An infinitely sublime 
Being is the creator of the world and of mlankind, upon whose activ- 
ities however the regulation and preservation of the world has so much 
claim, that he cannot specially worry over the individual.* Gentleness, 
benevolence, and kindness to his creatures are the chief attributes of 
this supreme Being. Every pernicious influence that interferes with the 
rest and happiness of his creatures — e.g. sickness, death, famine, in 
short, every misfortune of life — cannot in the same way be traced back 
to him, and accordingly, from the rough separation between Good and 
Evil, Happiness and Misfortune, it must have another source. The 
source of all the Wickedness and Bad is a host of subordinate Beings, 
whose only pleasure consists in bestowing misery, strife, hatred, and 
sickness on the humhn race. The Good is only a single Something, and 
though it indicates its presence in different forms, it nevertheless unites 
into one general feeling of Happiness, and hence there exists only one 
Beneficent Being, the original source of creation, the prime source of all 
Blessedness. With Evil, on the other hand, the question is different: 
heterogeneous in its expressions, and always appearing divided and 
sporadic in the interruption or repose, it cannot be the outlet of one 
Power, but mlust be the effect of the manifold forces of Evil Spirits. 
These Beings, malevolent to mankind, the authors of all disease, and 
every hardship, these spirits enjoying another’s misfortune, whose hap- 
piness is the pang of mortals, bear among the Warraus the name of 
Yawahu.t 
454. Amongst all mortals, the power is alone granted to the Piai 
or sorcerer, through his secret arts, to counteract these damaging influ- 
ences or to remove them to a distance. Every settlement possesses but 
one such medicine-man, who, initiated deep into the nature of the world 
* It is only fair to state that this is not the generally accepted view among ethnologists 
nowadays. See Roth’s “ Animism and Folk-lore among the Guiana Indians.” (Ed.). 
t There is evidently a mistake here : Yawahu is the Arawak term, Hebu the Warrau one 
In section 455, the Warrau Piaiman’s rattle is rightly called Haepu (Hebu)-masaro. (Ed ) 
