Preliminaries to a Feast. 
157 
be removed, whereupon one exposes the remainder to evaporation in the 
sun: when the watery contents are quite evaporated, the whole is mixed 
with crab-oil and (he sweet-scented resin of the lh/mniaca Courbaril Linn. 
The liner Cariaeru with which however the Waikas only paint their 
faces, is obtained in barter from the tribes of the interior who manufac- 
ture it from the leaves of the Bignoniu chiro Humb, The fruit of the 
Gcnipa americana supplies them with a bluish black colour which lasts 
n fairly long while. 
548. Before I pass on to a description of the festival itself I must 
mention the way and manner in which the host makes his guests under- 
stand on which day they are expected to dine with him, or when some 
body with whom he has business to transact must put in an appearance, 
because the Indian lias no special terms for individual days. 
549. When the chief wants to give a feast, he picks as many strings 
as the number of his friends living at a distance whom he proposes in- 
viting, and threads as many beads or ties as many knots upon each of 
them as there are days remaining in the interval before the appointed 
date. Swift messengers now hurry off with these strings in all direc- 
tions to everybody whose attendance is requested, and hand him one at 
the same time that they give him the verbal message. The person invited 
then ties it on to his hammock, and every morning takes off a bead or 
unties a knot, and on the day when the knots are all loosened, or the 
beads have all disappeared, the guests put in their appearance for sure. 
But in order that he himself may make no mistake, the host has also re- 
tained a string and observes the same procedure followed by his friends, 
daily removing a bead or undoing a knot. They employ the same method 
in all their private matters and business affairs that they wish to carry 
on wdth tribal associates living at a distance. Amongst the tribes of Ihe 
interior, particularly among the Macusis, instead of the strings with 
beads or knots, use is made of a stick into which are cut notches corres- 
ponding with the number of intervening days: one of these notches is 
shaved off every day, and so the feast cannot prove abortive. 
550. What a sprightly picture presented itself at dawn to-day ! The 
first glance I cast into the open houses showed that more than half the 
residents w T ere busy with their toilette. Mothers painted their children, 
an operation under which the impatient, little boys particularly delighted 
me, because one could see in each one’s countenance that it occupied far 
too much of the time that might be spent in company with those of their 
own age already tumbling about along the front. Bounding with im- 
patience and quivering in all their limbs, the brief and sharp expostula- 
tion and reproof of the mothers could only momentarily keep them quiet. 
The time of torment at last drew to a conclusion and, reviewed under Ihe 
discriminating gaze of their proud maternal relatives, one after another 
of the youngsters hurried off to his companions, till the voice of some 
criticising mother would call this or that one back again and lengthen 
some of the painted streaks or cover up others. One pretty little girl 
however had a far more impatient partner for the feast to quieten : this 
was her tame monkey which knew far too much than allow 7 the daubs 
painted by the mother on her brother’s face to be copied by the sister 
on its ow t u, and accordingly tried to proven 1 it by mischievously biting 
and violently struggling w 7 ith her. What wonder ihen that the abrupt 
