The Piai’s Progress. 
331 
that are in use throughout almost the whole of Guiana, a circumstance 
which, judging by analogy from several other practices, lias led me to 
the opinion that this office did not have an independent origin in every 
tribe, but lias arisen in some particular one, whence in the course of 
time, it has been gradually adopted by the others: this view becomes 
all the more probable from the fact that, generally speaking, the simple 
religious convictions of each, so far as their main essentials are concerned, 
entirely correspond. Although during my stay in the interior I had 
many and many an opportunity of associating with those learned folk, 
I never discovered in any one of them a higher stage of culture or a 
deeper medical knowledge than I did in the lay fraternity. Their whole 
business lies in making noisy and at the same time crude exorcisms, 
accompanied by spitting, sucking, squeezing and smoking of the sick 
areas, in the utterance of unintelligible expressions, in the skill with 
which, through the use of narcotics, they can transform themselves into 
a condition of wild ecstacy. and particularly in the art of ventriloquism. 
Though they also possess some botanical knowledge, inasmuch as they 
call all plants by particular names and recognise their main properties, 
it nevertheless seems that this knowledge has not in any way been ad- 
vanced with the passing of the years, but has only been handed down as 
an unchanged heirloom from father to son. If the Piai has no son of his 
own, he picks upon the craftiest from amongst the village boys and takes 
him to the most remote recesses of the forest, where he gradually makes 
him acquainted with the technique of his future career, until, after a few 
years’ time, the latter has imbibed the whole course of instruction. He 
who up to the present has disappeared from among liis people, returns 
now as a learned physician, etc., in the midst of his tribal relatives, but 
more like a skeleton than a human being. In the presence of others a 
brew of tobacco leaves is his drink; a bit of cassava bread his nourish- 
ment. During his apprenticeship he is not allowed to come into any 
contact with Europeans, as he would thereby lose his influence over the 
spirit world for evermore. When the apprenticeship is completed his 
teacher receives most valuable presents from the parents and relatives 
as he hands the novice the mystic rattle (maracca of (he Macusis, etc.) Tli e 
outward sign indicates the office: the sombre and gloomy look, the lone- 
some solitary life and the ascetic austerity alone betray the Piais. Thev 
preside in the gatherings as well as at the dances, and with their maracca 
act as masters of the ceremonies. The whole village is subservient to 
their will absolutely. Their influence appears to be especially marked 
over the female sex, it being generally noticeable that their wives are 
always the most beautiful in the whole village, and yet their power is not 
less marked over the others less favoured. 
912. However impenetrable the halo with which the Piais know how 
to surround themselves amongst their tribal relatives, they nevertheless 
fight shy of the Europeans, but more especially of the Missionary because 
their evil inner consciousness seems indeed not without reason to cry out 
“These people will see through you.” If one asks in a village for the Piai, 
the answer always received is that there is none present : chance alone 
will make the stranger acquainted with the dreaded personality. 
