232 TlMEHRI. 
leave the pleasures that surround them for eternal de- 
lights which they cannot see. They take great care of 
their health, and fear death so greatly that they object 
to any one speaking about it, fearing to hasten it. 
In order to live longer they would give them- 
selves up with pleasure to the devil ; they never men- 
tion the names of the dead, fearing that it may oblige 
them to think of death and that this would make them 
ill. They say The husband of so and so is dead, or The 
wife of is dead. 
There are certain woods, with the heart of which they 
would not dare rub their skin or face : they say it would 
cause the beard to grow and make them look old before 
their time.* 
They believe themselves never to get ill, but to 
be bewitched ; and, simply for a head-ache or stomach- 
ache, they kill or cause to be killed, those whom 
they suspect to have given it to them. It is gene- 
rally a woman, since they dare not openly attack a man.f 
But, before killing her, they ill-treat this unfortunate 
person most cruelly. Their parents and friends go and 
fetch her, she is then made to search in the earth in 
different places, and ill-treated, until she finds what they 
believe her to have hidden ; and, very often, the woman, 
in order to deliver herself from her executioners, con- 
fesses what is not true, picking up some pieces of shell, 
Burgares, Lembies, Erabes or fish bones. Butgos 
are a sort of shell very common in the Antilles and on 
the mainland ; it is found on the sea side. 
* Our Guiana Caribs call even young men if bearded " Amoko " 
which means ' old man.' — Ed. 
f A quite undeserved charge of cowardice, I believe. Ed. 
