236 TlMEHRI. 
trained from his youth to the work ; he is made to fast 
for five months on bread and water in a small hut, where 
he sees no one ; his body is scraped with acoury teeth, 
he is made to drink tobacco juice until he faints, and, 
when they say that his spirit has gone to the Chemeen, 
they rub his body with gum and cover it with feathers to 
allow him to fry to the Chemeen. He is taught how to 
Operate on a sick man by feeling, sucking, and blowing 
on him. They do not fear the Chemeen, because he is good 
and does not harm them ; but they fear Maboia who 
harms them ; and I believe that it is in order to coat him 
that some wear a hideous figure of him round their neck, 
or carve it in front of their canoes. They told me that 
it was to frighten their enemies, when they went to war, 
who when they saw this horrible figure with open mouth, 
were afraid to be devoured by it, and remained so 
terror-stricken that they could not paddle any more, and 
were consequently easily caught. 
The Arawaks are a nation settled towards the 
borders of the Orinoco river, and are everlasting 
enemies of the Caribs and Galibi. * The Indians 
have often very fearful dreams, in which they seem 
to see the devil. At night I have heard them, some- 
times two at once, complain, cry, wake with a start, 
and tell me that the devil wanted to beat them. They 
went on screaming when quite awake, and really made 
enough noise to drive the devil away. Their melancholic 
temperament evidently contributes to these visions. 
They sometimes put the hairs, or some bones, of their 
deceased parents into a calabash. They keep these in 
* Galibi is merely another form of the word Caribi, but seems only 
to fcare been used of the Caribs of the mainland. 
