History of the Caribs. 249 
not be brave. When the time has expired the oldest in 
the house choose two Caribs to scrape this pretty fast, 
and, on the appointed day he is brought to a public place ; 
looking like a skeleton, and standing upright on two large 
flat cakes of cassavas. The sponsors then begin to 
scratch and cut his skin with very sharp agouti teeth. 
They first begin on the sides, then the shoulders, from 
the arm to the elbow, from elbow to wrist, and from the 
thighs to the ankles. He suffers this torment without 
saying a word, and not without trembling, because, after 
such a long fast, natural heat is absent, and this effusion 
of blood chills him ; they draw so much blood that from 
an imaginary invalid they turn him into a real one. He is 
then painted and rubbed with roucou leaves, pepper seeds 
and tobacco juice, and placed on a red painted seat, the 
women bring him food, which the old men put in his 
mouth, as they would do to a child, the cassava and the 
fish being in small pieces ; he eats the cassava, but eje£ts 
the fish after chewing it. He would become sick if he 
began to eat too well at once ; he is made to drink by 
being held by the neck ; he must eat the two cakes of 
cassava on which he has stood ; and with the blood which 
fell on it, the child's face is rubbed. This will make it 
generous and brave according to the patience shown by 
the father. After this ceremony he is put to bed for a 
couple of days, but it does not end there. For six months, 
not only with the first-born, but whenever their women 
get a child, they must abstain from eating certain animals, 
from fear that they may participate in their natural faults. 
If a father ate turtle, the child would be heavy and have 
no brains ; if he ate a parrot, the child would have a 
parrot nose ; if a crab, the consequence would be long 
II 
