Occasional Notes. 313 
times lost, and then the body pines and dies if the piai-doctor, called 
in for the occasion, is not fortunate enough to recover the stray spirit." 
This explanation by Mr. DANCE, though I am not pre- 
pared to accept it, at least in its entirety, seems to me 
worthy of serious consideration. Meanwhile, there are 
some facts which seem to me closely connected with the 
subject of couvade, and the statement of which, they 
having never yet, as far as I know, been recorded, is 
the object of the present note. 
It seems to me not yet to have been clearly recognized 
that there are other practices beside that already described 
as the generally recognized form of couvade which are 
almost certainly akin, and ought to be classed under the 
same name. If so, the time may perhaps come when it 
will be possible, by studying not only the one recognized 
form of couvade, but also and in conjunction, all the 
various forms of the practice, to detect the idea under- 
lying all these and on which they are based : and thus 
the long, and as yet vainly, sought explanation of 
couvade may be found. As a contribution toward this 
desirable end the following examples, as I think, of 
couvade, occurring in unusual forms in Guiana, are 
offered : — 
(1.) When an Indian, with the help of his dog, has captured game, 
his wife, if she is at the time with child, must not cat of the booty ; for, 
if she does, the dog will never hunt again. 
(2.) A woman with child may step across the most dangerous snake . 
for it will not bite her. 
(3.) A certain well-known colonist, an Englishman, now dead, 
who was present while some Indians, according to their practice, were 
poisoning the water of a small stream with the narcotic substance 
known as haiari, was prevented by the Indians from touching the 
water; for if he had done so, as his wife was then with child, the 
