Among the Indians of Guiana: Being Sketches Chiefly Anthropologic from the Interior of British Guiana

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K. Paul, Trench & Company, 1883 - 445 sider

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Side 352 - It is not, therefore," he says, " too much to say that, according to the view of the Indians, other animals differ from men only in bodily form and in their various degrees of strength. And they differ in spirit not at all; for just as the Indian sees in the separation which takes place at death or in dreams...
Side 352 - Indians invariably destroy this babracot, saying that should a tapir, passing that way, find traces of the slaughter of one of his kind, he would come by night on the next occasion, when Indians slept at that place, and, taking a man, would babracote him in revenge
Side 351 - When he heard the owls at midnight, Hooting, laughing in the forest, "What is that?" he cried in terror; "What is that?" he said, "Nokomis" And the good Nokomis answered: "That is but the owl and owlet, Talking in their native language, Talking, scolding, at each other.
Side 196 - ... he puts a streak of red along the bridge of his nose; where his eyebrows were till he pulled them out he puts two red lines ; at the top of the arch of his forehead he puts a big lump of red paint, and probably he scatters other spots and lines somewhere on his face.
Side 184 - Arawaks, however, emphatically deny this account, and assert that each family is descended — their fathers knew how, but they themselves have forgotten — from its eponymous animal, bird, or plant.
Side 334 - According to tradition, the office of peaiman was formerly hereditary. If there was no son to succeed the father, the latter chose and trained some boy from the tribe — one with an epileptic tendency being preferred.
Side 364 - ... Indian mind. It has been presumed that traces of a belief in such a hierarchy have been found among other peoples, in their recognition of a sun-spirit, a moon-spirit, a water-spirit, and so on. Such spirits are certainly recognised in Guiana. On one occasion during an eclipse of the sun the Arawaks, among whom I happened to be, rushed from their houses with loud shouts and yells, and with frantic gestures, to separate, as they explained, the sun and moon which were fighting. But, at least as...
Side 350 - But the fact that I began by speaking of the spirits of men was only because man, whether he be Indian or other, naturally begins by thinking about himself; nor must the fact be understood to indicate that the Indian sees any sharp line of distinction, such as we see, between man and other animals, between one kind of animal and another, or between animals, men included, and inanimate objects.
Side 261 - European manufacture, is now placed over the fire ; by some of the remote Indians a flat slab of stone is used for this purpose, and there can be little doubt that this stone was originally universally used. On the griddle, whatever its material, a thin layer of the meal is spread. A woman, fan in hand, sits by the fire, watching. With her fan she smooths the upper surface of the cake, and makes its edges round. In a...

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