and pull them out with a needle, and any chance of inflammation, owing to part of the animal remaining in the sore, may be avoided by filling the cavity either with laudanum or with tobacco ashes. If, as is sometimes though rarely, the case with Indians, and is often the case with negroes and others on the coast, jiggers are left undisturbed in the foot the whole of the latter becomes seriously affected and eventually drops away.

We now come to the last of the really troublesome animals. In the forest the bushes are often inhabited by bush-ticks (Ixodes), with flat, hard-looking bodies like tiny disc-shaped seeds. These insects seize with their vice-like jaws on men and animals as they brush by, and, being carried off, bury their heads in the flesh of their victims, and there feed till their bodies swell into sack-like bodies of four or five times their former size. Probably these animals are very locally distributed, for they seldom trouble the traveller, but occasionally do so in enormous numbers. They may always be made to drop off either from clothes or flesh by exposure, as close as possible, to a fire.

The three insects which next claim notice are spiders, scorpions, and centipedes, all of which may be found in abundance by search, but very rarely attack human beings.

6

Spiders are certainly very abundant, of many forms, some most quaint, of all sizes, from such as are as small as our own money-spiders' to the great, black, hairy bird-eating spider (Mygale avicularia), which is as big as a baby's fist, and of many colours, some being in this respect most beautiful. The bite of some species, especially of the bird-eating spider, is said to be dangerous and even sometimes fatal; but though these spiders are common enough, I never knew them bite on any occasion. Another very large spider, (Phrynus reniformis) occurs on the ground in the mora forests about the upper part of the Mazeruni river; it is said that not only the bite of this is very poisonous, but also that the insect unprovoked frequently attacks men. This insect, being somewhat like a scorpion in appearance, is called by

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the Indians by a name signifying 'mother-in-law of scorpions.' Scorpions of two, and perhaps of three, species live under stones and fallen wood. It is chiefly the woodcutters in their work of moving timber that come into contact with these animals. But one small and white species has an unpleasant habit of living about the beams of Indian houses, where, if it is accidentally touched, it stings; the wound is, however, as I have experienced, not serious and not even very painful. Centipedes, often attaining a length of four or five inches, are about as numerous as scorpions, and live in the same places. Both alike are, as a rule, only accidentally seen, but both can be easily found by search.

Four other insects, of most harmless kinds, are sure to attract the notice of the traveller. In describing the hunting ants I have already mentioned the bush cockroaches. These, which live under every fallen leaf, are much smaller than the domestic kind, and seem to be without any offensive odour. Many large grasshoppers live both in the open country and in the forest. These are often of most brilliant colours, chiefly red or green, and some kinds attain a length of four inches. The green mantis, or praying-insect, may often be seen hunting other insects, but is harmless to man. And, lastly, certain curious insects, locally called razorgrinders (Cicada, sp. var.), from the extraordinary sounds. that they make, or six-o'clocks, from the fact that these sounds are redoubled about that hour, are sure to be soon noticed. Occasionally in the forest, just before dusk, the whole place rings with the whirr of these insects, as though fifty pairs of scissors were being sharpened at once on half a hundred grindstones; and from the scattered trees on the savannah another kind sounds a loud prolonged whistle, so like that of a railway engine, that, hearing it, it is sometimes difficult for a moment to remember that one is on the desolate South American savannah.

Indian Groups in Guiana-The Value of the Groups-Race, Branch, Tribe, and Family-Classification of Principal Tribes-Some unimportant or little-known Tribes-The term True Carib'-Tribal Differences in Language, Physical Characters, and Habits-Geographical Distribution of the Tribes-Forest Indians and Savannah Indians-Probable History of the Tribes-The Earlier Tribes: Warraus, Arawaks, and Wapianas--The later Immigration of Carib Tribes.

THE aboriginal population of the whole continent of America is made up of an extraordinarily large and disproportionate number of more or less well-defined small groups of so-called Red Indians, which are chiefly distinguishable in that each uses either a peculiar vocabulary, or, in the case of the minor groups, a peculiar dialect of a vocabulary common to several of the larger groups. It has been estimated that within the (in round numbers) 15,000,000 square miles of the whole continent, there are nearly 500 of these distinct vocabularies, and 2,000 dialects. Yet there is one great and important feature common to all these diverse languages, so immensely numerous in proportion to the extent of land occupied by them, and absent, with one possible and insignificant exception, from the language of the rest of the world and this is, that though the vocabularies of the languages differ, their structure is the same and is peculiar. The structure of all, and only of these languages, is polysynthetic. This community of speech is a strong, though not absolutely certain, indication of community of race. When, however, the bodily structure, and to some extent the customs, of these groups of Americans are examined, it appears that in these points also, with considerable differences there are yet features which are

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on the one hand common to all these groups, and are on the other hand unrepresented elsewhere in the world. Therefore, tested by language and also by structural characters, the aboriginal American population proves to be one great race distinct from the people of the whole of the rest of the world.

The 70,000 square miles of American land which now bear the name of British Guiana contain a number of more or less distinct groups of Red Indians, which are probably as numerous as in any other district of equal size of the same continent. The number of individuals forming these groups can hardly be determined, for they live widely, more or less thickly scattered, in a country uninhabited, and only partially explored, by Europeans. An attempt was indeed made about the year 1840, and again in 1881, to estimate their number by counting those living along the banks of four rivers supposed to be those most thickly inhabited by Indians, and from these results estimating the number elsewhere. The numbers returned from the four rivers were, on the first occasion, with somewhat suspicious detail, 4,265; and from this the Indian population of the whole district has been variously estimated as from 12,000 to 20,000; were I to add another to the guesses which have been made about the matter, I should suggest that 20,000 is probably slightly, but not much, below the real

number.

These Indians are known by a very large number of different names. Even from the following alphabetical list, formidable as it appears, there are probably some

1 The four rivers were the Pomeroon, Moruca, Waini, and Barrama.

Many of these names are, however, synonymous; others do not represent distinct groups; and yet others are names of tribes settled beyond the limits of British Guiana, individual members of which occasionally wander across the border. It will save trouble if we dispose of these unnecessary names at once. The Ackawoi, by a mere variation in pronunciation, are also known as Waccawais; and, using neither of these names, these people call themselves Kapohn, which in their language means simply 'the people.' We shall find that several tribes have both a name for themselves-that is, each calls itself in its own language 'the people'—and a name used by other Indians. The Arawaks, for instance, call themselves Lokono. Arecuna, it would hardly be necessary to say, but that the two forms are sometimes given in ethnological books as distinct, is the same as Arecuma. Atorais, Daurais, and Taurais are, I think, identical, though Schomburgk considered that the two latter words are synonyms of a tribe allied to but not the same as the Atorais. It is at least certain that people bearing these three names live intermingled in the same settlements. The Caribisi are the same as the so-called Caribs; and Carinya, or the people,' is their own name for themselves. We shall presently find it convenient to reject all these three names and to substitute the term True Carib. The last case of synonyms is that of Paramona and Partamona. Names which do not represent distinct groups are Cobrungru, i.e. hybrids between any Indian and negro; Nikari-karu, i.e. hybrids between Macusis and Indians of some Brazilian tribe, or