in the bulk. The quality of this tobacco varies much, but some of it is most excellent. It is smoked only in cigarettes, made, each as it is required, by wrapping half a leaf, uncut, in a paper-like substance procured either from the cakarallitree (Lecythis ollaria) or from the manicole-palm (Euterpe oleracea). The method of preparing this paper from the cakaralli is most ingenious. A long strip of bark of exactly the width required for the wrapper of the cigarette is cut from the tree, with straight sides and ends. From this the outer rough bark is removed. With a thick, short stick the Indian then repeatedly strikes the cut edge of one end of the inner bark, with a peculiar but indescribable knack, so as to separate it into a great many even-surfaced sheets. Thus a number of bands of paper, called by the Indians queeka, are produced, and it is only necessary to cut these into proper short lengths, to make them into cigarette wrappers. The knack of preparing queeka is said by the Indians to be acquired only after much practice. Often, when camping in the neighbourhood of cakaralli-trees, I have seen the younger men and the boys spend the greater part of the night practising the art. The other kind of cigarette wrapper is procured simply by tearing the skin off the inside of the spathe of the manicole-palm.

CHAPTER XV.

PAIWARI FEASTS.

Feasting and Drinking and Games-The Invitation to the Feast-Quippoowriting-Preparations-Arrival of the Guests-Feasting-DancingBrawls-Racing and Ball-play-Arawak Whip-game-Warrau Shield

game.

THE festivals, the dances, and the games originally peculiar to any people, often remain but little altered long after most other matters which distinguished that people from the rest of the world have disappeared. Probably this is as true of the Indians of Guiana as of other races. But it is seldom easy for a stranger to see and note such festivities in their original and proper form. Indians are very shy; and in the presence of a white man they are seldom willing to throw aside their reserve sufficiently to enter freely and unrestrainedly into the spirit of their games. It is, therefore, not possible to give a minute and detailed account of their amusements of this sort.

All the festivals among all the tribes being occasions for much drinking of paiwari-the national beverage-they may all be called Paiwari Feasts. Sometimes these feasts are given on special occasions, as, for instance, to celebrate a marriage or a funeral, or to mark the establishment of a new settlement. But often they are held for no special reason, but simply because the headman of some settlement feels inclined to entertain his neighbours, and has sufficient ripe cassava in his fields for the purpose.

When a paiwari feast is to be held, invitations are sent. to the people of all neighbouring settlements inhabited by Indians of the same tribe as the givers of the feast. The

latter prepare a number of strings, each of which is knotted as many times as there are days before the feast day. One of these strings is kept by the headman of the settlement where the feast is to be held; the others are distributed, cne to the headman of each of the settlements from which guests are expected. Every day one of the knots, on each of the strings, is untied; and when the last has been untied, guests and hosts know that the feast day has come.

Sometimes, instead of knots on a string, notches on a piece of wood are used. This system of knot-tying, the quippoo system of the Peruvians, which occurs in nearly identical form in all parts of the world, is used not only, as in the above instance, for calendar-keeping, but also to record items of any sort; for instance, if one Indian owes another a certain number of balls of cotton, or other articles, debtor and creditor each have a corresponding string or stick, with knots or notches to the number of the owed article, and one or more of these is obliterated each time a payment is made, until the debt is wiped out.

To return to the preparations for the feast: while the knots were daily decreasing in number, all who are to be present have been busy. The guests have been making bread, and have been hunting game and fish, and smoking meat, in order to contribute their share to the general entertainment; for the hosts supply the paiwari, but cannot supply all the food for their visitors. And the hosts have been busythe men in getting together as much provisions as they can, the women in preparing the paiwari.

The one or more wooden paiwari-troughs which stand in the middle of nearly every house are shaped somewhat like canoes; indeed, canoes are often used for the purpose. Each trough holds from 150 to 200 gallons; so that, as all available troughs, as well as all spare bottles, gourds, and jars, are filled for the feast, no small quantity of paiwari has to be made. For this reason, and because paiwari does not acquire a proper degree of mellowness and fermentation for a day or two after it has been made, the women, whose duty

PREPARATION FOR A FEAST.

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it is to prepare it, begin to work some days before that on which their guests are expected.

By the time the guests begin to arrive sufficient liquor has been prepared. The visitors arrive in family parties, men, women, and children, in their canoes, corials, or woodskins; and they bring their hammocks and their provisions— for the entertainment lasts some days, often for a week. Often they also bring such hammocks, balls of spun cotton, live stock, or other goods as they have for barter-for these gatherings seem to serve not only as feasts, but also as fairs. As the boats approach the settlement, the men give notice of their coming by loudly uttering the cry peculiar to their tribe-for each tribe has a distinct cry. The people of the settlement, with the exception of the headman, who goes to his hammock and there awaits the coming of his guests, flock down to the landing-place to receive the new-comers. The men of the newly arrived party make their way up to the houses, leaving the women to unload the boats. The latter patiently carry up the goods, and without a word sling their husbands', brothers', and children's hammocks, and then their own, in some of the houses.

The reception of the men by the headman of the settlement is tedious and formal in the extreme. The leader of the strangers first addresses his host-who during the reception never stirs out of his hammock—and remarks that (he has come); to which the captain grunts assent. The first speaker then, in a number of short abrupt sentences, tells any news that he may have to give; and after each of these sentences, the captain from his hammock utters the same monosyllabic grunt of assent. At last, when this first speaker is done, he is bidden to sit down. Then the next in authority tells his news in the same manner, and is answered with exactly the same grunts of assent; and he in his turn is bidden to sit down. And So, in long and tedious order, each one of the new-comers addresses the captain. In the meantime, the women of the house bring to each man, as he sits down, a large calabash filled with paiwari. While

Y

he drinks, the woman keeps her hand on the calabash ; and when the vessel has been emptied, at one draught, she refills it. Another woman then brings the pepperpot and some bread, the latter on a fan, and sets these before the man. At last, when all the new-comers have had their say

and have eaten, they disperse, and retire to their hammocks; probably to make way for a new set, who are welcomed in exactly the same way.

The feast begins the next morning. By daybreak men, women, and children are busy painting and ornamenting themselves. On these occasions, Indians paint themselves