In order to give a firm grasp, the handle is covered with cotton string wound upon it very neatly, afterward being ornamented with feathers and similar decorations. As the heads of these clubs are very much alike, I have only given one entire, and the handles of two others. The central is the most highly ornamented, having tufts of brilliant green feathers just at the junction of the head and the handle, and below the feathers a series of white balls made of cotton-wool. The reader will doubtless admire the elaborate pattern in which the cotton string is wound upon the handle. One of these weapons in my own collection very much resembles that which has been already described, except that, instead of the feathers and cotton-wool balls, it is ornamented with a series of long trailing tufts made of cotton fibre.
At the present time the use of these beautiful clubs is practically abandoned, the musket having superseded the native weapons, so that the clubs, although they are still manufactured, are made for sale, and not for use.
Next comes which is used by the Caribs. It carries out fully the principle which has just been mentioned respecting the ratio between the ornament of the weapon and the warlike spirit of the user. This club is comparatively plain, being meant for use and not for show. The makers call it by the name of Potu, and it is evidently a modification of the “macana” club of the Gran Chaco Indians. To the eye it seems no very powerful weapon, but its weight, form, and balance render it capable of dashing out the brains of a man with a single blow. There is generally a wrapping of cotton string round the middle, so as to afford a firm grip, and a loop made of the same material, which passes over the wrist. A modification of the potu is shown in the left-hand specimen.
The very shape of the potus proves that they are meant to be used by a courageous and warlike people. As a rule the instinct of a really courageous people is to “get at” the adversary, while that of an unwarlike people is to keep the foe at a distance.
As to warfare and the mode of conducting it, there is considerable variation in the different tribes, some being peaceable and quiet, while others are just the reverse. The most warlike tribe among them is undoubtedly the Carib, of which Raleigh wrote that they were a naked people, but as valiant as any under the sky.
The Caribs were at that time the most important of the Guianan tribes, having earned their prominence by their weapons. If they quarrelled with another tribe, they were accustomed to make an expedition into the enemy’s land by night, surround in succession their scattered villages, kill all the men, and take the women and children prisoners. Some of these captives were employed as slaves among themselves, and by degrees became incorporated with the tribe of their captors, while others were reserved for sale. They did not, however, restrict themselves to this kind of secret expedition, but openly made war with other tribes, and boasted that they would paddle their canoes against the stream, so that the enemy might hear them coming and not be taken by surprise.
There seems to be little doubt that the Caribs were at one time cannibals, though at the present day there is great difficulty in getting them to acknowledge the fact. The former cannibalism of these tribes was easily continued by some discoveries which were made in a large mound situated on a sand reef, some ten or twelve miles from the sea.
Thinking that this mound might be a kitchen midden similar to those which are found in many parts of the Old World, Mr. Brett instituted a search, and found that, like these mounds, the heap consisted chiefly of shells, mostly those of mussels and periwinkles, together with the claws and shells of crabs, and some bones of fishes and land vertebrates. At no very great depth from the surface, the excavators came upon a vast quantity of human bones, the skulls shattered to pieces, and the bones of the arms and legs split longitudinally.
To an experienced eye this state of the bones told its own story. The bones were not laid regularly, as they would have been if they had been the remains of bodies regularly interred, but were tossed about in confusion, the fragments of skulls, vertebrae, and limbs being scattered here and there without the least order. The story which these remains tell is simple enough. They are the bones of human beings who have been eaten by their fellow-men, which, after being cracked for the sake of the marrow, have been flung aside, together with the shells of molluscs and other refuse. That this horrid custom was common to all the tribes at one time seems very probable, but the Caribs are the last to whom cannibalism has been attributed.
Like the Mundurucús, the Caribs had an ordeal consisting in enduring the bites of ants. They had no hereditary chief, though the son of a chief would succeed his father if he were considered to possess sufficient ability and courage. Even in such a case, the candidate for chieftainship had to prove his superiority over his fellows by his capability of bearing privations as well as torture. He was required to show that he was acquainted with all the stratagems of war, that he could endure long fasting, that he was of unflinching courage, and that he could resist even the terrible ordeal of the ants, and not until he had satisfactorily passed through all those trials did the tribe lay their weapons at his feet in token of their submission to him.