“But the next year the old man, who well knew what he was doing, paid them another visit, still, as he said, in quest of compensation. On being reminded by the husband that he had already been paid for the woman, he replied, ‘Yes—for the woman; but she has since borne you a child—you must now pay me for that.’ The unwritten law of Caribi usage was decidedly in the old man’s favor, and he received compensation for that child. For each succeeding birth he could, if he chose, reappear, like an unquiet spirit, make a similar demand, and be supported therein by the custom of his nation.”
Sometimes the second wife is purchased while still a child, and brought up together with the family of the first wife, and a prudent chief will thus provide himself with a succession of wives, each attaining marriageable years as her predecessors become too old to suit the taste of their proprietor. Now and then, the first wife successfully resists the introduction of a sharer of her household. In one such case, the first wife, after trying to commit suicide, and being prevented, took a more sensible course. She was an Arawâk, one of three sisters, all living with their respective husbands at one settlement. One day, the husband of the eldest sister, having been on a visit to some friends, brought home another wife, a full-grown young woman. The first wife, after her unavailing attempt at suicide, made an onslaught upon the intruder, aided by her two sisters, whose husbands stood quietly looking on. The end of the business was, that the woman was sent back to her friends, and the first wife was left in the undisturbed rule of her household.
The Arawâks have a curious and praiseworthy regulation concerning marriage. Their tribe is divided into a number of families, each descending in the female line, and being known by its own name. No one is allowed to marry into the family bearing the same name as himself or herself, and this principle is carried out in a rather curious manner.
As the succession falls in the woman’s line, her sons and daughters, and the children of her daughters, bear the same name as herself, but not so the children of her sons, who will take the names of their respective mothers. The Arawâks are very tenacious of this rule, and think an infraction of it to be a great crime.
As is the case with most uncivilized nations, the Guianan mothers think but little of the event which lays a civilized European woman on the bed of sickness for weeks. Mr. Brett saw one Warau woman, only two hours after the birth of her child, tie up her hammock, and carry it, together with her newly born infant, from one house to another. When the child is very young, it is laid in a small hammock, but when it gains a little strength, a rather curious cradle is provided for it.
The body of the cradle is made of the ever-useful itirritti reed, which is split into slips about the tenth of an inch in width, and then woven so as to make a kind of basket, open at one end and down one side. The edges are strengthened by a rod of flexible wood lashed firmly to them, and the cradle is brought into shape by means of a framework consisting of tolerably strong sticks. The opening in front is much narrower than the body of the cradle, so that the child can be easily secured in it. The length of my [specimen], drawn on page 1238, is exactly twenty inches, and width at the back thirteen inches, while that of the opening is only seven inches. This cradle is very strong, very elastic, and very light—three great requisites in such an article. When the mother wishes to carry her child, she only takes a broad plaited belt, the two ends of which are united, passes it over the crossbars at the top of the cradle, and then brings the belt across her forehead.
The parents are very kind to their children, and can seldom bring themselves to chastise them, except in a sudden fit of anger. The natural consequence of this treatment is, that they have scarcely any control over the children, though, when they grow up, the respect shown by sons and daughters to their parents of either sex is worthy of all praise.
Connected with this subject, the Guianan natives have a very singular custom, which, according to our ideas at the present day, entirely reverses the order of things. With us, when a wife expects to be a mother, she often thinks it necessary to abstain from certain articles of food, and from too much exertion. With the Guianan Indians, the wife eats exactly what she chooses, and works as hard as ever, while the husband thinks himself bound to abstain and to rest. For example, the Acawaios and Caribs will not eat the flesh of the agouti, lest the future offspring should be thin and meagre; the haimara fish, lest it should be dim-sighted; or the maroudi, lest it should be still-born, the cry of this bird being held as an omen of death. The reader may remember that a Macoushie excused himself from making wourali by reference to this custom. This custom does not stop with the child’s birth, but extends to several weeks afterward.
As soon as her child is born, the Indian wife washes the baby, rolls it in the cradle hammock, and goes about her business as usual. But the Indian husband is pleased to consider himself very ill, and straightway takes to his hammock, where he is waited upon by the women with the most solicitous attention. In some districts the sick husband has not a very pleasant part to play, being obliged to take nauseous drinks, and to go through a course of very unpleasant medicine. Generally, however, he does nothing but lie in his hammock for a week or two, during which time he is kept amply supplied with the daintiest food, and petted as if he were recovering from a dangerous sickness.
This custom has gradually expired in the vicinity of the mission stations, but it occasionally revives. Mr. Brett mentions an instance where a large influx of strangers reintroduced it into the station. It so happened that a young Christian Indian had become a father, and was violently importuned by his female relatives to take to his hammock according to ancient custom. He resisted for some time, but was so persecuted that he fairly ran away, and went to work at a distance for three weeks, at the expiration of which time he thought he might be considered as convalescent. Strange as this custom may seem to be, it is one which has prevailed through a very considerable portion of the globe, and even in Europe has not been extinct until comparatively late years.