Their skin is redder than the Arawaks', but[261] then their nudity is more complete; inasmuch as, instead of clothing, they paint themselves; arnotto being their red, lana their blue pigment. They pierce the septum of the nose, and wear wood in the holes, like the Eskimo, Loucheux, and others. They paint the face in streaks, and the body variously—sometimes blue on one side, and red on the other. They rub their bodies with carapa oil, to keep off insects; and one of the ingredients of their numerous poisons, is a kind of black ant called muneery.
Their forehead is depressed.
They give nicknames to each other and to strangers, irrespective of rank; and the better their authorities take it the greater their influence.
It is the belief of the Accaways that the spirit of the deceased hovers over the dwelling in which death took place, and that it will not tolerate disturbance. Hence they bury the corpse in the hammock, and under the hut in which it became one. This they burn and desert.
The Carabísi.—Twenty years ago the Carabísi (Carabeese, Carabisce) mustered one thousand fighting men. It would now be difficult to raise one hundred. But the diminution of their numbers and importance began earlier still. Beyond the proper Carabísi area, there are numerous Carabísi names of rivers, islands, and[262] other geographical objects. Hence, their area has decreased.
Omnivorous enough to devour greedily tigers, dogs, rats, frogs, insects, and other sorts of food, unpopular elsewhere, they are distinguished by their ornaments as well. The under-lip is the part which they perforate, and wherein they wear their usual pins; besides which they fasten a large lump of arnotto to the hair of the front of the head.
In ordinary cases the hammock in which the death took place, serves as a coffin, the body is buried, and a funeral procession made once or twice round the grave; but the bodies of persons of importance are watched and washed by the nearest female relations, and when nothing but the skeleton remains, the bones are cleaned, painted, packed in a basket and preserved. When, however, there is a change of habitation they are burned; after which the ashes are collected, and kept.
Here we have interment and cremation in one and the same tribe; a circumstance which should guard us against exaggerating their value as characteristic and distinguishing customs.
Again. The Macusi is closely akin to the Carabísi; yet the Macusi buries his dead in a sitting posture without coffins, and with but few ceremonies. Now the sitting posture is common to[263] the Peruvians, the Oregon Indians, and numerous tribes of Brazil; indeed, Morton considers it to be one of the most remarkable characteristics of the Red Man of America in general.
The Arawak custom is peculiar. When a man of note dies his relations plant a field of cassava; just as the Nicobar Islanders plant a cocoa-nut tree. Then they lament loudly. But when twelve moons are over, and the cassava is ripe, they re-assemble, feast, dance, and lash each other cruelly, and severely with whips. The whips are then hung up on the spot where the person died. Six moons later a second meeting takes place—and, this time, the whips are buried.