Page:The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893.djvu/414

 SOME SUPERSTITIONS OF SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS.

BY ROGER WELLES, LIEUTENANT, U. S. NAVY.

In the winter of 1891 and '92 it was my good fortune to make quite an extended trip up the Orinoco, from its mouth to San Fernando de Atobapo, thence up one of its large branches the Guaviare for a few miles, thence up the Inisida several hundred miles until I arrived at a small branch called the Caño Chucuto or Cholmoa—the Indian name—which I ascended for about sixty miles to a small settlement of Indians. During this extended trip of twelve or fifteen hundred miles I passed through the lands of many tribes of Indians, as the Caribes, Rio Meta, Piasva, Gruaivos, Puinabos and Piapocos; but I was thrown more intimately with the Guaivos living on the banks of the Rio Vichada, and the Puinabos, living on the banks of the Inisida, and of the folk-lore of these two tribes I shall speak to-day. I shall speak only of what I observed when in the company of these Indians.

Although the Guaivos have their permanent villages on the Rio Vichada, and, I understand, on the banks of the Rio Meta near its source, still they come in families down to the Orinoco to exchange their hammocks, tonqua beans, and rubber with the traders, for calicoes, knives, tobacco, fish-hooks, and articles which Indians usually make use of. It was among such families of this tribe that I was able to gather what I am about to say.

In going from Maiperres to San Fernando de Atobapo, the crew of the canoe was composed of three Guaivos Indians. I noticed, one Indian never ate with the other two, but always alone, and rarely ate the same food. If the two had fish, he would wander off and find an iguana, which he would prepare and cook himself, and eat quite alone; if the others had wild turkey, he would catch himself a fish. And so it always 346