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This outrage having been brought to the knowledge of the father, he determined upon giving his daughter one more trial, with the result that he succeeded in removing a snake ex parte questa personæ eius {_}.

The woman was imperfectly formed, but a woodpecker, in quest of food, pecked at her body atque genitalia preparavit {_}.

A Warrau man warned his sister not to bathe in a certain neighboring pond at those regular periods when she happened to be unwell (Sect. 188 ). For a long time she obeyed his instructions, but after a time, forgetting all about them, she went to bathe at the forbidden spot and time, and was caught by a large snake, the water-camudi Uamma. By and by she became pregnant. Now it was during the bullet-tree (Mimusops belata) season, when the Indians used to cut down the trees to secure the seed, which are excellent eating, and it was noticed that this same woman, although she took no ax away with her in the morning, invariably returned with a large quantity of the delicious seed in the afternoon. The brother, thereupon becoming suspicious, watched her. Unobserved himself, he followed her next day, saw her approach a huge bullet-tree, and saw the Uamma snake (Sect. 244 ) exeuntem ex corpore femin� {_}, coil around the tree, and make his way up into the topmost branches. There the snake changed into a man, who shook the boughs for the woman, thus causing the seeds to fall to the ground, where she gathered them. Having done this, the Uamma, reverting to his original form, descended the tree, and iterum corpus p. 144 femin� intravit {_}. Thereupon the brother said, "There is something wrong here; this will not do: Soror mea probabiliter serpentem in corpore suo habet {_}." So told his friends who, in company with him, watched his sister the next day, when the same thing took place, Uamma exeuns sub corpore femin� {_}, climbing the tree, changing into human form, shaking the seeds down, and then becoming a snake again. But just as Uamma was about to reach the ground, the watchers rushed up and cut him into thousands of pieces. The woman grieved sorely, but collected all the fragments under a heap of mold and leaves, each piece of which by and by grew into a Carib. Many years passed; the Caribs growing strong and numerous, became a nation. They lived in harmony with the Warraus, so much so that when one tribe caught some game or other dainty, they would send a child with a piece of it over to the Warraus. The latter would then return the compliment and send a child of theirs with food to the Caribs. This lasted a long time, until one day the original mother of the Caribs�a very old woman now�told them to kill the child which the Warraus had sent to them; this was in revenge for the way the Warraus had slain her snake lover years before. As might have been expected, the Warraus on the next occasion slaughtered the Carib child, and thus a blood feud arose between the two nations, the Caribs finally overwhelming the Warraus.

The water-camudi had an Indian woman for a sweetheart. During the day he took the form of a snake; at night, he was "a people" like myself. The couple used to meet at the water side, and hence the girl's parents knew nothing about their being so fond of each other. After she became pregnant, a baby camudi was born. The little one used to appear when she reached the river bank, swim about, and after a time return to its nesting place. Now, as she stayed so long each time at the water side, the old father said to his two sons, "What is the matter with your sister? Why does she take so long to bathe?" Accordingly, the brothers, watching her go down to the stream, videt serpentem parvam exire atque serpentem magnam intrare {_}.

What is more, Yurokon killed the worthless Indian who had thrown her boy into the cassiri, and then asked her children what had become of their mother. "She has gone to the field," they said. "No, she has not; she is hunting after genitalia unius personæ tribus meæ {_}," was the insulting rejoinder

The young maiden soon became a woman, nourished with all the meat that Tiger provided. [Quandocumque menstruavit sanguinem lambavit {_}.] He was still a tiger and, continuing to do what tigers and dogs do [incepit femmam olfacere {_}]. Moreover, his two brothers, being similarly affected, followed his example.

Now the woman in charge was indeed a sly old dame. To every hammock she attached a rattle, and then kept awake all night. If she heard the rattle sounding frequently, she knew that everything was as it should be. But when the rattle remained silent, she would proceed to that particular hammock [atque commonuit marem ut neligeret officium suum {_}]. The men had only to give good cause for the rattles shaking all night.

At last they arrived at the country of the stone adzes, where all the people were really stones,1 and some of these they brought away with them, The party finally reached home again, and the old man warned them [ut abstinerent de copulatione cum uxoribus suis per tantas noctes {_}]. One of the men, however, disobeying the instructions, was punished in a very peculiar fashion by being immovably fixed in [positione copulationis {_}].

One day Tiger met the Tamanoa (Great Ant-eater) in the forest, and chaffed him about his funny mouth and his clumsy toes. "Never mind," said Tamanoa; "even if my mouth is small and my feet are clumsy, I can eat at all events meat quite as well as you, and I am certainly as strong as you." "Oh, no, indeed you are not!" replied Tiger. Thus they went on arguing. At last, Tamanoa said he would like to have a peep into his rival's mouth, and when Tiger opened his jaws wide and showed him his fangs, told him he did not think much of them. This annoyed Tiger, who then wanted to look inside Tamanoa's mouth, and having done so, exclaimed: "What! Do you mean to tell me that you can eat meat? I don't believe you have ever tasted it in your life." "You lie!" replied Tamanoa, "because it was only this very morning that I finished the deer carcass that you had left behind. [Si stercus meum observes {_}], you can see that I ate even more of the meat than you did," It was agreed, therefore [ut ambo defecarent instanter {_}], Tamanoa stipulating that while thus engaged both should keep their eyes tightly closed. This also was agreed to, but while occupied in carrying out the conditions of the wager, Tamanoa surreptitiously opened his eyes and silently exchanged [stercus suum {_}] for that of his adversary, "Open eyes!" shouted Ant-eater, whereupon both turned around to see what had happened. [Felis Tigris animadvertavit stercus suum {_}], and was much puzzled, but, when he went to examine Tamanoas', he had to admit at once that his opponent had indeed eaten meat, and a goodly quantity of it, that very morning. Tiger was still puzzled over [stercore suo {_}], and said that a similar thing had never happened before�very likely he must be sick.

The knife was blunt, however, and the old woman's arm weak, with the result that at first she did hardly more than scratch the skin. But when she tried to make an incision lower down�[videt pulchrum veterem caprum esse, qui titillatus in tanta delicata parte corporis eius {_}], awoke with a surprised start, kicked the old woman to one side, and sprang off into the bush.

Later, when all was still and dark, the younger sister heard extraordinary noises and growling proceeding from their visitor's hammock, [Credens eos copulare {_}], she paid no further attention to them. After a while, however, the clamor was even worse than before, so, blowing up the fire, she went over to Yurokon's hammock, whence she saw blood trickling to the ground. Looking inside, there was her sister lying dead. [Yurokon intravit eam {_}.]

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[Extrahens suum clavem, incepit arcam intrare {_}], but the key{fr: 1/fr} would not fit, the lock{fr: 1/fr} having been tampered with, and he therefore sent her home again.

On learning that she had come to fetch daylight [inseruit clavem in arcam eius et demonstravit quoquo modo opportuisse uti {_}].

359. An exploit next takes place wherein our friend Konehu fools a fellow-traveler over some kokerite seeds (<I>Maximiliana regia</I>). He was sitting on a rock one day eating kokerite nuts. Holding them in close proximity to his crutch, he was breaking them on the hard surface with a stone. While eating the kernels, a traveler passed, and the latter was invited to taste them. He ate with great gusto, and asked Konehu what they were.{fr: 2/fr} "Eheu, edo testiculos meos. Quare nonne edes tuoes," inquit. Itaque hostes, testiculos suos prehens, lapide pulsavit, atque tanto modo se vulneravit ut morietur. {_}