Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-11-24

came fretful on hearing the cry of night bird and the peaiman, who was present, declared that the bird was the kenaima father calling his child and the child wailing it's answer. The next day under the direction of the peaiman the infant was roasted alive in a large hole which had been dug for the pur- pose and in which fire was built. But the peaiman, deeming that further sac rifice was necessary to propitiate the evil spirit, directed that the mother also be taken and summariIy dealt with.
 Such human sacrifice is an extreme expression of peaiism as 1t prevails to- day among these Indians of British Guiana, and in this particular case the peaiman has been arrested and will be punished by tie British authorities. It is a little difficult to understand clearly the belief in kenaimas or spir its, but it is undoubtedly based prima rily upon the conception that man and beast and bird, the rocks and waters and all vegetable life consist of two separable parts, the body, or visible part, and the spirit. In certain indi viduals the power of voluntarily sep arating the spirit from the body is be- lfeved to be possessed. A kenaima is one who uses this power for the pur- pose of inflicting vengeance. It is be- 1ieved to be the cause of every evil and every death. Other sources of evil are the picture rocks, the stones, tree trunks, monster crabs, eagles, jaguars and other animals and birds, all of which are believed to consist of body and spirit.
 Strange ceremonies are sometimes observed to discover the secret kenai- ma. Richard Schomburg in his book on British Guiana tells of Macusi boy who had died a natural death, but whose relatives endeavored to discover, the quarter to which the kenaima who was supposed to have slain him be- longed. Raising a terrible and monot- onous dirge, they carried the body to an open piece of ground and there formed circle around it, while the father cutting fwom the corpse both the thumbs and little fingers both the great and little toes, and 8 piece of each heel. threw these pieces into 8 new pot which was filled with water. The boiling of the water and the throwing out of the pieces by the agi- tation of the water indicated the direc- 1 tfon where the kenaima would be found. Tn thus looking around to see who did the deed, the Indian thinks it by no means necessary to fix on any one who has been with or near the in- ] 1ured or dead man. The kenaima is supposed to have done the deed, not necessarily in person, but probably in spirit.
 1 There is also the real kenaima, the one who is bound to avenge the wrong or murder committed against any of his relatives. He follows re1entlessly the object of his vengeance until he has obtained satisfaction.
 The peaiman is credited with the power of separating his spirit from his body and holding. converse with the evil spirits. His art is a peculiar mix ture of ventriloquism and convu1sive rawlings similar to epilepsy, in fact boys afflicted with epilepsy are specially se- lected for training as future peaiman. While in convulsion the spirit is SUD- posed to have separated itself from the ] body. The peaiman then by his art of ventriloquism talks with the kenaimas and drives them away and thus pre- tends to effect cures, or as in the case of the burning of the mother and babe, prescribes some method of appeasing the offended kenaimas