Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1915-08-27
FOund-A Lost Paradise.
(By Garrett p. Serviss.N

on this earth, from which man got
himself excluded by his own greedi.
ness, turns up in n new and extremely
charming form in the stories collected
by DR.. w. c. Farabee, of the Univer.
sity of Pennsylvania, among the Wal
| Wal Indians, whom he found dwelling
in the Tumac-Ilumac range of noun
tains, on the border between Brazil
and the Guianas, and so remote from
civilization that they knew nothing of
white men.
DR.. Farabee believes that these In
| dams are the descendants of the Ca
ribs and Arowaks whom the Spaniards
encountered along the coast 400 years
ago. They are exceedingly simple in
| their ways and tastes, and physically
very handsome representatives of the
human species, almost good enough in
| that regard, according to DR.. Farabees
description, to inhabit Il new Garden
of Eden.
They have no jewelry and no metals,
and wear no more clothes than neces-
sary. But they do make cloaks, aprons,
headdresses, etc, of home-woven cloth,
interviewed with the bright-colored
feathers of gorgeous macaw birds,
which eXcites the admiration of the
civilized visitor by their novelty and
beauty. The women are described as
resembling statues of polished bronze,
of magnificent proportions, while the
men are well made and intelligent
looking.
If, as DR.. Farabee thinks, these Wal
Wal Indians, with the surrounding
tribes, who resemble them in manners
and appearance, represent Il union of
the remains of the ancient Caribs and
Arowa&s, then the peaceable character
of the latter, who, before the coming
of the Spaniards, had been sadly ha-
raised by the warlike Caribs, has pre-
vailed in the blending. There are no
wars among them now. They live on
vegetables, fruit and game, grind cas-
sava with roughly hewed granite boul-
ders and obtain fire with sparks from
stricken stones.
Spring is their mating time, as with
birds, and then they put on their bril-
liant garments, cleaning with the
most exquisite hues of scarlet, yellow
and blue, and dance the "masheka,'
or peanut vine dance" An imitation
of this dance was long ago produced
in Brazil, being picked up from the
Indian tribes and carried down the
Amazon, and this was the origin of
the Maxine" Il dance which came TO
America through Paris. In the place
where it was invented this dance is a
rite of the mating season, as symbol
cal as the bacchic dances of the an
cient Greeks.
Those great mystery stories of uni
versal humanity, the legends of n
Paradise and a Deluge, have been
found again by DR.. Farabee in this al
most inaccessible part of the world
The Paradise story, as told by the
Wai-Wais is in some respects more
pleasing than the Hebrew account
used by Milton in his paradise Lost"
In the beginning, it says, the god Du-
wild, having made men and women,
continued to feed them with his own
hands, bringing them every day album
dance of fruit and vegetables.
In their idleness, the men and wo-
men found nothing more interesting
to do than to watch the other ami
mails. Thus they discovered that these
animals went off somewhere every
morning and returned at night. Led
by curiosity, they followed, and found
a great tree which shed every day
from it's branches both fruit and vege-
tables, on which the animals fed.
Here" they said, "is where Duwid
gets our food. Henceforth let us come
anu UcIp OuTSClNeS. linen we Snail
not have to thank him for it."
| Accordingly, they told Duwid that
he need not take the trouble to bring
them food any longer, for they had
found out where to get it for them
selves.
every WE'LL" said the god, "but here
after you will have TO work for it.
Tomorrow the tree shall be cut down,
but, to save you from starvation,
will give you hint. Break off
branches bearing each kind of fruit
and plant them in the gruond. Water
and tend them carefully and they will
flourish and continue to bear abund-
antly as long as you continue to la
bor."
They began to obey Duwid's instruc-
tons, but, becoming wearied, left of
before they had taken from the tree
more than a small number of the in.
finite variety of fruits that it bore
Fortunately, they got the cassava, but
they have to work hard, not only tC
raise it, but to fit it for eating. The
enormous stump of the great tree they
say, still exists, in the midst of theil
country, in the form of huge, steep
sided rock, rising high above the roo
of the forests.
The Wai-Wais are described as &
very childlike race, but this legent
of theirs is full of adult wisdom anc
keen knowledge of human nature
1t depicts the consequences of idlenes
and too indulgent paternalism fal
. mere pointedly than the story in Gen
esis does, while altogether avoiding
, the unnecessary invention of the ser
Z, pent as a tempter. The absence O
2 sentence is also notable feature.