[148] W. Lewis Herndon, Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon (Washington, 1854), pp. 319 sq. The scene was described to Mr. Herndon by a French engineer and architect, M. de Lincourt, who witnessed it at Manduassu, a village on the Tapajos river.  Mr. Herndon adds:  “The Tocandeira ants not only bite, but are also armed with a sting like the wasp; but the pain felt from it is more violent.  I think it equal to that occasioned by the sting of the black scorpion.”  He gives the name of the Indians as Mahues, but I assume that they are the same as the Mauhes described by Spix and Martius.

[149] Francis de Castelnau, Expedition dans les parties centrals de l’Amerique du Sud (Paris, 1850-1851), v. 46.

[150] L’Abbe Durand, “Le Rio Negro du Nord et son bassin,” Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie (Paris), vi.  Serie, iii. (1872) pp. 21 sq. The writer says that the candidate has to keep his arms plunged up to the shoulders in vessels full of ants, “as in a bath of vitriol,” for hours.  He gives the native name of the ant as issauba.

[151] J. Crevaux, Voyages dans l’Amerique du Sud (Paris, 1883), pp. 245-250.

[152] H. Coudreau, Chez nos Indiens:  quatre annees dans la Guyane Francaise (Paris, 1895), p. 228.  For details as to the different modes of administering the marake see ibid. pp. 228-235.

[153] Father Geronimo Boscana, “Chinigchinich,” in Life in California by an American [A.  Robinson] (New York, 1846), pp. 273 sq.

[154] F. Stuhlmann, Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika (Berlin, 1894), p. 506.

[155] As a confirmation of this view it may be pointed out that beating or scourging is inflicted on inanimate objects expressly for the purpose indicated in the text.  Thus the Indians of Costa Rica hold that there are two kinds of ceremonial uncleanness, nya and bu-ku-ru.  Anything that has been connected with a death is nya.  But bu-ku-ru is much more virulent.  It can not only make one sick but kill. “Bu-ku-ru emanates in a variety of ways; arms, utensils, even houses become affected by it after long disuse, and before they can be used again must be purified.  In the case of portable objects left undisturbed for a long time, the custom is to beat them with a stick before touching them.  I have seen a woman take a long walking-stick and beat a basket hanging from the roof of a house by a cord.  On asking what that was for, I was told that the basket contained her treasures, that she would probably want to take something out the next day, and that she was driving off the bu-ku-ru.  A house long unused must be swept, and then the person who is purifying it must take a stick and beat not only the movable objects, but the beds, posts, and in short every accessible part of the interior.  The next day it is fit for occupation.  A place