Excerpt from Legends and Myths: Of the Aboriginal Indians of British Guiana

The chief object of the present work has been to preserve, and to give at one view, the more serious traditions - religious, mythological, and historical - of the four aboriginal races who live nearest the shores of Guiana.

A few of these legends appeared in a former work on the Indian tribes. To them are here added the more copious results of systematic research, extending over many years. A metrical form has been adopted, as agreeable to the native style in former days, when their national traditions Were recited with peculiar intonation - chanted, rather than told.

The head-men, mostly sorcerers, who guarded, and from time to time recited them, have, in the vicinity of our missions, nearly all passed away. Many time-honoured legends have expired with them, as the old state of things has yielded to the spread of Christianity.

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