Note 399 — Chapter XVIII
Reading edition
This may be a folk-tale of the monkey-people stealing Indian women for their mates. Cf. Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 185; Clifford, Studies in Brown Humanity, p. 243.
But it should not be overlooked that the Boro depile most carefully, while the Andoke medicine-man does not depile at all, and the Andoke are mortal foes of the Boro. The Karahone also are said not to depile, and on this score would be regarded by the Boro as no better than brute beasts. So this story may be a traditional account of the actual rape of a chief’s daughter by a hostile tribe, the Amazonian version of Helen and Troy.