Rucuyennes

Rucuyennes, South American Indians, widespread throughout French Guiana, but especially in the Tumuc-Humac Mountains about the headwaters of the Maroni, Paru, and Yary rivers; they call themselves Wayana, a modified form of Guiana, Rucuyenne being the name given them by the surrounding tribes from the red ruou dye with which they paint themselves. The Rucuyennes are a branch of the Carib race, and appear to have formerly been cannibals; they still practise many barbarous customs, such as exposing the youth of both sexes to the sting of ants and wasps as a test of endurance at the age of puberty. The traveller Crevaux asserts that the Rucuyennes are no taller than European girls of twelve, and that at birth they are nearly white, afterwards changing to a bronze or swarthy colour. (Yoyages, Tour du Monde, June, 1879.)