CULTUKE OF PEOPLE OF SOUTHEASTERN PANAMA 37 



zigzag incised band with an instrument shaped from the corrugated 

 outer surface of a mussel shell. 



Calabash spoon, Museum No. 327533 (pi. 1, No. 10), collected by 

 the Marsh-Darien Expedition on the San Bias Coast, embodies on 

 its profusely decorated outer surface a summary of the ornamental 

 work found in part in the other objects described. The designs are 

 ordinarily geometric, but some few realistic animal-form tracings 

 on calabash shell do occur. The means employed in reaching the 

 end desired are always limited to the conventionalized pattern of 

 transversely zigzag incised parallel lines. The inner surface of the 

 shell is never incised and is usually rubbed smooth by use. 



Employment of canes and bamboo.— No historical record exists rel- 

 ative to the time and place of the introduction of Asiatic bamboo 

 into the New World. Bamboo is propagated usually as shoots of 

 young plants rather than as seedlings, so that considerable diffi- 

 culty must have been encountered and great care exercised by the 

 Spanish in transplanting it from the Philippine Islands to Mexico. 

 Bamboo grows to-day in many regions of tropical America alongside 

 the native varieties. Above El Real on the Upper Tuyra River 

 there is much flat and rolling country, which is covered with cane- 

 breaks and low scrub. It is often difficult in such thickets to 

 determine whether the different canes are native or introduced. 



A bamboo receptacle, Museum No. 327519, was collected by the 

 Marsh-Darien Expedition on the San Bias coast. This object is 

 58.7 cm. (23.1 in.) in length and 4.5 cm. (1.8 in.) in diameter. It is 

 made from a section of bamboo stem so cut that a nodal septum 

 serves as the bottom of the container, while immediately in front of 

 the next occurring nodal septum the stem is cut off, leaving an open 

 end or top. Miscellaneous objects are stored or carried by the Tule 

 and other Darien Indians in such containers, even the long macaw 

 tail feathers for the pompons of the feathered headdresses. There 

 is no handle attached nor other indications of any other than an ex- 

 temporaneously improvised method for attaching it to the belt. 

 Such containers are more suitable for storing articles out of harm's 

 way and for keeping them dry than as carrying receptacles. Indian 

 Notes, published by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye 

 Foundation, New York City, issue of October, 1924, (p. 197), illus- 

 trates a similar container made from a bamboo flute. The two finger 

 holes near the closed end have been closed with a gummy substance. 

 In later sections on weapons and musical instruments, further refer- 

 ences will be made to the native use of bamboo, canes, and reeds. 



Beverages. — To the use of cacao, coffee, and chicha, previously 

 mentioned, may be added tea, used to a limited extent by the Tule, 

 the Choco, and Negroes living on the south coast. Plantain juice is 



