l8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 97 



from the hips to the knees. These two flaps are attached to the body by a strap 

 of the same material fastened around the waist. By another narrower strap, tied 

 around the head, they secure the long black hair, parted in front, floating down 

 to the shoulders. 



According to Habel, the Jicaque had but recently been gathered 

 into permanent settlements through the splendid efforts of a Spanish 

 missionary. He adds that they were improvident, did not cultivate 

 the soil nor raise any large domesticated animals. They had formerly 

 been permitted to sell themselves into practical slavery, but this prac- 

 tice had then been stopped. They traded in sarsaparilla and tobacco. 

 Habel goes on to discuss the physical and other characteristics of the 

 still numerous Paya, who appeared to him to be much darker in pig- 

 mentation than the Jicaque. We have previously indicated that quite 

 primitive groups of Jicaque survive at the present time. 



According to Otis T. Mason (1889), the Lenca of Honduras had 

 an ingenious method of straightening lance shafts. A pole about 

 16 feet long was suspended vertically from the limb of a tree by a 

 lariat attached by half hitches to both ends of the pole. At the lower 

 end, the lariat was attached to a rock weighing around 50 pounds, the 

 shaft being thus held straight while seasoning. He goes on to de- 

 scribe a variant of the musical bow used by the Lenca which was 

 called a " bumbum." This strung bow had a small gourd on the back 

 of the bend which was attached to the bow cord by another string 

 running at right angles. The bow was rested on a half gourd inverted 

 on the ground, which gave added resonance while playing (Mason, 

 1889). Apparently this instrument was not confined to the Lenca, 

 for Habel (1880, p. 31) describes an identical instrument used at 

 about the same time by the Pipil of the Balsam Coast of Salvador. 

 Here it was strung with wire and called the " carimba." The melody 

 was produced by strumming the wires with a stick and cupping the 

 hand over the gourd. Quite possibly this represents a variant of the 

 musical bow, or it may be a historic borrowing from the African 

 marimba so popular in Central America at present. Whether it is 

 primarily of New World or of African origin, we cannot say. 



In June 1936 the junior and senior authors of the present report 

 were grounded by an airplane accident at the town of San Pedro 

 Sula in Honduras. While waiting for a track car, we were enter- 

 tained by a small native boy who, with a short stick, strummed dole- 

 fully on the identical instrument described by Mason. In this case 

 the bow string was of wire and the bow rested on an empty carton 

 instead of a gourd. 



