70 ARTS AND. CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [BTH. ANN. 38 
of the other stick, held perpendicularly, the friction caused by 
twirling the latter round and round with the palms of their hands 
for a few minutes producing fire. They then light the maroon, which 
is a peculiar species of moss collected by the ants in great quantities 
from the leaves of the behersda tree as material for their nests. The 
Indians rob them of this moss, which serves the purpose of tinder 
(StC, 1, 319). Like the Island Carib, thé Indians of Cayenne made 
an especial use of maho; but they manufactured their fire sticks also 
from the wood of cacao and ruku (PBA, 178). The Makusi em- 
ployed the timber of the Apeiba glabra Aubl., with tinder from the 
débris collected by ants from some JMelastomacee (SR, 11, 96-97). 
The Arawak of the Pomeroon made their apparatus from the fruit 
pedicel of the truli (fig. 2) or of the kokerit, but as the twirler under 
such circumstances was too short for manipulating, it was firmly tied 
to a long pencil. Warrau used (ualtheria uregon Aubl. (IT, 257). 
On the Moruca they manufactured both constituents from the 
Fic. 2.—Fire sticks from pedicel of fruit of truli palm. 
timber of a tree known to them as buri, which I have not been able 
to identify. The Arawak medicine men alone made them out of a 
certain vine. In all three cases the tinder was a pad of raw cotton. 
Another timber put to the same use by the Carib of the Barama 
and Waini, and also by the Warrau, was the trysil or koroballi 
(Pentaclethra). 
2. When, as on a hunting expedition, it becomes necessary to strike 
fire anew, and no matches are available, still other means than those 
just outlined remain at the Indians’ disposal; for example, either 
with flint and steel, or rather with jasper and an old knife (pl. 2 B,C), 
in conjunction with a bit of raw cotton. Specimens are still to be 
seen of a tinder box made of bamboo containing cotton and an 
attached piece of iron file (pl.2 A). Old Arawak from the Essequibo 
have assured me that they can remember the time when their people 
used to catch fire with two ‘“‘stones”’ and cotton (WER, v1, sec. 122), 
but though it is reasonably certain such a practice must have preceded 
the flint and steel stage, I have met with no reference to it throughout 
