74 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH. ANN. 38 
aid of resin (fig. 3, a); the fixation is independent of the use of thread 
and the celt is without grooves. Barrére’s description above quoted 
(sec. 6) would therefore evidently refer to the sharp and narrow- 
grooved axes (sec. 7, v), in which, as I believe it may be reasonably 
supposed, the method of fixation adopted was somewhat after the 
style sketched in the illustration (fig. 3, ¢), the object of the grooves 
being solely to secure the kuraua twine in position. The nature of the 
wooden handle to which the more blunt and open-grooved ax was 
attached is hard to understand, unless it partook of the Australian 
type (fig. 3, d)—a withe bent double and fixed with gum cement 
and twine; but this is pure conjecture. At the same time it is 
possible that an ax of this extreme type may have been fixed in the 
same way as the stone 
and copper T-shaped Pe- 
ruvian ones. So, also, 
the wooden handle fixed 
midway on the stone celts 
with cutting edges at both 
ends (pl. 3 A, B) is diffi- 
cult to understand; were 
it in the form of a board 
with an oval slit (fig. 3, 
b) as in certain North 
American forms, the grip 
on the celt would certainly 
be tightened when the 
larger end was used, but 
correspondingly loosened 
when the smaller ex- 
tremity was worked. Of 
course such an oval-slit 
2 board would answer the 
purpose admirably with 
that form of celt (pl. 3 I, 
J, K) in which the contour gradually tapers from the cutting edge to 
more or less of a point. The whole subject of fixation, however, re- 
quires much further investigation, for we may be sure that some of 
these celts have been used as adzes and for similar purposes without 
handles. It is also possible that Gumilla may have been mistaken 
about his double-edged axes (sec. 6), which it seems to me could have 
been worked far more profitably and expeditiously by hand. Again, 
itis quite feasible that certain of the highly specialized forms, for 
example, those with a double open groove, may have been used for 
dance or decorative purposes, and even if secured at all may have 
been fixed in a manner quite unknown to us. 
Fic. 3.—Hafting of the celt. Mainly conjectural. 
