ROTH ] GUMS, WAX, OILS, PIGMENTS 85 
Cuyuni River: By making incisions in the trees (Hevea) the buck- 
women collect* the “milk” in ‘“sugar-loafs’”’ turned out of banana 
leaves, and then with their fingers spread it in thin layers on the 
naked thigh, when it forthwith takes on a horny, sticky consistency. 
They roll this together with the flats of the hands into the shape of a 
ball and envelop it with successive similarly made layers until it 
reaches the size required. The ball becomes blackish on exposure to 
the air and hardens very quickly (App, u, 153). 
I have been unable to identify Harcourt’s gumma Lemnia (HR, 
382-383): Schomburgk speaks of a yellow gum from a Garcinia 
(SR, mu, 414) and a greenish resin from Bisi (ScD, 35). 
24. Beeswax.—A century and a half ago, in Bancroft’s time, this 
was usually formed by the Indians into round balls, weighing about 2 
pounds each. A ball was often bought from the Indians near the 
sea, Where it was plentiful, for a fishhook. This authorsays that the 
Indians had a method of purifying the wax and rendering it of a 
lighter color by melting, straining, and boiling it in water and wood 
ashes (BA, 231). 
25. Vegetable oils and unguents include the following: 
Carapa guianensis Aubl.—The caraba, or crabwood, of the Gui- 
anas, the andiroba of the Amazons. The Roucouyenne of Cayenne 
can preserve the seed for a year by burying it in the ground 
and making veritable silos of it; otherwise it will not keep longer 
than three weeks or a month. The Oyampi of the Oyapock River 
boil the seeds, expose them for several weeks to the air in a 
scooped-out tree trunk, crush them with their feet, and finally let 
them drip on an inclined palm leaf (Cr, 160). This description is 
practically identical with that given from British Guiana: At the 
season when the nuts fall they are gathered and, after being boiled, 
are put aside until they become half rotten. When they are in 
proper condition they are shelled and kneaded into a coarse paste. 
Troughs are prepared of naturally curved tree bark, one end being 
cut to a point. The shape of these troughs is, in fact, exactly that 
of the steel nib of a pen (fig. 5). These, having been filled with 
the nut paste, are fixed in a sunny place, slanting, with the pointed 
end over a vessel: The oil oozes from the paste, runs down the 
trough, and drips from the point into the vessel below (IT, 314). 
A far better and quicker method of extracting the oil is that which 
T have met with.on the Pomeroon, where the nut paste is com- 
pressed in an apparatus very like a miniature cassava squeezer, 
whence the oil trickles down. Crab oil burns very well, but it is 
generally used for anointing the hair and skin and for mixing with 
paint. The Indian women ... make constant use of it. When 
setting out on a journey a gourd filled with crab oil is sure to form 
part of the baggage (ScG, 269-270). When rubbed on their skins 
