RorH] TWINE, CORDS, AND BANDS 95 
the other varieties and hence is often used as a waist or shoulder 
cord. 
38. Three-yarn cotton scale lines made by Wapishana men and 
women for the hammock are worked on a different principle by 
means of a bow drill 
(fig. 12). Here we 
have three 8-ply cot- 
ton yarns each tied at 
one extremity to a post 
and attached at the 
other (after being 
passed through one of 
the three apertures 
made ina piece of cala- 
bash) to a crosspiece 
inserted at right angles 
into the end of a length 
of arrow reed. The 
perforated calabash 
may be replaced by 
two bits of stick at- 
tached crosswise. Be- 
hind the crosspiece in 
the reed is another cir- 
cular calabash plate, 
the object of which I : 
am doubtful abou t, Fic. 8.—Spinning the cotton—rolling the spindle down the thigh. 
and behind this again Khir J Dellviod) 
is a double turn of a cotton bowstring which can be tightened or 
loosened as required on the bow held beneath with the right hand. 
The tightening or loosening is effected by pressing or relaxing the 
bowstring against the bow with the right palm. The left hand holds 
that portion of the reed wound with the string, but allows a moiety 
of the latter to enter the palm below the thumb and 
the other to emerge from between the middle and 
ring fingers. When the right hand pushes the bow 
forward the left-hand grip is loosened and the right 
grip tightened, so as to allow the arrow to roll with the 
Fic.9-—Bonetipsot DOWstring. When it draws the bow back the left-hand 
Oyana and Trio grip is tightened and the right one loosened, so as to 
aera permit the bowstring to slip. The result of this for- 
ward and backward movement is to roll the arrow reed in one 
direction only, somewhat after the manner of a watchmaker’s 
drill; through the crosspiece this motion is imparted to the three 
yarns, the regularity of their twist being assured by an assistant 
