112 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [PTH. ANN. 33 
aknot. The length of such a strip will be from 26 to 30 inches. This 
stripping of the tibishiri and its manufacture into twine is essentially 
woman’s work. According to the size of thread required, each strip 
can be used split (by means of the thumb nail), and again split to 
make a very fine twine, or employed whole. According to the method 
of manufacture, the thread, when completed, is known as sarau or 
sensoro (Arawak). 
58. To make the sarau, two strips, held at one extremity between 
the left forefinger and thumb (B), rest upon the naked (right) thigh, 
where, with the flat of the (right) palm, they are rolled along the 
middle third of the thigh, once upward, toward the hip, at the same 
time that the left hand, pulling outward, keeps them stretched. 
During the course of this movement, wherein the pressure is exerted 
principally from the ball of the little finger and corresponding half of 
the palm, it must be remembered that though these may override, 
each strip is rolled separately in a spiral or twist, the direction of 
which may be described (C) as being from right to left (regarding it 
with its axis vertical). Without removing the right hand, so as to 
prevent the strips untwisting, but only shifting the pressure toward 
the outer edge of the palm, both strips are then rolled together along 
the outer third of the thigh, once downward toward the knee (D). 
The result is that the portion intervening between the two hands, 
constituting now the manufactured twine, will of course be found 
twisted from left to right, while the free ends hanging over the thigh 
beyond the right hand will be recognized as having twisted them- 
selves together from right to left (E), the separation and fixation 
of these two opposite spirals taking place at the “lock” (/) where 
the main pressure of the palm edge was exerted.’ The right-to-left 
spiral formed by the free ends, due to the original and separate 
rolling of each component in that direction, is now opened by inserting 
the right forefinger into the lock and pulling outward (F); the left- 
to-right spiral in the piece of completed twine retains its direction 
owing to that of its constituents being both of them in the opposite 
direction. The whole process of rolling up and down is again and 
again repeated until a distance of about 5 or 6 inches from their 
extremities is reached, when a new strip (G, c) is rolled into and with 
the shorter (b) of the two original, this compound one (H, b,c) and the 
single original (a@) being together rolled, in the manner above 
described, into another short length of twine (K) until the ends of two 
strips only (that of the newly introduced and that of the original) 
again remain free; another strip is next rolled in with the now very 
much shorter single original one, and both compound ones twisted 
up again. It is a case of rolling only two at a time. A twine can thus 
be manufactured bit by bit into any length required (WER, 1m). 
1 The reader is requested to observe that, for clearness’ sake, the original twist of each ply, indicated in 
C, isnot shown in E. For the same reason the original twist of each ply in L is not indicated in M. 
