ror] FEATHERS AND FEATHERWORK 123 
you (G), the result being a more or less shallow gap, about half the 
depth of the quill (H, K). Fix a string across two sticks stuck into 
the ground and make a start from the left extremity. Placing the 
cut quill at the back, bend its apex, at the gap, over the top of the 
string, and, fixing it into the hollow at the base of the gap, press it 
firmly into the quill (L). Feather after feather is thus looped over 
and fixed into its own quill, and when a sufficient number has been 
fixed each is finally held in position, both with its adjoining neighbors 
and the top string, by means of four cotton twines. These latter are 
woven over them from left to right in chain-stitch fashion (M) in the 
Fic. 28.—Makusi tippet. Preparation and fixation of large-sized feathers. 
same way as the four-weft bars of the Wapishana, Makusi, etc., 
hammocks (sec. 466). 
80. The ordinary method of fixing smaller-sized feathers on a string 
issomewhat less complicated. Pulling off the fluffy portion at the base 
of the quill, barbs are removed, from both sides of the thicker end 
of the midrib, along a distance sufficient to allow of the latter, from 
off which the quill has been now cut, being looped over the twine 
(fig. 29 A, B, a) upon which itis to bestrung. This twine is stretched 
between two sticks, the freed midrib bent over and tied with a single 
tying string (6), the type of knot appearing to vary with individual 
