roTH] BASKETRY AND PLAIT WORK 143 
the farine. More farine is poured in and the processes are continued 
until the basket is full. A covering of leaves is then added and tied 
down. In this way the contents of the basket are entirely guarded 
against all damp (IT, 282). Again, each pegall (sec. 433) basket and 
lid may be made double and itiriti leaves inserted between the two 
layers of each to render them waterproof. This is the case in the Pom- 
eroon area, though in Surinam the leaves of the truli were said to be 
employed (St, 1, 397; WJ, 90). But whatever the kind of leaf so 
inserted the resultant effect would help to explain the statement of 
St. Clair, as well as of others, that the strands were “ put together 
in so close a manner that they will hold water” (StC, 1, 337). In the 
first description of the Amazons that has come down to us by Acuiia 
mention is made of liquors being kept . . . in baskets made of rushes, 
which they cover within and without with a sort of pitch, so that they 
do not leak in the least (AC, 59). Traces of such a practice are still 
to be found in the quivers for poison arrows of many of the Guiana 
tribes and in the basket trumpets of the Rios Igana and Aiary (KG, 
1, 198). 
