160 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH. ANN. 33 
four different patterns—the diamond, claw, bar, and spiral (see. 83). 
The first is a Moruca Arawak pattern, the akuledahu, so called after 
its resemblance to the “hook” used for catching alligators. The 
claw is also an Arawak pattern. They speakof it asthe baridi-6bada, 
or chicken-hawk claw. Carib, Akawai, Makusi, Wapishana, and 
Warrau employ the third type, fixing the feathers with two or three 
ties or bars. This method is not considered so good as the others, 
but takes a shorter time to elaborate, and, hence, for this reason only, 
may be occasionally adopted by the Arawak. The spiral is the 
quickest but laziest pattern to follow. The actual feathers em- 
ployed for feathering are from the wing and tail of the powis and 
marudi. The Wapishana and Makusi may, in addition, use those 
of the carrion crow, harpy eagle, ete. On the Uaupes River and its 
tributaries, says Wallace, the lighter arrows are made for shooting 
birds and other small game, and these alone are feathered at the base. 
The feathers generally used are from the wings of the macaw, and 
in putting them on the Indian shows his knowledge of the principle 
which is applied in the spirally grooved rifle barrel. Three feathers 
are used, and they are all secured spirally, so as to form a little screw 
on the base of the arrow, the effect of which, of course, must be that 
the arrow revolves rapidly in its onward progress, and this no doubt 
tends to keep it in a direct course (ARW, 338-839). 
133. The nock, tissa (Ara.), imota (Mak.), idikep (Wap., but- 
tock), ete., is made of any hard kind of wood cut to a length much 
longer than will be ultimately required. After being cut into a grad- 
ually tapering point it is inserted into the arrow shaft as already de- 
scribed. A natural form of forked nock is met with in the poison 
arrows of the Guariua of the Yapura (KG, m1, 316). 
134. For descriptive purposes it will be found convenient to 
classify the arrows by the nature of their heads, according as they are 
made of one (simple) or more (composite) pieces. The former class 
comprises pencil and jagged groups; the latter includes fixed and 
detachable (harpoon) divisions. The fixed division embraces pencil, 
lanceolate, knobbed, and barbed varieties. These may be classified as 
follows: 
Head simple: Pencil (sec. 134), jagged (sec. 135). 
Head composite and fixed: Pencil (sec. 136), lanceolate (sec. 137), 
knobbed (sec. 138), barbed (sees. 139, 140, 141). 
Head composite and detachable: Harpoon arrows (secs. 142, 143, 
144). 
Among examples of the simple pencil group are certain poison 
arrows of the Siusi (Arawak stock) of the Aiary River (fig. 49 A), 
where the head is made of a single piece of some hard, black 
palm wood and forms about one-fifth of the implement, which 
