172 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH, ANN, 38 
are interchangeable. Thus, among the Makusi, he says he found 
the form of war club which is peculiar to the Maiongkong (SR, 1, 
425). Among the timbers employed for the manufacture of these 
weapons was the ironwood, purpleheart, snakewood, the amara, wa- 
mara or brown ebony, the washiba or bowwood (CC, 52-53), and 
black cinnamon (BE, 14). The clubs are frequently carved with 
fanciful figures (StC, 1, 331), or, rather, they engrave on them various 
very neuen designs, which they fill up ‘with diverse colors (FE, 
55), or they may be decorated with a very fine plaitwork. The handle 
is covered with cotton, wound tightly around it to prevent the hand 
from slipping, and it has also a stout loop of the same material, which 
is placed around the wrist for fear of dropping it when fighting. 
In battle, says Schomburgk, they (Makusi) take only seven poisoned 
maa} 7 
J | 
a b c d ce f g h i 
Fic. 58.—Diagram showing variations in shape of the Guiana club. 
arrows with them. When these have been shot they come to hand-to- 
hand battle with the clubs (SR, 1, 425). 
151. An obsolete spatulate club of thé Caiary and Icana Rivers 
(upper Rio Negro) was that made of a hard red wood, over a meter 
long, the handle decorated with an engraved pattern, and gradually 
passing with a flattened course (fig. 58 @) into the narrow blade with 
rounded edge (KG, m, 133). The wooden swords mentioned by 
Harcourt and Wilson (sec. 116) may have been war clubs of this 
spatulate type. 
152. The paddle-shape club, with pointed proximal extremity and 
a flattened distal one, is of wide geographical distribution, having 
been met among the Arekuna, Wapishana, Makusi, Arawak, Warrau, 
Oyana, Koréa, Umaua, ete.; i. e., practically from Cayenne to the 
Orinoco (pl. 36 B). Some of these weapons were of large size and 
required both hands to wield them (Br, 97). Occasionally (e. g., by 
the Umaua) they were used as canoe benches (KG, mu, 132). These 
