rorH] ANIMAL FOOD 177 
and with this the trigger and bowstring released (WER, 1v). A gun 
fixed somewhat similarly is sometimes substituted for the bow. 
Dance speaks of a trap gun used for water haas on the Berbice 
River, with several long cords attached so as to strike the animal 
walking in the immediate vicinity, no matter the direction in which 
it may be moving (Da, 14). In this latter respect he is probably in 
error, as will be seen in the description given by G. E. Bodkin in his 
“Gun-Trap of the Guiana Indians” (Ti, Sept., 1919). 
161. In the area along the upper Barima River, armadillos, labbas, 
and similar game are caught with a fall-trap. Along both sides 
of the track followed by the animal one builds a fence of vertical 
sticks, the tops of which are about 2 feet from the ground. In front 
and at either extremity of one side of this passageway is fixed a 
forked stave which supports a rod slanted off at its extremity, the 
slanted tip of one rod overlapping that of the other. A long lath 
placed at one end at a very acute angle on the ground rests at the 
other upon the base of each rod, the former being attached by 
bush rope, ete., to each extremity of a comparatively heavy log which 
projects beyond the ends of the alleyway and lies its full length 
along and above it. <A string with a loop is looped over the two 
overlapping extremities of the rods, and passing downward behind 
a crossbar firmly fixed to two of the middle vertical sticks constitut- 
ing the fence, is tied round the trigger below. This trigger is a more 
or less flattened piece of wood with an upper broad base and a lower 
comparatively tapered extremity. The former presses on the cross- 
bar, the latter upon the end of a key pin measuring the width of 
the run, and maintains it by pressure in position up against a ver- 
tical stick on the opposite wall. On the animal passing through the 
trap it knocks against the pin and releases the trigger, with the result 
that the overlapping tips of the rods fly up and the log falls down 
and crushes it. Being built upon the particular track followed by 
the labba, armadillo, etc., the trap is never actually set until some 
time after construction, so that the quarry may become used to it. In 
the meantime the pin is removed and the point of the trigger held 
against a secondary temporary crossbar placed below the fixed one. 
The extremities of the laths only overlap for about half an inch or so, 
an arrangement upon which the whole delicacy of the trap depends. 
Schomburgk mentions certain artificial hedges, 2 or 3 feet high, 
with openings 50 paces apart, in the neighboring forest at Golden 
Hill, Demerara River, for hunting the smaller mammals. At each 
opening is a trap which, when set loose, falls on the animal and 
kills it, but the idea has doubtless been borrowed (by the Arawak) 
from the negroes (SR, m, 499). Such fall-traps are still in use and 
can be met on the Demerara River up from Christianburg, which is 
