249 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [BTH, ANN. 38 
cigar from 8 to 10 inches long and an inch in diameter, made of tobac- 
co, pounded and dried, and inclosed in a cylinder made of a large leaf 
spirally twisted. It is placed in a cigar holder about 2 feet long, like a 
great two-pronged fork (pl. 52, A; fig. 66). The bottom of the 
holder is pointed, so that when not in use it can be stuck in the ground 
(ARW, 206, 352). Such cigar holders with contained cigars are 
handed round on occasions of festivity (ARW, 195; KG,1, 282). The 
degree to which the smoking habit prevails varies in different tribes. 
With the Carib both sexes are great smokers, even children at an 
early age commencing to indulge in the custom (ScB, 192). Among 
the Gualaquiza Jiraros. . . great festivities are held when a child is, 
at 3 or 4 years of age, initiated into the art and mysteries of smoking 
(AS, 92). Among the Arekuna, Appun speaks of tobacco being 
smoked in clay-headed pipes with a bamboo stem. The women were 
debarred from smoking (App, 1, 309). The Trio women were never 
seen smoking (GO, 26). Akawai, male and female, make almost 
continual use of tobacco (BR, 276). Among the Ouitoto each takes 
three whiffs and passes the cigar ta his neighbor (Cr, 371). Certainly 
with the old Arawak on the Pomeroon it appears to have been their 
nightly practice to make one or two cigarettes ready for the following 
morning, slipping them, within easy reach, between the scale lines of 
their hammocks. While smoking the spent ashes are licked up (sec. 
285) with the tongue as occasion arises. They may almost be said to 
be consumed. 
284. If tobacco is to be chewed it is mixed with certain ashes or 
salt. The ashes are obtained from a species of fresh-water alga, 
Mourera fluviatilis Aubl., called by the Indians oulin, huya, weya, 
ete., which they gather from the rocks in the falls and rapids of many 
rivers. It is of a pleasant salt taste, and is mixed with fine strips 
of Indian-cured tobacco, and kept in little goobies or gourds with 
a small opening. A stick to use as a fork is placed in the gourd, its 
upper extremity projecting through the stopper, so that the stopper 
acts as cork to the gourd, and as both guard and handle to the fork. 
The mixture of oulin and tobacco, which is moist and agreeable to 
the taste of a user of tobacco, is called kawai. It is kept in the 
mouth, in a very small quantity at a time, and answers the purpose 
of plugs of chewing tobacco. Two falls in the Ireng River, and one 
in the Cotinga River, at about 50 miles distance from Roraima, are 
called Orin-doui or Olin-toueuk, the falls of the ourin or oulin 
(Da, 197). It is to these Orindoui Falls on the Ireng that the Pata- 
mona Indians come for the purpose of collecting this plant (BB, 
281). In the Patamona houses it was very common to see bags of 
leaf, tied round with a string and hung a few feet over the fire. 
