250 ARTS AND GRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH, ANN. 28 
attacks of enemy Indians, as well as nocturnal visits of jaguars 
(App, 1, 177, 179). The same traveler mentions a Makusi dwelling 
on the Inamara (Wanamaru) River with a huge incomplete palisad- 
ing 20 feet high around it (App, 1, 368). It may be interesting to 
note that reference is made to a palisade around an Arawak strong- 
hold in the Folk-lore (WER, vr, 383). 
Bancroft is responsible for the statement that, in order to prevent 
reprisals from their interior neighbors, whom they raid for slaves, 
the Akawai arrange that all the avenues to their houses are guarded 
by sharp pieces of hardwood, planted in the earth, and poisoned, ex- 
cept only one obscure winding path, which they use themselves and 
make known to their countrymen by private marks (BA, 268-269). 
So also in Cayenne, on the pathways leading to the cleared spaces, 
the Oyapock River Indians often place pointed hardwood sticks in 
the ground, after the manner of chevaux de frise, to prevent a passage 
(Cr, 169). On the other hand, among the Cayenne Galibi, the sense 
of security which these savages enjoyed was such that nothing was 
closed in. The doors were always open and entrance was free to 
anyone (PBA, 143). 
292. Speaking of the Surinam Indians, Fermin mentions how they 
often changed their place of abode, but is in doubt whether this was 
due to fickleness (inconstance) or by way of precautionary meas- 
ures (FE, 57). Schomburgk has also drawn attention to the unset- 
tled habits of the Indian and his want of attachment to localities 
(ScA, 308). Among others, he gives the case of a Makusi chief- 
tain whom he had left comfortably settled in a substantial house 
at Aunuay, with no thought at the time of leaving his residence and 
rich provision fields at the foot of the Pacaraima Mountains, subse- 
quently felling trees at Berbice and toiling to put but a small spot 
of woodland under cultivation for subsistence (ScA, 305). Hil- 
house has also reported on the migratory habits of the Akawai (HiA, 
31); that it is one of the greatest inconveniences of travel in their 
country; that a populous village one year may be totally deserted 
the next and the inhabitants a thousand miles off (HiA, 34). Among 
the causes for change of residence may be noted trading, and in 
former times fighting expeditions, but very commonly the presence 
of disease or of a death, especially that of a chief, and not infre- 
quently the exhaustion of provision grounds or scarcity of water in 
the immediate neighborhood. It has been stated that the Warrau 
on the Waini had often to leave their settlements owing to a scourge 
of chigoes (SR, 1, 129). On the death of the house master the 
building may cease to be occupied, and thus allowed to go to ruin, 
or it may be burned (e. g., Arawak, Carib). 
293. The banab or temporary shelter is so called from the Arawak 
term tobanna-abu (1. e., leaf with stalk), the materials of which it is 
