254 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH,. ANN, 38 
(HiC, 237). Schomburgk met with Carib arched houses at Annai vil- 
lage, on the Rupununi (pl. 58 B). So also Melville, for 30 years resi- 
dent on the upper Rupununi, tells me that he has often seen the vaulted 
houses, as described by Hilhouse, built by both Makusi and Wapishana 
Indians alike. They were invariably covered with durubanna 
leaves, very like, if not identical with, the dallibanna of the coast, and 
were similarly strung on long, light laths (sec. 321). None of the 
other palm leaves would be suitable for this kind of house, as their 
weight would be too much for the frame. Once on the laths they 
were attached to the frame from below up in horizontal rows, to form 
a neat waterproof and exceedingly hght combined wall and roof. 
Fic. 70.—Frame of permanent house, lean-to type. It has been built up against two 
saplings (a, b). 
These houses would also be always built in the forest, as such light 
leaves would be blown up by the strong winds over the open country. 
On an island in the Essequibo opposite Maccari Mountain there were 
once five houses, all of this kind; the largest of them was quite 30 feet 
wide and 30 feet high at the apex, and certainly 40 feet long (MEL). 
In our own colony they are still to be seen among the Taruma (JO), 
but otherwise they are very scarce. I noted a Carib one recently on 
the upper Barima (fig. 71), thatched with manicol and dallibanna, 
and the sides closed with pump-wood bark. As these structures are 
fairly common in Surinam (pl. 58 B) and Cayenne (pl. 54) they must 
have been of wide distribution. 
- 300. The circular house, the bell tent, beehive, or hayrick, as it is 
sometimes called, is of extremely wide distribution, and, as I pro- 
pose showing, certain types of it may have intimate structural re- 
lations with some of the rectangular houses. Not only is it seen reg- 
wlarly among Wapishana, Makusi (pl. 59 A, B), Arekuna, and 
