rovH] HUTS AND HOUSES 255 
Patamona, but occasionally among Arawak, Akawai, and Roucou- 
yenne. At an Arawak village on the Corentyn River St. Clair ob- 
served that the chief’s hut was unlike that of the others, it being 
of the shape of a beehive, and beautifully thatched down to the 
ground with the leaves of the manicol palm. Its entrance was by 
a small, low door (StC, 1, 304). There is Hilhouse’s and other au- 
thority for the statement that the Akawai built both square and cir- 
cular houses (HiC, 237): these are called weemuh (BCL, 145). Up 
to within five years ago there was an Akawai circular house on the 
little Winiperu, a branch of the Demerara River. The Roucouyenne, 
beyond the Tumuc-Humac Mountains, have two houses—one for day, 
the other for night use. The latter, distant from the settlement, is 
made in the shape of a hayrick and closed with a woven palm-leaf 
door for protection from mosquitoes, and smoked fires are kept in it 
(Cr. 100). Unfortunately, I have had no opportunity of examining 
bE : ni 
me Lf 
al 
\\ 
Fic. 71.—Frame of permanent house, arched type. Carib, Upper Barima River. a, Main 
post; b, side framing posts; c, runner; c’, wall plate; f, rafter; k, tiebeam; m, ridge- 
pole. 
on the spot, or on a good plan, the order of structure of the Oyana 
(Roucouyenne) circular hut (GOE, pl. rx, fig. 1), which certainly 
differs from the typical Makusi one. 
301. The typical circular house met with in the country of the 
Wapishana, Makusi, Patamona, Arekuna (Taurepang), etc., is built 
as follows: The main (central) post (a) is first inserted (pl. 56 A), 
and a long wooden pole is used to measure from it the exact spots 
where the side framing-posts (6b) are to be placed. These are fixed 
at equal distances from the center post and from one another. The 
circular wall plate (c) of wattle, vine rope, etc., is now made on the 
ground, and, raised to the tops of the side framing posts, notched on 
their outsides to receive it, is tied there with vine rope (B). This is 
next supported by an extra and thinner intermediate post (dd), sit- 
uated halfway between each framing post, except in front (and back), 
