ROTH] HUTS AND HOUSES 265 
the runners. In our own colony at Karinamba village (Makusi) near 
Pirara, Rupununi River, Barrington Brown speaks of two of the 
houses with mud walls being built on long posts 10 feet high, with 
floors made of split palm stems (BB, 133); but these would be evi- 
dently similar to what I have observed in certain Makusi houses 
(sec. 801) of the close neighborhood, and, for reasons already stated, 
can not in any sense be regarded as pile or two-story dwellings. 
317. At Inongkong, another Makusi village, at the back of the 
Toka ranges, Rupununi River, I came across what I then thought 
was a most remarkable building (pl. 63 B), on a rectangular ground 
plan, where the ridgepole, supported on two forked main posts, was 
laid across the shorter axis of the building. The eaves of the roof 
‘ projecting in front were supported with poles, and across these sup- 
ports were tied split kokerit leaves. But since that time I have seen 
a few other buildings similarly constructed. There is one at War- 
ramuri Mission, on the Moruca River, which I have been told is the 
lazy man’s way of building, where the wall plate has been dis- 
pensed with, the runner 
takingitsplace. Nodoubt 
in such cross-roof houses 
as these, comparatively 
shorter runners and ridge- 
pole are utilized. 
318. Several plants are 
used for purposes of Fic. 77—Different methods of tying the rods (a) to 
thatch. Their leaves are the rafters (b) prior to thatching. 
attached in various ways to the rods, which are fixed to the rafters 
by at least three different methods (fig. 77). In the more modern 
houses a ridging may be made of four coconut, manicol, etc., leaves 
plaited together after the style of a rain shelter (sec. 296). 
319. Manicaria saccifera Gaertn.: The truli palm of the Creoles 
and Arawak, employed in the Arawak, Warrau, and Carib houses 
of the coast lands. Provided they have been well sundried previ- 
ously to being stored away upon the cross beams of a house, the 
leaves can be kept, according to the weather, for from 9 to 10 months 
or more; but in wet weather they will rot quickly, the ribs becoming 
soft. This is why in wet weather, if the roof is urgently required, 
the truli leaves are put on green, but it is not good practice because 
they shrink more or less and the ties become loose. It is one of the 
best thatching materials available for the Indians and will last for 
from 10 to 14 years, especially when continually subjected to the 
action of smoke. The leaf is folded along its midrib before being 
tied to the runner with a sharply pointed long itiriti strip. Holding 
it more or less horizontally with its front toward you (pl. 64, fig. 1 A), 
bend half the leaf down over the back of its midrib, working from 
60160°—24——_18 
