266 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH. ANN. 38 
base to apex, with the right hand squeezing it bit by bit from left 
to right, in proportion as the left hand drags the midrib from right 
to left. This will produce what is called a right-hand truli. A left- 
hand truli is made in similar fashion, but left and right are reversed, 
the left hand squeezing the midrib from right to left as fast as the 
right hand can drag it from left to right. Strictly speaking, the 
proper employment of a right or left-hand truli is dependent upon 
the direction of the prevailing wind, with the idea of preventing 
the latter from lifting up and tearing the overlapping edges of 
the leaves. In fixing truli 
for thatch (B) the dou- 
bled leaves are put on in 
pairs, one midrib (that of . 
the under leaf) in ad- 
vance of the other. In 
the actual tying, the 
itiriti strand binds the 
outer midrib to the run- 
ner, although it, of course, 
pierces in transit the 
folded halves of the un- 
der leaf; according as 
the leaves are put on from 
right or left, so will the 
tying proceed, but in 
either case there will re- 
sult an exposure of leaf 
edges on the outer sur- 
face. Now, in building a 
truli side or partition 
wall, this exposure on the 
one surface is obviated by 
each pair of leaves in- 
closing the midribs of an- 
other pair so that each loop of the tying strand fixes four leaves to 
the runner (C). The proper way with each of these pairs is to see 
that one constituent is a right-hand leaf and the other a left-hand 
one, so that the fronts of the midribs are exposed on both wall sur- 
faces. According to the length of leaf employed—and they may be 
from 4 or 5 to 8 feet or more—there will be from two to four 
runners. 
320. Mauritia flexuosa Linn.—The ite palm: Its leaves would seem 
to have been commonly used by the Warrau both on the Orinoco 
(G, 1, 145) and elsewhere (HiB, 327; HiC, 239), though these peo- 
ple certainly employed truli also. Ite leaves are likewise to be seen 
Fic. 78.—Ite palm-leaf thatch. 
