roTH] HUTS AND HOUSES 267 
on Makusi, Wapishana, Patamona, and Arekuna houses. Their use 
is of very wide distribution. The young leaves, just before they ex- 
pand from the early spikelike form in which they develop, are shaken 
until the leaflets fall apart. These leaflets are then cut off from the 
leafstalks, gathered into small bundles, and laid on as thickly as 
possible, much as straw is used for thatching in the homeland. I 
have seen the Taurepang (Arekuna) make use of them in this man- 
ner (fig. 78 A). The Makusi, Wapishana, and Patamona will em- 
ploy the leaf-entire, but the method of fixing will depend upon 
whether the front or back of the leaf is to be exposed, because it can 
yy Y \A 
A We) 
lic. 79.—Dallibanna palm-leaf thatch. A, Used by itself; B, ML ieee with split 
manicol, turu, ete. (a). 
be used both ways. If the front is to be outside, the leaf is split 
down on either side of the midrib, which, after more or less trimming, 
is just hung over the lath, its own weight and pressure rendering it 
independent of any tying string (C). If the back is to be exposed, 
the leaf is pierced in two places, an itiriti string passed through 
and so tied, one after the other (B). An ite-leaf roof does not last 
long, it being invariably eaten up by insects. 
321. Geonoma baculifera, the “dallibanna” palm, are strung on 
long, straight laths cut from the stem either of the buba or paschitiba 
(iriartea) palm or the manicol. Two such runners are laid on the 
ground, and the leaves, in groups of two or three, bent over the 
upper one and tied with vine rope, itiriti, etc., onto the lower. They 
are bent over the top lath either by their stalks or their own bases. 
