286 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH, ANN. 38 
the canoe (sec. 344). It is next hung up by the collar (fig. 86) 
onto a suitable projecting beam («), while a strong pole (0), passed 
through the ankle ring, is tucked under a fork made by tying a 
strong stick (¢) at an acute angle to a house post (d). The pole acts 
as a lever, the fork as the fulcrum. By the woman throwing her 
whole weight, usually sitting, on the free end of the pole the matapi 
is extended, its diameter consequently diminished, the contents 
squeezed, and the poisonous juice, which is expressed through the 
interstices of the plait, 
allowed to run down and 
drip into a vessel placed 
beneath to collect it. 
A miniature form of 
matapi is employed for ex- 
tracting the oil from the 
crab-wood nut paste and 
from the kokerit seed (sec. 
25). In Surinam it was 
similarly used for obtain- 
ing oil from the awarra 
palm (AK, 281). 
356, Cassava sifter.—Re- 
moved from the matapi, 
and subsequently dried and 
pounded, the cassava is 
next passed through a 
sifter, the manari of the 
Arawak and Wapishana. 
Arawak and Warrau make 
two varieties of sifter— 
one for their own personal 
use, another for sale and 
Ae : barter—the difference lying 
Fic. 86.—Method of using the cassava squeezer. . . . 
in the manner in which the 
edging is completed, the process of manufacture of the main body 
being otherwise identical. Itiriti strands are the ones employed 
(pl. 70 A),one set of three (m) being plaited into another set of 
three (n) placed at right angles to form a foundation upon which 
the resulting square body, about 18 inches in diameter, is plaited. 
As will be recognized from the illustration, the manner in which 
the two commencing treble sets are arranged allows for the com- 
paratively large interspaces between the other strands as they are 
successively inserted. The plaiting of these consists in one strand 
alternately passing over and under two others. Along all four edges 
of the completed square the free ends of the strands project about 
