382 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH, ANN. 38 
Guajiva, Chiricoa, and Guama, would seem to have slept on the hard 
ground without any covering except the open air (G, 1, 192). 
459. At the present day hammocks are met with throughout the 
Guianas, and vary not only in material but in technique. The ma- 
terials out of which they are known to have been woven are cotton, 
ite, tucum, yauary (awarra), samee, and kuraua. On the Orinoco, 
the ite-fiber hammocks were known as chinchorro [? the modern 
sensoro of the Warrau (sec. 477) |, nets of the common people as dis- 
tinguished from the hamaca made of cotton, the beds of the mag- 
nates (G, 1, 144; 11,93). Like the cotton, the ite hammock had a very 
wide distribution in the Guianas, and especially in the case of the 
Warrau constituted an important article of trade. At Sao Gabriel, 
on the Rio Negro, Schomburgk describes how the chief employment 
of the women was in the manufacture of hammocks from the mauri- 
tia palm (ScQ, 254). 
The tucum article is much stronger than the ite. A samee or samec 
hammock is mentioned by Bancroft from the Demerara (BA, 95, 
296), 
Silkgrass or kuraua (Bromelia) hammocks were found among the 
Surinam Arawak (StC, 1, 330; WJ, 84) and on the Rio Negro, but 
no details of the technique are available. According to Coudreau 
they would seem to have commanded very high prices, for, while the 
mauritia hammock sold for from $20 to $25 and the tucum for from 
$50 to $70, the kuraua one fetched from $100 to $400 (Cou, m, 220). 
Tt was with the now obsolete huge cotton hammocks of the Corentyn 
Arawak that the Moravians, it is said, made quite a little trade, for 
most of the inhabitants of the lower settlements (the narrative con- 
tinues) sleep in them, as they prefer them to beds. They therefore 
send them now and again down to Surinam and Berbice, where they 
bring a high price—from 9 to 12 joes, which is from 17 to 19 pounds 
sterling (StC, 1, 295). 
460. The cotton hammock of the Arekuna (Taurepang), found 
also among some of their Patamona neighbors, is probably the sim- 
plest of its kind. Two posts are stuck into the ground at a distance 
of 6 or 7 feet apart, with perhaps, but not necessarily, a crosspiece 
tied above to steady them, and the warp rolled horizontally from 
below up in close contiguity, commencing on the left hand, so as to 
form a front and back set of strands (fig. 195). Ear bar (weft) 
formed of two strands, or what is practically the same thing, one 
strand doubled on itself, is put on from above down, like a chain 
twist, each link in the chain inclosing two warps, and finally tied in 
a knot below. I have also seen the weft manufactured from below 
up. Of the two warps so inclosed one is taken from the front set 
and the other from the back set of strands. The first bar is put on 
