384 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH. ANN. 38 
crossbar. Once the threads have been prepared, etc., the weaving of 
such a hammock can be completed in a day. The material of the bars 
(weft) is usually the same as that of the warp, but occasionally, 
with a view to increasing the durability of the article, they may be 
made of kuraua twine (KG, 1, 210-211). 
462. In the next variety of hammock, also of cotton, met with 
among Arawak, Carib, Akawai, Patamona, Makusi, Wapishana, etc., 
and thus of wide distribution, there is a similar arrangement of hori- 
zontal warp with vertical weft, on two posts, and the ‘insertion of a 
lath or withe to separate the front and back set of strands. The 
difference, however, lies in the double number (four) of weft strands 
in each bar, and in the manner of weaving them. This is effected as 
follows: Knotting the 
four strands together at 
their extremities, pass 
two in front of the two 
top warps and the other 
two behind, taking the 
precaution not only that 
one warp is from the 
front set and the other 
from the back set, but 
that the two posterior 
wefts, as they emerge 
from below, pass to the 
outer sides of the two 
anterior ones. Now slip 
Fic. 196.—Hammock making. Frame of two vertical the anterior wefts behind 
posts; warp horizontal, weft vertical; each bar ; 
(weft) of four threads. Two warps taken up at the next pair of warps 
avtlme: (one from the back and 
one from the front set), and the posterior ones in front of them, simi- 
larly arranging that the latter pass to the outer sides. The diagram 
(fig. 196) will help to make this description clearer. The process is 
thus repeated until the last pair of warps is reached, the bar com- 
pleted, and the four strands knotted. The first bar, instead of being 
woven toward the left-hand side of the frame, as in the simpler Are- 
kuna type, may be made at the center and the remaining bars worked 
to the right of it. When the right half of the hammock is thus com- 
pleted, the remaining bars are started from the left of the central one, 
and so worked outward to the side. Furthermore, instead of weav- 
ing the bars from above down, they may be made from below up—a 
method which the Indian women tell me is somewhat quicker. 
463. The “sarau” hammock of the Warrau, their so-called “ bar” 
hammock of the Pomeroon district, is manufactured on the same 
