436 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [BTH, ANN. 38 
Similar silver plates of European manufacture, or made by them- 
selves by hammering silver coin, are beginning to be worn by Are- 
kuna, Patamona, and a few Makusi. I have seen a young Wapishana 
woman with them. It would seem that these or identical but smaller 
plates can be worn at pleasure either as nose or ear pendants (secs. 
505, 506). The presence of reptilian shoulder blades alongside these 
triangular plates is remarkable (pl. 147 C) as possible examples of 
adaptation of a natural form. Metal chest plates, caracolis, 
ete., were worn in earlier times as emblems or insignia of sover- 
eignty and authority (sec. 751). In similarly distinctive fashion 
with the medicine men a charm of some description was worn on the 
chest, suspended by a cord hung around the neck. It might take on 
various forms; e. g., a crystal set in the cavity of an alligator tooth, 
an oval piece of resin incised with a frog (WER, v1, secs. 291, 292), 
even a figurine, either of stone (pl. 148 A, B) or shell (pl. 148 C, D). 
Attention has been drawn to the toucan, cock-of-the-rock, and 
other gaudily colored birdskins, etc., attached either direct or upon 
special frames, to the cotton strings hanging down behind from 
the back of the man’s feather headdress (sec. 519) or tooth necklace, 
etc. (sec. 531). In addition to or instead of skins, the back orna- 
ments may consist of cotton tassels or “ pompons,” a palm leaf 
“sugar loaf” (GOK, pl. rv, fig. 2), iridescent beetles’ wings (sees. 
527, 575), ete. The wearing of the brightly colored skins would seem 
to be a prerogative of the men. Patamona women wear various 
cotton or deer-tail tassels hanging from the necklace down their 
backs, while Makusi females in the same situation have black curly 
powis feathers attached to their cotton-covered itiriti-strand head- 
rings (sec. 530). 
De Goeje has described a curious wooden and feather back orna- 
ment from the Ojana (GO, 7; GOE, pl. a, 1v, x). Somewhat similar 
articles come from the Waiwai (JO). 
538. Ruffs, tippets, etc., are peculiar to the male sex, and when 
made of feathers have been described as feather cloaks, collars, or 
mantles. They have been met with among the Akawai (SR, 1, 205), 
Makusi, to whom they were known as warara-raucui (SR, 1, 424), 
Maiongkong, Guinau, Uaupes River Indians, Pauixiana (SR, 1, 403), 
and possibly, owing to their having been collected on the Demerara 
River (CC, 47),among the Arawak. St. Clair mentions a cloak made of 
the brightest feathers worn by an Arawak chief on the Corentyn (StC, 
1, 305). They are also met with in Cayenne (Cr, 117), worn by the 
medicine man (pl. 149 A). The feathers employed were those of the 
Rhamphastos erythrorhynchos and vitellinus (SR, 1, 403),the white 
heron (Ardea), and the curassow or powis (Cvaxv). Im Thurn says 
that these feather shoulder ruffs and collars are of three kinds. One 
consists of a closely placed row of tail feathers of one or other of 
