rotH] DEFORMATION, DECORATION, ORNAMENTS, CLOTHES 437 
the two reddish kinds of macaw (pl. 150 B) arranged side by side, 
their bases connected by a string, while another fine thread passes 
across them in a straight line, at a certain distance up their length, 
to keep them parallel to one another and in the same plane. This 
mantle of gaudy feathers, the top of which is as wide as a man’s 
back across the shoulders, is stretched from shoulder, to shoulder, so 
that, the string being brought under the arms and drawn very 
tight, the feathers stand out from the body of the Indian like a 
gigantic ruff. The two collars are more simple; and they differ only 
from each other in that one is made of the feathers of a white heron, 
the other of the black feathers of the powis (pl. 150A). In either 
case, the web of the feather is stripped from the quill, and the long 
pieces of web are made into a fringe which, when hung around the 
neck covers the shoulders and upper part of the chest. The heron’s 
feathers are worn especially by men engaged in running foot races; 
the black when dancing, and sometimes when paddling in canoes 
(IT, 306-307). Barrérespeaks of the Cayenne Indians making a cloth 
to cover themselves with from cotton, but furnishes no particulars of 
manufacture (PBA, 114). So, also, on the Orinoco, Gumilla makes 
mention of the Otomac women weaving mats, cloaks (mantos), etc. 
(G, 1, 170), but no further details are furnished. The articles mis- 
takenly described by Im Thurn as very short mantles of woven cloth, 
with illustration (IT, 200), are really the special kind of apron belt 
(sec. 548) worn by the young Wapishana and Makusi girls at their 
first menstruation. They continue to be manufactured up to the 
present day, and there is a specimen in the Georgetown Museum. 
539. Bark shirts, without sleeves, were first mentioned by Hum- 
boldt when at Esmeralda. ‘“ We saw,” he says, “on the slope of the 
Cerra Duida ‘shirt’ trees 50 feet high. The Indians cut off cylin- 
drical pieces 2 feet in diameter from which they peel the red and 
fibrous bark without making any longitudinal incision. This bark 
affords them a sort of garment which resemble sacks of a very coarse 
texture and without a seam. The upper opening serves for the head, 
and two lateral holes are cut for the arms to pass through. The 
natives wear these shirts of marima in the rainy season” (AVH, 11, 
454). Crévaux saw them worn as chemises by the Mitoua women 
(Cr, 478, 489), and by a male Piapoco Indian (Cr, 503) on the 
Guaviar River (pl.151 A). Both of these are of Arawak stock. There 
is nothing soft about the material, and it absolutely refuses to mold 
itself to the shape of the body. The bark from which it is made is 
employed as cigarette paper by the Roucouyenne, who call it taouari 
(Cr, 478). Schomburgk had previously noted these articles among 
the Maiongkong, who made them of the inner bark of a tree, prob- 
ably a palm, which they call tururi. Each shirt costs a tree its life. 
