448 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH. ANN. 38 
lack of knowledge of physiological truths: They hinder the growth 
of the parts by their compression, while the calf, which is unconfined, 
appears in consequence unnaturally large (Br, 121) ; for the purpose 
of enlarging the muscles of those limbs (BB, 247); they constrict 
them so tightly in order to have, as they say, goodly shaped legs 
(FE, 49); the consequence is that the muscles of the calf swell out 
to a very abnormal degree between these bands, while those parts of 
the leg which are actually constricted remain hardly thicker than the 
actual bone (IT, 192) ; giving their peculiar shape to the calves (WJ, 
82) ; deformity of the calves due to the tight bandaging (AK, 172) ; 
a strange fashion of increasing the size of the calf of the leg by tying 
bandages round the other part when young (ScF, 215); giving the 
calf an unnatural protuberance (ScG, 226) ; bearing comparison with 
the practice of tight lacing (SR, 1, 344); occasions their calves to 
swell to an enormous size by the time they are grown women, and 
gives their limbs a very odd and unnatural appearance (St, 1, 387) ; 
for the purpose of swelling out the calf, which they consider a great 
beauty (ARW, 343); a string of beads or cord is fastened around 
each leg above the ankle and also below the knee to give shape to the 
leg (Da, 250). Martin, who traveled in Surinam, reports that these 
bands are said to ease the load and gait, while others maintain that 
they are a safeguard against elephantiasis (KM, 68). Gumilla has 
recorded from the Orinoco that the men tie on their legs, below the 
knees and above the ankles, four very loose tassels, made up of a 
number of cotton threads. These serve both as ornamentation and as 
a defense against the numerous minute ticks, lice, etc., which infest 
their fields. When such a person stumbles upon a nest of these they 
become entangled in the tassels and so do not succeed in molesting 
the rest of the body (G, 1, 124). 
553. Sandals—When traveling between the Rupununi and Rio 
Branco, Schomburgk was, I believe, the first to report the use of san- 
dals (salza in Makusi) made of the half-sheathing bases of the ite 
(mauritia) leaves, which are better suited for this purpose than those of 
any other palm (pl.158 A). They are fastened ina fashion not much 
different from that of the ancients, and a pair of these sandals lasts at 
least a few days’ journey over these rocky plains (ScT, 25). The 
sandal is cut out of the base of an ite palm leaf stalk to the shape of a 
wide wedge (fig. 233 A), shaved down on its inner surface, and cleaned 
of its cuticle for some two-thirds of its broader extremity on its outer 
surface. This is done after it has been sun dried for two or three days, 
but if in a hurry it may be rendered pliable by warming over a fire. 
The foot is next placed in position, and with the point of a deer-horn 
awl one mark is made in the fork between the big and second toes 
and another immediately below the point of the inner ankle. The foot 
removed (B), holes are drilled at the spots marked, care being taken 
to prevent splitting, as the drilling is not vertical, but at a very acute 
