ROTH | DEFORMATION, DECORATION, ORNAMENTS, CLOTHES 449 
angle. Two more holes are next drilled (similarly at a very acute 
angle) just anterior to the front one, and yet another hole is drilled at 
a spot opposite that corresponding with the inner ankle. This method 
of drilling a hole right through the sole is only practiced when 
the material happens naturally to be, or has been shaved down, too 
thin. Otherwise no holes or strings appear on the undersurface, the 
two holes in front being joined with the original one by means of the 
channel drilled within the actual substance of the sole, the two lateral 
holes opening into the sides. <A long ite-fiber string (C) is now passed 
through the two anterior ones from the upper surface up to about its 
middle, its ends (a) next brought back again to the front through the 
originally pierced hole and finally looped, one through the other; 1. e., 
the one is passed between the two component strands of the other. The 
ends of the string are next inserted through the two posterior holes 
c B D 
Fic. 288.—Manutacture of the ite sandal. 
‘ 
and looped upon themselves. The foot is now again placed in position, 
the crossed strings (ab) loosened or tightened, as the case may be, to 
fit over the front in the interspace between the big and second toes and 
fixed in position as required by means of the side loops. Once fitted, 
the two ends are passed backward and forward over the heel (D) onto 
themselves and finally tied at the side loops. The anterior margin of 
the “sole” is at last rounded off into shape. I found the Makusi 
speaking of these sandals as pisassa (? Spanish pisar, pisada), and the 
Wapishana as darket, the latter very likely a corruption of sarpat 
(Spanish, zapato), the term applied by most of the neighboring tribes. 
Appun reports that sandals are now and again manufactured by 
savanna Indians from the thick fresh hide of the maipuri, which 
of course last much longer than those made from ite (App, 1, 228). 
Penard confirms this from the mountain regions of Surinam, where 
the Indians make, or made, sandals (mokalia) of tapir-leather or ite- 
palm leaf-stalk fastened over the ankles with bands (PEN, 1, 96). 
