462 ARTS AND GRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH, ANN. 38 
At one extremity of the stick, about 4 feet long, a circular peg is in- 
serted at right angles, while the twine, firmly attached at the other 
extremity, is wound around it, the turning of the peg, one way or the 
other, increasing or decreasing the tension as may be considered desir- 
able. A bridge is inserted at the peg end, though it may have an- 
other, but much smaller, at the mouth end. To perform with it the 
instrument is held horizontally, somewhat after the manner of a toy 
jew’s-harp, to the left of the performer, its free end clenched between 
the two sets of teeth and supported at a spot about two-thirds of its 
length by the left hand. With a small wooden plectrum, held in the 
right hand, the chord is now twanged in close proximity to the mouth, 
while the sound itself may be modulated not only by the opening and 
the closing of the lips, but also by alterations in the length of vibrated 
Fic. 239.—Musical stringed instruments. A, The aeolian; B, native-made violin; C, the 
tarimba. 
string according as the pressure upon it with the left hand is shifted 
outward or inward. The tarimba may, however, have had an African 
origin, or have been modified by African influences, it being hardly 
distinguishable, except for the bow being straight, from what was 
known to the Negroes of Havana (Cuba) as bamba (A, 1, 376), to 
those of Cayenne as ventan (PBA, 192), and to those of Surinam as 
benta. Stedman describes the last mentioned as a branch bent like a 
bow by means of a slip of dry reed or warrimbo, which cord, when 
held by the teeth, is beaten with a short stick and by being shifted 
backward and forward sounds not unlike a jew’s-harp (St, 1, 287). 
Among the Wapishana, ete., Coudreau mentions the yaté, a kind 
of bow of which the string, tolerably resonant. sets in motion (agite) 
a calabash at one of its extremities (Cou, 1, 312). Concerning this 
instrument Mr. Melville of Dadanawa, Upper Rupununi, writes me 
as follows: “The musical instrument you mention as seen by Cou- 
dreau was quite common among the Atorai when I came here first, 
