ROTH] MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 465 
grows to the size of a cashew. It is with the dry empty shells, strung 
together on a network of string and tied below the knees, that the 
Indians in their dances mark time to the music (Da, 331). The 
shells of the caruna nuts [? wild cashew] are separated from the 
kernel and scoured with ashes, etc., to free them from any noxious 
quality, and are then strung on strings and fastened round the ankles 
of the Indian dancers at their festivals (BA, 98). The little bells 
(grelots) are made of the hollowed-out nuts of a fruit called ahouai, 
which they [in Cayenne] fix sufficiently close to one another to make 
a tinkling sound (FE, 89). They may be hung on garters (PBA, 
195), or they may be attached to a staff and thus shaken (PBA, 200), 
as in an illustration given by Crévaux of a Roucouyenne dance (Cr, 
101). 
575. In various areas throughout the Guianas the scintillating 
wing cases of the Buprestis beetle are threaded on cotton and tied to 
the strings hanging from the back of the necklaces—e. g., Wapishana 
and Makusi—or fixed around the ankles, below the knees, etc., of the 
male dancers. They may also be attached around a ring (pl. 169 D) 
and this, in turn, suspended from a back or arm ornament. ‘Such 
wing cases are employed not only as ornaments, but for tintinabula- 
tory purposes with each stamping movement. Women do not adorn 
themselves with these articles as a rule. Of other animal products 
turned to use as bells note should be made of the hoofs of water haas, 
bush hog, and tapir. The Trio and others may employ the beaks of 
the toucan (GOE, pl. 11, fig. 3) for similar purposes. 
576. Hollow cylinders, upward of 3 feet long, made of trumpet 
wood (Cecropia), bamboo, etc., are used for striking the ground to 
keep time for the dancing. Often, if not a bamboo, where the divid- 
ing segment can fulfill a corresponding purpose, a skin is attached 
over the lower end, and very commonly seed shells, etc., strung on 
a cord, are fixed around the upper extremity (pl. 167 B). Ihave seen 
them used by Wapishana, Makusi, Patamona, and Arekuna. Local 
names are warrungga (Arekuna, Makusi), iiwan (Wapishana), ete. 
Brown records witnessing on the Massaruni a performance, where the 
participants were . . . preceded by a sort of drum major, armed with 
a hollow bamboo staff, which he held vertically and beat time 
with on the ground. To this bamboo were attached tassels made 
of seeds, the kernels of which rattled in their casings and the whole 
lot rattled against the hollow bamboo (BB, 69). These dance 
sticks seem to have reached their highest development of workman- 
ship and ornamentation throughout the area drained by the upper 
Rio Negro (KG, 1, 81, 202, 336; 1, 83, 292), where the cylinder is 
not necessarily of the same diameter throughout, and may or may 
not be provided with a distinct handle, through cutting away por- 
