ROTH] MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 469 
The latter speaks of a deep pit in which bundles of leaves from the 
Maximiliana maripa are laid. These are then covered with a board 
upon which earth is thrown, with the result that a dull resonant 
dancing floor is constructed (GO, 18). The Waiwai and Parikuta 
place a large plank over a hole in the ground. There is a small 
square hole cut into the side of the timber into which the dancers 
will vomit during the drinking and feasting. The planks are hewn 
from the spurs of certain forest trees, and may measure as much as 
6 feet in length and 3 feet in breadth (JO). Attention might be 
drawn here to the sounding board on which “to keep time” at the 
Makuari death ceremony (sec. 846). 
582. Finally, mention must be made of the so-called friction in- 
struments, from which sounds are derived on lines similar to those 
which many a European youngster has amused himself with at the 
dinner table by rubbing his fingers around and around the edges of 
a glass finger bowl. From the Tiquie River there has been described 
and figured such a primitive instrument made from the entire shell 
of a land tortoise upon which, at one opening, some pitch is stuck. 
This is warmed and rubbed over with the hand (KG, 1, 303). But to 
Wallace belongs the credit of being the first to mention these vibrat- 
ing instruments of tortoise and turtle shell (ARW, 351). They are 
also met with among the Wapishana and Makusi (JO), as well as 
among the Oyana and Trio (GOE, pl. vu, fig. 14). Indeed, they are 
common throughout the Guianas. 
