574 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH, ANN. 38 
hard polished wood, as the principal symbol of the tushaua or chief 
(ARW, 195). More recently there has been described from the same 
region (Rio Tiquie) an artistically carved chieftain’s staff with 
handle made of a brown heavy wood, and another with a feathered 
decoration (KG, 1, 260, 297). In the olden times of Cayenne there 
was a short pike or serpo, a weapon of distinction carried only by the 
Palicour chiefs (PBA, 167). Crévaux on more than one occasion 
speaks of a special ornament—the diadem of alligator scales—as 
being worn by the Roucouyenne Tamuchi (Cr, 208). The Makusi 
chief, in times of war, was distinguished by more sprightly feather 
ornaments, better weapons, and a special painting of the body (SR, 1, 
322). “In Surinam,” says Stedman, “the chiefs of families sometimes 
wear the skin of a tiger and a silver plate resembling a croissant, 
called by them a caracoly. They also frequently have small oval bits 
of silver in the cartilaginous separation of their noses, and sometimes 
a green or yellow-colored stone” (St, 1, 388). Copper metal plates 
hung from the neck were also insignia of sovereignty on the islands. 
Thus the most important of the Carib Island ornaments are said to 
have been certain large plates (médailles) of thin copper, highly 
polished, without any graving, which have the shape of a crescent 
and are set in some hard and rare wood. They call them caracolis 
in their language. They are of different sizes, because there are some 
of them so small that they fix them to their ears in the form of 
pendants, while others are about the size of the palm of the hand, 
which they carry hung from the neck, from where they bang on the 
chest. They hold these caracolis in high esteem, not only from their 
very nature which, never undergoing rust, shine like gold, but be- 
cause they constitute the rarest and most valued booty which they 
annually bring back from their incursions into the lands of the 
Arawak, their enemies; and also because it is the badge or necklace 
(collier) which distinguishes the captains and their children from the 
common herd (RO, 446). Another author speaks of their obtain- 
ing these caracolis from the Spaniards, the price for one of them being 
a Negro (PBR, 247). Bearing the above description of the orna- 
ment in mind the following passage of Brett’s is rather interesting : 
“T saw Mr. Youd on his arrival at Georgetown after his double ex- 
pulsion from Pirara and Urwa (Curua) Rapids. He was accom- 
panied by a great number of Indians. ... They were mostly Makusi; 
but some were Carib. Among them was Irai, the grandson of their 
great Chief Mahanarva. That young man was distinguished from 
the others, who went in procession to lay their wrongs before the gov- 
ernor, by a large crescent of gold set in a frame of polished wood, 
which he wore on his breast (Br, 64). Schomburgk had also made a 
note of this ornament on the same man (SR, 1, 316). A quartz dec- 
