616 
ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH. ANN. 38 
336.—Diagram of a Carib woot-skin from the upper Barama River. 
Fic. 
this, its simplest form, that the wood-skin 
may be met with on the Mazaruni (Aka- 
wai) (pl. 177 A), Rupununi (Makusi) (pl. 
179 A, B) and elsewhere. Carib, Arekuna 
(Br, 267), Patamona, and others, who like- 
wise make it of purpleheart, may strengthen 
the vessel by means of a rod sewn along 
inside the edge of the gunwale (fig. 336). 
In such a craft, which will be kept to shape 
with properly placed fiber-ties and timber- 
spreaders, the seats will be kept in place 
in supports hung from the rod. Wood- 
skins may also be made from mararen 
(SR, u, 472), and on the Demerara (Da, 
211), Cuyuni (BB, 20-21), Corentyn (GO, 
4), Parou, ete., from the simiri. In con- 
nection with the last-mentioned place of 
manufacture, Crévaux says that the bark 
only detaches itself if a fire is lighted 
around it when one commences the removal 
(Cr, 313). The Warrau make their “ bark 
or shell canoes ” from the bark of the bullet 
tree and makaratalli (ScB, 184), while 
on the upper Barama the Carib may 
fashion theirs from baramalli. Let it be 
remembered, however, that unless made of 
purpleheart the wood-skin will in every 
other case curl up in a few weeks’ time 
and prove useless. When a wood-skin 
gets split, Carib will jam into the cracks 
shavings from the inner bark (bast) of the 
mora, which swells up with the water. 
Though the wood-skin is so “crank” 
that the slightest motion, when once seated, 
renders it liable to be upset, Schomburgk 
mentions having frequently seen three men 
and their baggage in one. Their great ad- 
vantage is that, being flat, they can float 
where a common corial of the smallest de- 
scription can not pass (pl. 179 A, B), and so 
light that, in crossing cataracts, one man 
can easily carry his boat on his head. When 
propelled by one man he squats in the mid- 
