690 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH, ANN. 38 
Coudreau has said of the Indians at the head of the upper Rio 
Branco that there is hardly any division of labor between the men and 
the women, because these also, and even often enough, shoot game 
and fish with bow and arrow (Cou, 1, 398). Paradoxical as this 
may seem, both these statements are true in a sense, because, taking 
the Guianas throughout, it is very difficult to state what particular 
operations, practices, or duties are absolutely restricted to one or the 
other sex. Indeed, after a very careful survey of the whole question, 
it may be stated that with comparatively few exceptions there is 
hardly an art, trade, technic, or service that in its entirety can be 
claimed to be dependent absolutely upon the labor of one or other 
sex. Among such exceptions would be boat building, house con- 
struction, the manufacture and employment of fighting and hunting 
implements, etc., more or less the prerogative of the males, with 
field work, food preparation, beadwork, and pottery distinctive of the 
female. Even here the distinctiveness has sometimes to be qualified. 
Although I have never seen, heard, or read of a dugout or wood skin 
made by a woman, she will collect the spent ite-leaf bundles when 
the vessel is to be fired (sec. 793), or may take a share in the deco- 
ration of the paddle (sec. 799). Among the Carib Islanders the 
men built the houses, the women constructed the roofs (sec. 327). 
Makusi women execute the paintings on the hut walls, paddles, 
corials, and weapons (sec. 325). On the Upper Rio Branco women 
will shoot game and fish with bow and arrow (Cou, um, 398). On 
the Pomeroon they can poison fish equally as well as the sterner sex. 
If field work is to be done, the men have to fell all the larger timber 
before the women can begin. Hilhouse even speaks of a male Akawai 
helping with the planting (HiC, 235). As to carrying and cutting 
up of the food, custom differs widely (sec. 272). The husband may 
build the barbecue, but his wife will keep watch throughout the night 
lest the dogs should steal the meat that is being smoke-dried. It is 
true he makes the sugar mill, but she has all the hard work of press- 
ing the cane therein. On the other hand, she alone will make all the 
drinks, the starch, flour, and the cassava. Occasionally it will be the 
men who drill, thread, and wear beads. 
900. No hard and fast rule can be laid down as to the manufacture 
of basketry in its relation to the sexes. An article, e. g., the pegall, 
which is certainly only made by men in one district, say the Pome- 
roon, is just as surely made by women, even of the same tribe, in 
another. On the other hand there are undoubtedly cases where, 
owing to difficulties in design, in obtaining the necessary materials, 
in the limitations to which it may be applied, the making of a par- 
ticular article may be restricted to the male worker. As far as 
possible, I have noted these in the chapter on mats, trays, and 
