_ ROTH] MARRIAGE, POLYGAMY, DIVORCE, WORK 691 
baskets. At the present time, on the Pomeroon, the majority of the 
baskets are made by men—Arawak, Carib, Akawai, and Warrau— 
but many of them can be, and certainly are on occasion, manufac- 
tured by the women. Schomburgk speaks of the Warrau women, 
and I can confirm him, weaving baskets and mats (SR, 1, 165). So 
again, in Surinam, Fermin is responsible for the statement that it is 
the females who make the baskets out of fine reeds, the pagales 
[pegalls] (FE, 61). Joest mentions the same thing from the Sar- 
ramacca River (WJ, 88-89), while on the Orinoco we have Gumilla 
saying that the chief occupation of the Otomac women is to weave 
mats (esteras), cloaks (mantos), large baskets, ete. (G, 1, 170). On 
the Icana and Caiary-Uaupes, the larger plaited articles, baskets, 
sifters, etc., are made by the men, as a rule, hanging baskets also by 
the women (KG, 11, 224). 
901. Taking now the subject of hammock making in its relation to 
the sexes, it is interesting to note that in the old days on certain of 
the islands it was the Carib women who spun the cotton and the men 
who wove it into hammocks (RO, 507). The present-day cotton 
hammocks of the Pomeroon Carib are certainly woven only by the 
women. While throughout the whole of northwest Brazil rope mak- 
ing and string twisting is exclusively man’s work, a Siusi (Arawak 
stock) girl of the Aiary was seen making a palm-thread hammock. 
Only women use the loom and special weaving apparatus (KG, 1, 
214). With the present-day Arawak, Carib, and Warrau of the 
Pomeroon district all rope, string, and hammock making of any 
material is usually woman’s work, but only some 30 years ago it 
would seem that the men prepared and added the scale lines to the 
hammocks (11, 289). On the other hand, among certain of the Carib 
and Arawak stock, such as the Makusi and Patamona, not only do 
men assist in loom weaving (sec. 466), but in earlier days the men 
of the former tribe might use a loom solely on their own account 
(sec. 473). Men are said to have colored the hammocks otherwise 
made by women (sec. 478). It seems somewhat strange, unless ex- 
plicable perhaps by the belief underlying the couvade (WER, vr, 
sec. 283), that the cotton baby slings should be manufactured mainly 
by men (sec. 483). Schomburgk noted among the Rupununi Makusi 
that the wooden benches (sec. 328) made by men were almost only 
used by women (SR, 1, 359). I have not, however, been able to con- 
firm this statement with the present-day folk. 
902. In matters of domestic service, though usually devolving upon 
the female folk, it was not always the gentler sex who handed around 
the drinks. Thus among the Uaupes River Indians Wallace relates 
that when the caxiri [cassiri] was being abundantly supplied three 
men were constantly employed in carrying it to the guests. They 
