268 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 177 
The only archeological site far enough down river to equate with 
Wannawantuk is K-30. Its seriated position is perfect for this iden- 
tification, but the description deviates slightly from Roth’s. E-30 
and the site Roth visited are both on the right bank of the Essequibo, 
but the hill at E-80 was only 16 meters above low water level in De- 
cember 1952. It slopes off on all sides as Roth describes, but is steep 
only for the first 5 meters. A photograph in the original published 
version of Roth’s (1925, p. 4) article, however, gives reason to believe 
that the hill he saw may have been much lower than “300 feet.” It 
shows the “staircase” with an Indian climbing it. The incline is not 
steep and measured with a protractor is only 30 degrees to 40 degrees 
at the most. Roth mentions that the runners were laid “zigzag,” 
suggesting use of a switchback arrangement. Under these circum- 
stances 260 rungs would represent an elevation of much less than 300 
feet. Thus, a combination of factors in his own data clearly implies 
that the hill must have been considerably lower than his estimate. 
Since we were not able to extend the survey downriver from E-380, it 
is impossible to determine whether there is another site more in agree- 
ment with Roth’s description, and the correlation must therefore 
remain tentative. However, Roth’s report supports the archeological 
evidence that the latest area of Taruma occupation is the region of 
the Essequibo below the mouth of the Kassikaityu River. 
Another comment in Farabee’s field notes (MS., Notebook A) con- 
firms one of the other archeological inferences. He mentions that 
the people at “Kushar’s Village” have fields “2 hrs. journey away 
where they have shelters but no houses.” ‘This is in accord with the 
identification of certain former clearings as fields with camp sites. 
Another of Farabee’s comments is less clearly substantiated by the 
archeological situation. He states that, “They formerly had single 
houses, now they often have several families in a single house.” Ref- 
use areas of less than 20 meters in diameter are suggestive of com- 
munal houses. Although they are most frequent in the latter half of 
the Phase in such sites as E-15, E-16, E-17, E-18, the trend is not 
wholly consistent. E-19, which is late, is as large as any of the early 
sites, and Farabee describes it as having two communal houses with 
outbuildings. Furthermore, sites with more than one occupation can- 
not be distinctly subdivided into the respective areas occupied on the 
basis of present evidence. The best that can be concluded is that the 
archeological picture, while it does not clearly support Farabee’s 
statement, does not completely rule it out. 
Before the Taruma became extinct as a tribal entity, the Wai Wai 
had already begun to move northward into British Guiana from the 
headwaters of the Mapuera in Brazil. In 1852 Brett reported that 
