412 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
rafters meeting in the apex and fastened on a 
central pillar. One of these was 24 feet in dia- 
meter by 1 5 feet high. 
Tussari's house consisted of two large rooms 
and two smaller. I slung my hammock in one of 
the former. The utensils were similar to those of 
other Indian houses, with the addition of low stools 
cut out of a single piece of wood, rudely imitating 
an armadillo, but much clumsier 
and heavier than the stools of 
the Uaupes. 
On the large trochas (stages 
or shelves) there were also 
evidences of the industry of 
those I ndians in several mapires 
of mandiocca, masses of circular 
shallow baskets, and a sort of 
^ reticule much used in this 
Fig. 37.— Ramon tussari, reo^ion for carryingf tinder-box, 
Chief of the Maquiritari P . ^ . ^ . 
Indians on the River cunu- tobacco, and Other mdispens- 
cunuma 
(Orinoco) (about ables. Suspended from the 
50 years old). ^^^^ Were quantities of camazas 
and taparos ; also a few gravatanas (blowing-tubes), 
paxiilba outside, bamboo inside, the latter brought 
from the head of the Guapo about the base of 
Marayuaca. 
Tussari is a remarkable man, and his wife is, 
for an Indian, a still more remarkable woman. 
She and her daughters manufacture mandiocca, 
guapos, etc., and she understands the selling of 
them quite as well as Tussari, who makes no bar- 
gain without consulting her, and takes her with 
him to San Fernando and elsewhere when he goes 
trading. 
