316 
On a Bartering Expedition. 
depilated. Just as with the Caribs the objectionable custom of tying 
tight bandages above and below the calves of the little girls immediately 
after birth so as to force the latter to an artificial overgrowth only 
prevails among the women, it was practised here by the Maic-ngkong men 
whose muscles of the upper arm were at the same time swollen to an 
unnatural size by similar ligatures. Instead of the necklaces and 
beaded-strings on the ankles and upper arms the women wore cords 
plaited out of human hair, a material that the men twined round their 
loins like thick waist-belts, to which the apron was attached. The 
thicker such a belt (Matupa) the more surely did it bear witness to the 
courage of the wearer because the hair of fallen enemies is only employed 
in its manufacture. The aprons of the women were made of cotton fringes 
and were generally coloured red. The men’s elegant feather decorations 
consisted for the greatest part of thick head-fillets of the red and yellow 
feathers which the Rhamphnstos erythrorhynchos and /?. vidimus grow 
immediately above the root of the tail. As the Guinaus, Uaupes and 
Pauixanas, as well as the Maiongkongs manufacture their head-dresses 
as well as regular mantles out of these feathers, both species of Rliam- 
pliastklac would soon be exterminated were not an extremely shrewd 
precaution taken to prevent this destruction of their wardrobe supplies. 
To this end they only employ a very small arrow smeared with extremely 
weak poison, with the result that the wound inflicted by such a weapon 
is too insignificant to be mortal, while the low strength of the urari only 
makes the bird lose its senses: it falls down, the feathers required are 
pulled out, and after a short while, it recovers to be perhaps shot and 
robbed again subsequently. Judging from the number of Ceplialopterus 
feathers, particularly the crests and the brilliant metallic breast-tufts, 
this beautiful bird must be present in large numbers in the land of the 
Maiongkongs. 
8S0. The articles which they proposed bartering in George- 
town for axes and knives consisted of hammocks, large balls of fine 
exquisitely-spun cotton, graters, shirts that they call Marima, and 
the most beautiful hunting dogs. ,The articles of dress just mentioned, 
that bad already claimed Alexander von Humboldt’s attention are made 
from the inner bast-sheatli of a tree, probably a palm that they call 
Tururi: every shirt certainly costs one tree its life. After this is felled 
and the outer layer of bast removed, the inner one is pounded until such 
time as it allows of its being easily stripped from the trunk. The thicker 
end of the tree forms the body, the thinner one the sleeves, which are sewn 
on to the former : these are the only seams of the garment. When the 
people saw that we had knives, axes, in short, everything that they wanted, 
and that we were willing buyers of their trade, especially their dogs, 
their friendship was still further cemented — they could now turn straight 
back home without having cause to build corials beforehand on the 
Rupununi and travel in them to Georgetown. After a few days’ stay all 
the party returned happy and contented to Cunucunuma, 
881. The whole of the baggage was now brought to Pirara, and the 
boathands of the military expedition as well as our coloured crew, 
Waikas and War raus, set about getting ready to take the boats back to 
