Palms of British Guiana. 249 
with the fingers at the top detaches the outer skin, 
which is then entirely torn away. This outer skin 
forms the fibre ; the rest is waste. The fibre is boiled, 
dried in the sun, and twisted, on the naked thigh, into 
string. Leaves from the younger plants are preferred 
tor this purpose, those from older examples giving, it is 
said, a fibre wanting in durability. The string is used 
chiefly for making those most necessary of all Indian 
properties, hammocks, and is used for this purpose by the 
Arawaks and Warraus, who, however, make their ham- 
mocks in two different ways. Eleven or twelve full- 
sized leaves yield an amount of fibre sufficient for the 
largest hammock. The string, called tibiseri by the 
Arawaks, is occasionally, but seldom, used for other 
purposes also. 
I have elsewhere pointed out that the preparation of 
string or thread, by thigh-twisting, from the fibre of the 
aeta palm seems to have been the characteristic of the 
Arawaks, Warraus, and possibly of other ' native tribes' 
of Guiana, just as the preparation of string or thread, 
by spinning, from cotton fibre seems to have been 
the characteristic of all the Carib or ( stranger' tribes.* 
As the leaflets, so the leafstalk, which when dried 
is extremely light and buoyant, is turned to a variety 
of uses. It is used by the Warraus, and the few 
creole squatters, toward the mouth of the Orinoco, 
for the shafts of the harpoons with which they 
capture fish and, especially, manatees. The leaf- 
stalks are also placed side by side to form walls and 
partitions in houses, by the Creoles of the colony. The 
* " Among the Indians of British Guiana," London, 1883 p. 287. 
