[101] The caraipé tree is, according to Spruce and Bentham, one of the Licania genus of the Chrysobalaneae order (Spruce, i. 13).
[102] Spruce, i. 14.
[103] The Cerropia peltata, according to Spix and Martius, p. 259.
[104] Tylor mentions the hammock as one of “the inventions which it seems possible to trace to their original districts,” and states that it has spread from South America and the West Indies “far and wide over the world, carrying with it its Haitian name, hamac” (op. cit. p. 175). It is interesting to note in this connection that a hammock is known as a hamaka among the Yakuna; the Tariana call it hamaka or amaka; and the Yavitero Indians call it aimaiha (Koch-Grünberg, Aruak-Sprachen Nordwestbrasiliens und der angrenzenden Gebiete, p. 65). The Baré Indians call it mi; the Baniwa bidzaha or bisali; the Siusi pieta or piete; the Katapolitani change the t to d and have pieda; the Kurutana call it makaitepa; the Uarekena say soalita (Koch-Grünberg, op. cit.); while the Pioje call hammocks jangre (Simson, p. 268). The Witoto word is kinai and the Boro gwapa.
[105] Hamilton Rice gives the distances between the meshes as the space of thumb to little finger stretch for the Witoto, palm-length for the Karahone, four fingers for the Cubbeo (p. 700). I knew the spacing differed, but never heard that it was a tribal distinction.
[106] The palm employed is, according to Bates, an Astrocaryum (Bates, ii. 209). Wallace and im Thurn mention the Mauritia flexuosa (A. R. Wallace, p. 342; im Thurn, pp. 283, 290), which, according to Spruce, “seems confined to the submaritime region” (Spruce, i. 15). He gives Bromelia karatas, ii. 520. Spix and Martius give the Tucuma palm (Astrocaryum vulgare) and others of the same genus (Spix and Martius, p. 248).
[107] “A species of Desmoncus” (A. R. Wallace, p. 336).
[108] Women make both cassava-squeezers and graters. This may be a coincidence, as I have seen men making the mats for the doorways, usually women’s work.
[109] Guilielmia speciosa.
[110] Spruce, ii. 447.