(yahuhi aru) came to my attention only recently, and I 
was able to witness the procedure for the first time in the 
summer of 1975. 
In a process that may have taken more than a thousand 
years, the Warao have adapted their life and culture to the 
rather difficult outer world of the Orinoco Delta, situated in 
eastern Venezuela between 8° and 10° north latitude and 
between 59° and 62° west longitude. The Delta is a large 
fan of alluvial deposits occupying 17,000 square kilometers 
and bounded on the south by the Orinoco River proper and 
on the west by the Manamo which branches off the main 
river at Barrancas, where the apex of the Delta is situated. 
Most of this low-lying triangle is a tidal swamp lacking in 
dry ground and stone and extending inland from 50 to 100 
kilometers (Liddle 1928: 20-24). 
Manicaria does not grow throughout this vast area but is 
restricted mainly to regions immediately within the Inter- 
mediate Delta zone behind the Lower Delta, most of which 
is covered by a belt of mangrove. Typical of such environ- 
ments, the soil is almost always inundated, thus providing 
along the perimeter of the swamp the ideal condition for the 
pioneering Rhizophora Mangle. The feature characteristic 
of mangrove forests of growing on the periphery while dying 
at the core is of primary importance to the Warao. The clear- 
ing that results from the decomposing inner parts of the 
mangrove forest is invaded by many kinds of trees important 
to the Indians, among them useful palms such as the Mau- 
ritia, Euterpe, and Manicaria. Thus, within and behind the 
coastal mangrove belt of the Lower and Intermediate Delta 
zones there developed the echonich of a palmetum that has 
amply served the Warao as an abundant food basket and as a 
secure home, 
The average mean temperature of the Delta is 26° C, the 
humidity 60 to 80 percent. The rainy season lasts roughly 
from May to October and the dry season from November to 
April, but rainy days with more or less intensive showers oc- 
cur throughout the year. The annual precipitation ranges 
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