swamps with their tidewaters and sea breeze. Besides ex- 
plaining the remarkable fertility of the palm, subject not to 
an annual flowering and fruiting season but to continuous 
yield and the swamp habitat of the temiche, the myth also 
offers an explanation for the exceptionally prominent leaf 
scars (yd esoara) that cover the entire stem of the palm. 
Similar explanations are given in Warao mythology for the 
rings of Euterpe and of trees like Calophyllum. Finally, as 
we shall see, different parts of the palm are used as med cue 
against respiratory illnesses. This blissful property of the 
plant may possibly find its explanation in the love of the 
tree-maiden for the nortes that commonly cause such ills. 
Utilization of the Palm 
The leaves. It is well to commence the discussion of the 
cultural significance of Manicaria for the Warao Indians with 
the plant’s most outstanding characteristic, its leaves. The 
“plumes of the sun,” yahuhi, as the Warao call them, are 
the largest entire leaf among palms and the lar gest in the 
plant kingdom. The palm seudied for purposes of this paper 
had seventeen contemporaneous sub-erect leaves with two 
persistent dead leaves hanging down. The informant hap- 
pened to know that the palm was between 30 and 35 years 
old. Along their entire axis, large leaves of the Manicaria 
saccifera measured 5-8 m. long ae 1.5-1.8 m. wide, with 
petioles measuring 1.20-2 m. Spiaaa (1968: 111) reports 
leaves 9 m. in length, and leaves of 10 m. are frequently 
mentioned in the literature. Through exposure to wind, the 
blades of large outer leaves eal to become irregularly 
pinnatisect, but younger inner blades remain undivided. 
It is precisely this latter quality coupled with their size 
that make Manicaria leaves especially suited for house thatch 
wherever the plant grows (PLare LXX). As Im Thurn 
(1967 [1883]: 209) observed, “each gigantic undivided leaf 
of the troolie palm ( Manicaria saccifera) is really a shelter in 
itself; and a few of these laid, without further preparation, 
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