so as to overlap like tiles, make a most perfect roof. Indeed, 
before corrugated zinc was introduced for the purpose, a 
large trade was carried on between the Indians and the 
planters on the coast in these troolie-leaves, with which most 
of the buildings on the sugar estates were thatched.” 
For weather protection, the Warao implant single leaves 
or a whole line of them into the soft ground near their work- 
ing areas. They also cover their heads with leaf segments 
when traveling on foot or by boat, calling these makeshift 
umbrellas aroko a kuasimara, leaf capes. 
To thatch their houses, the Indians fold the leaves in half 
along the rachis and lash them in overlapping fashion, each 
rib 25 cm. from the next, vertically onto the infra-structure 
of the roof, “so that each frond forms a long tile reaching 
from ridge to eaves” (Spruce 1908, 1: 59) (PLarE LXXI1). 
The house of my main informant had been covered in this 
way in 1969 and did not begin to leak until 1975, testimony 
of the durability of temiche thatch. To keep the rain from 
drifting in with the sea breeze, the Warao install a screen of 
temiche (dara yawihi) on the windward side of their other- 
wise wall-less houses * (PLare LXXII). Sometimes they 
construct a tunnel-like roof over the midsection of their dug- 
out canoes to protect themselves from the weather during 
long journeys. 
An ingenious naval invention is making sails (yawihi 
wera) from large Manicaria leaves. On the open windswept 
canos of the Delta, Warao canoes go by at high speed under 
full sail. Two or three crew members each hold up a 
Manicaria leaf for sails, bracing it at the bottom against the 
foot and holding it with one arm (PLATE LXXIII). A helms- 
man keeps the course by means of a paddle held vertically 
as a rudder. I have clocked canoes 6 m. long with two 
paddlers but no sails going 3 kph, their full speed. Canoes 
with temiche “sails” go that fast, or faster, and, of course, 
for a longer period of time. Consequently, in terms of 
primitive navigation, the yawihi wera of the Warao repre- 
sents critical navigational tackle. Despite its Spanish-derived 
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