10 METHOD OF PASSING RIVERS 



To convey travellers across the rivers 

 they have a carious contrivance. A lattice 

 work of split bamboos is made, through which 

 the necks of about thirty earthen pots, [each 

 of them capable of containing about a gallon 

 and half] are inserted and fastened,, they are 

 then nearly half filled with sand, and mats are 

 fixed over them . This raft they cal 1 a gurrara 

 which two men with a pole and sometimes 

 with their bare hands and feet conduct across 

 those rapid streams, often carrying on it a Pa- 

 lanquin and ten or twelve Men. Merchandise 

 is also transported in the same manner. Over 

 rivers that are very narrow the raft of pots is 

 pulled from side to side by ropes. The Men 

 who conduct them are excellent swimmers, 

 and to a European who had never seen such 

 people, they would almost appear amphibious. 



It is astonishing how very few accidents oc- 

 cur, particularly when it is considered that 

 were the raft to meet with any hard substance 

 in its passage, to which it is very liable from the 

 number of rocks in the beds of the rivers, and 



