rorH] TRAVEL BY BOATS, RAFTS, ETC. 619 
Humboldt, in describing the rafts of the Guahibos, of the same river. 
has the following: Scarcely 3 feet broad and 12 feet long, they carry 
only two or three Indians, but 15 or 16 of these rafts are fastened to 
each other with stems of the paullinia, dolicos, and other creeping 
plants. It is difficult to conceive how these small craft remain tied 
together in passing the rapids (AVH, nm, 231). Crévaux describes 
and figures a raft (pl. 180 A) from the Oyapock River, Cayenne (Cr, 
169). 
802 A. To insure immunity from shipwreck, drowning, or other 
accidents, certain taboos have to be rigidly respected. The Arawak 
and Warrau will never wash a pot-spoon outside of the traveling boat 
either in river or at sea. Both these tribes, as well as the Carib, like- 
wise have to paraphrase certain words, of which I have published 
several examples elsewhere (WER, vr, secs. 193, 194). Any breach 
of such regulation would offend the spirits of the water and incite 
them to harm the voyager. [Compare the custom of changing 
various names at nighttime in sec. 881.] 
