170 



J. HORNELL ON 



of being primitive man's earliest conception of a means to gratify ambition for a life 

 afloat or, more prosaic, to enable him to cross a river in pursuit of his enemy or to 

 steal away in flight. 



But the Tamil sea fisherman has travelled far as a designer since those days, and 

 to-day the fishermen of Madras and Pondicherry have more variations on the type, 

 adapted for different methods of fishing, than can be seen in true boat designs in har- 

 bour at any English or Scots fishing port. 



The general type consists of a variable number of definitely shaped logs of defi- 

 nite relative proportions, tied together raft-wise in a certain order recognised as 



Fig. 14. — Madras catamarams. a, a Periya-niaram from above; b, side view of same ; c, a Chinna- 

 maram; d, stretcher of rowing rail ; e, paddle ; e, section of same ; /, a .stem-piece. 



correct by long-established usage. To these main elements are added a number of 

 accessory pieces in the shape of stem points and sometimes a rowing-rail. 



Catamaran being understood as a raft of logs, the inference is natural that it 

 must be inherently clumsy in its form, broad and more or less formless. This is by 

 no means the case with the Coromandel catamarans which possess very considerable 

 elegance in their proportions and often show quite pretty curve lines. Figures 

 14 and 15 are witness to this. 



The prettiest and best developed form is seen in the large peviya mar am form used 

 in conjunction with, the thuri, edu and painthe valai nets. This consists of four long^ 



