186 J. HORNEJ.L ON 



The first of these is probably the most primitive form of river craft evolved by 

 prehistoric man. In the form seen alike in Tanjore and in Bengal where plantain 

 (banana) stems are valueless as soon as the fruiting age is passed, it consists of 5 or 6 of 

 these stems roughly trimmed at the ends and fastened together raftwise by a skewer 

 of wood or thin stake passed through the series from side to side at each end. Banana 

 leaf-stalks, whereof these "stems" are really made up, are full of tiny cubical air 

 spaces and these give quite a considerable flotation value to the structure. It is the 

 expedient of the moment — the simplest form of raft that will serve an emergency — a 

 thing to be cast aside almost as soon as used. 



The chatty-raft, while equally primitive, is still more ingenious. As seen at 

 Vellore, it consists of two ordinary earthenware pots (chatties) turned upside down 

 and connected tandem fashion by means of a stick lashed on each side of their necks. 

 A space of some two feet is left between the pots and on this fragile frame a man can 

 sit astride when the strange contrivance is " launched " into the water. At Vellore 

 Fort this raft is used in order to reach the water-lilies which abound in the deeper 

 parts of the moat ; the leaves are collected to serve as platters. 



The coracle such as we see to-day in use on the Cauveri and the Tungabhadra^ 

 on the Tigris and Euphrates, marked a great advance in our ancestors' efforts to 

 harness the waters to their service. In this design the framework of the craft is 

 of wickerwork made watertight by several devices. The Indian coracle probably 

 preserves to us the original type ; it consists of a very large wide-mouthed circular 

 basket of much flattened form ; it may indeed be termed flat-bottomed ; the sides are 

 comparatively low (PI. V, fig. 6). A common size is fully 12 feet in greatest diameter 

 which coincides with the mouth, the bottom being of smaller diameter. Over the 

 outside is stretched and fitted a hide covering which efficiently excludes the water. In 

 Tanjore and along the course of the Cauveri it used to be extensively employed in ferry- 

 ing passengers across rivers but to-day it is going steadily out of use before the advance 

 of the bridge-maker. This Indian coracle differs considerably in form from the Arab 

 guff a, greatly in evidence for the same purpose on the Tigris and Euphrates, the latter 

 having convexly curved sides with the diameter of the mouth less than that of the 

 equator. A further distinction is that in the Mesopotamian design a hide covering is 

 discarded in favour of pitch, but the former method is the older, for Herodotus tells us 

 that hide-covered coracles were used by Assyrian wine-merchants to convey the pro- 

 duce of their vineyards down the Tigris to the cities of Chaldea. He tells us too that 

 each merchant took with him one or even two asses in the coracle so that after sell- 

 ing the cargo, he might dismantle the framework, sell it for what it would fetch and 

 then load the hide on one of the asses, returning home by land. The coracle has 

 indeed a notable lineage and in its distribution ranges as far west as Ireland, where to- 

 day on the Donegal and Clare coasts, elongated boat-shaped coracles are extensively 

 used in the sea-fisheries. This altered shape permits of oars being used. These Irish 

 coracles are covered with tarred canvas. 



Lastly we have the double palm-butt dug-out in use on the Godavari river 

 (fig. 21). The main features of these have already been described in pointing to them 



