[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

ECONOMIC LIFE 211
nimbembew were used. Their construction is simple. A number
of bamboos are cut to the required length, laid on the ground
parallel to one another, and then lashed together at three or
four places down their length, the cord being wound three or four
times round all the bamboos together at each lashing (see Fig. Ira).
This loose foundation is then carefully raised and set upon an
improvised trestle ; a number of men sit on top of it, others sit
below and proceed with the next stage of the work. This consists
of threading string round the cords of each lashing in the interstices
between each of the bamboo poles (see Fig. III: and c). This string
is not drawn tight but is sufï¬Åcient to hold the lashings in place,
and in this way a sort of flexible raft is produced. Two or three
bamboos are now fastened, one above the other, along either side
of the raft, and at either end to prevent the waves from washing
over it, so that the vessel has somewhat the appearance of a
large, shallow, rectangular tray or punt. No outrigger is attached,
and no attempt is made to shape it fore or aft. Yet clumsy
though it seems such a raft is sufï¬Åciently seaworthy to carry a
number of people for short voyages as from one coastal village
to another, its buoyancy being due to the hollow bamboos of
which it is made. Of the sociology of these rafts—what men
co—operate in their manufacture, how they are owned, and if
they are privately owned, what rights a man’s kinsfolk have to
borrow or claim a passage in one—of all such matters there are
no records.
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