CHĘTNIK Adam - Floating on the Narew River. Rafts, oryls and orylka. An ethnographic study [1935].

Warsaw 1935, Mianowski Fund Publishing House. 14x20 cm, pp. VIII, 140, black and white illustrations and map in the text, black and white photographs on separate pages, half cloth hardcover binding. Good condition (German library stamps with swastika, slightly wavy part of pages, isolated soiling).

Contents include: The earliest news about the Narew. Narew as a navigable river. Forests, forests and primeval forests in the Narew basin. Rafting on the Narew in former years. Rafting from the Masurian lakes. The Augustow canal. Towns on the Narew River and their trade routes. Orylka as a prototype of native sailing. From orylka terminology past and present. Building material, methods and conditions of its supply. Construction of rafts. Decoration of rafts. Oryls. Rafting from Tykocin to Toruń. Marking of river routes. Retman and his helpers. Earnings of the retman. Life on the rafts. Side activities: fishing, gathering, hunting. Oryan habits ("fritzing"). Bad habits of the oryls. Funerals. Folklore: proverbs, chants, jokes, music, prophecies, stories and legends. Economic conditions for floating timber to the world war. Glossary of Orylian expressions, containing 278 words, collected between 1912 and 1932.