to have it added as an additional ingredient for cassava bread. Religion The Warao are, according to their own reports, descended from an adventurous heavenly figure — the primordial hunter. This man originally dwelt in a sky world which had men, but was completely devoid of all animals except birds. Hunting these heavenly birds, the founding man used his bow and arrow to strike a bird in mid-air. The bird fell from the sky and eventually hit the heavenly floor. The birds burst through the floor and proceeded through the clouds and towards terrestrial land (Earth) below. The hunter went to the hole in the floor made by the bird and looked through. He saw lush and fertile land (Earth) and resolved to descend to it to partake of its pleasures: beauty, abundant game, fruit, et cetera. The hunter took a long rope of heavenly cotton, tied it to a tree, and threw it through the hole and lowered himself through the clouds to what is now Earth, forsaking his sky world. The Warao have shamans, who perform music such as rain dances and songs. History The Warao have been considered to be the first inhabitants of Guyana, predating the arrival of Arawak and Caribs. The Warao of eastern Venezuela's Orinoco first had contact with Europeans when, soon after Christopher Columbus reached the Orinoco river delta, Alonso de Ojeda decided to navigate the river upstream. There, in the delta, Ojeda saw the distinctively stilted Warao huts, balanced over the water. Similar architecture in Sinamaica far to the west had been likened to Venice, with its famous canals below and buildings above; this new encounter propagated the name of Venezuela ("little Venice") for the whole land. Contemporary issues The inaccessibility of the Warao's lands makes access to health care difficult. Tuberculosis is common. The Orinoco delta has minimal infrastructure, no sanitation, and limited education resulting in a high degree of illiteracy. HIV was first detected in 2007 in the Warao communities of the lower Orinoco Delta region of Venezuela. In some communities already 35% test positive for the HIV virus. With Venezuela's failing health care system, there is an absence of prevention programs; this, together, with severe language barriers — many Warao are illiterate and do not speak fluent Spanish — have allowed ignorance about the disease to flourish. The culture is felt to be severely threatened. In the summer of