Ch. IV.] SAVANNAHS AND FOREST. 53 



Tomas, who had frequently been down it after Indian 

 rubber, assured me that the reported statues were 

 merely rude carvings of faces and animals on the rocks. 

 They appear to be similar to what are found on many 

 rivers running into the Caribbean Sea, and to those 

 which were examined by Schomburgk on the rocks of 

 the Orinoco and Essequibo ; as others like them, of 

 undoubted Carib workmanship, have been found in the 

 Virgin Islands, it is possible that they are all the work 

 of that once-powerful race, and not of the settled aori- 



- ' O 



cultural and statue-making Indians of the western part 

 of the continent. 



Wo started from Esquipula early next morning, and 

 crossed low thinly-timbered hills and savannahs to 

 Pital, a scattered settlement of many small thatched 

 houses, close to the borders of the great forest, on the 

 edge of which were clearings made for growing maize, 

 which is cultivated entirely on burnt forest land. At 

 some parts they had already commenced cutting down 

 trees for fresh clearings ; these would be burnt in April, 

 and the maize sown the following month, in the usual 

 primitive way, just as it was sown in Mexico before and 

 at the Spanish conquest. In commencing a clearing, 

 the brushwood is first cut close to the ground, as it 

 would be difficult to do so after the large trees are 

 felled. The big timber is then cut down, and in April 

 it is set fire to. All the small wood and leaves burn 

 well ; but most of the large trunks are left, and many of 

 the branches. Most of the latter are cut up to form a 

 fence round the clearing, this at Pital and Esquipula 

 being made very close and high to keep out deer. In 

 May, the maize is sown ; the sower makes little holes 



