R. H. SCHOMBURGK. 31 



tree ; the water-guava^ which replaces the mangrove 

 of the sea-shore, and yields an aromatic leaf of great 

 use in dysentery ; and many other trees and plants 

 yet unknown or undescribed. Lianas, or hush-ropes 

 of the colonists, are seen at times twisted like a cork- 

 screw around the loftiest trees, and at others inter- 

 twined like the strands of a cable, then drooping to 

 the ground and again taking root, and thus, as it 

 were, securely anchoring the tree against the fury of 

 the sweeping blast; the wild fig-tree occasionally 

 taking root in the topmost branches of the mora, 

 and deriving nourishment from its sap ; and this, 

 again, overrun by varieties of the climbing vine : 

 the whole rendered bright and gay by the brilliant 

 blossoms of numerous bignonias, while the haioica 

 or incense-tree (^Amyris ambrosiaca, ^yilld.) per- 

 fumes the forest with its salutiferous resin. 



The travellers have now arrived at the Arissaro 

 hills. On first descrying them, the Carib Indians 

 had to undergo an initiatory process ; they squeezed 

 tobacco-juice into their eyes, which painful applica- 

 tion they considered necessary in order that they 

 might live to return. At sixteen miles farther 

 south, the Yaia hills, about two hundred feet high, 

 and upon the eastern bank, cause the river to as- 

 sume a course due north, which it maintains for 

 sixty miles. Still farther are the Oumai hills, of a 

 similar elevation, and forming the greatest angle in 

 its course. Here the land {Genipa Americana) 

 grows abundantly, from the fruit of which the 

 Indians procure a blue dye to paint their faces. 



