PEARLS. 103 
ulterior comforts are withdrawn, exercise a stronger 
and more efficient sway. The aborigines of Araga, 
are powerfully attached to their native soil. They 
prefer the wild and barren spot which gave them birth, 
to the attractions of more polished life; and support 
themselves by catching fish, which is extremely 
abundant on the coast. When asked why they have 
neither gardens nor culinary vegetables,—‘‘ Our 
gardens,” they reply, ‘‘ are beyond the gulf: when we 
carry our fish to Cumana, we bring back plantains, 
cocoa-nuts, and cassava.” 
One of these was a mulatto, the sage of the plain, 
who professed to know the virtues of plants, the symp- 
toms of earthquakes, and the marks which distinguish 
the neighbourhood of precious metals. When the 
traveller entered his humble dwelling, he found him 
employed in sharpening arrows, and stretching the 
strings of his bow. Delighted with an opportunity 
of imparting his scanty stores of knowledge, he readily 
communicated some interesting particulars relative 
to the Pearls of Cumana, which as objects of decora- 
tion he treated with contempt ; and in order to evince 
his familiarity with the Sacred writings, he frequently 
referred to the patriarch Job, who preferred wisdom 
to Pearls. After a long discourse on the emptiness of 
human grandeur, he drew from his leather pouch, a 
few small opake gems, which he desired Humboldt to 
