6 A NATURALIST IN THE GUI ANAS 



* And on that branch which is called Caora are a nation 

 of people whose heads appear not above their shoulders, 

 which though it may be thought a mere fable, yet for 

 mine own part I am resolved it is true, because every 

 child in the provinces of Arromaia and Canuri affirm the 

 same. They are called Ewaipanoma. They are reported 

 to have their eyes in their shoulders, and their mouths in 

 the'middle of their breasts, and that a long train of hair 

 groweth backward between their shoulders. The son of 

 Topiawari, which I brought with me into England, told 

 me that they are the most mighty men of all the land, and 

 use bows, arrows, and clubs thrice as big as any of Guiana 

 or of the Orinocoponi and that one of the Iwararaqueri 

 took a prisoner of them the year before our arrival there 

 and brought him into the borders of Arromaia, his father's 

 country.' 



When we consider that this was written by a man 

 looked upon as one of the greatest of his time, we cannot 

 help being struck by that curious tendency on the part 

 of man in every age to believe in the supernatural and 

 incredible. The story of the headless men of the Caura, 

 like the pigmies warred on by cranes on the shores of 

 old Oceanus, now belongs to the domain of fable. 



It is probable that the first missionaries travelled over 

 a considerable part of the Caura. They established a 

 mission at the mouth of the Erewato above the falls of 

 Para, but no trace of their work remains to show the 

 exact spot where the old mission stood. With stations 

 on the river its navigation was easier than it is to-day, 

 when the whole country is nothing but a wilderness of 

 interminable forest. The Waiomgomos who accompanied 

 me said that on the Nichare there are still some Taparitos, 

 but none of them would dare to visit the spot, for this 



