74 A NATURALIST IN THE GUIANAS 



tains, where, boiled with vegetables, it forms the sancocho 

 of the mountaineers. The people are not delicate in their 

 tastes, sharks and other coarse fish being largely eaten. In 

 fact, it would appear that a strong taste of whale oil is 

 appreciated, for the fish most extensively consumed in 

 Venezuela is to my mind one of the coarsest flavoured of 

 all fishes. It is called jurel,^ and as it is very abundant, 

 being met with in large shoals off Cumana and in the Gulf 

 of Cariaco, its capture and curing give employment to a 

 number of people. In addition to fish, much pork is con- 

 sumed all over this region, where pigs are reared in a semi- 

 wild state and have to forage for themselves. Although 

 cases of leprosy occur everywhere in Venezuela, Cumana 

 and Maracaibo are the places where the proportion of lepers 

 to the rest of the inhabitants is greatest. The people 

 unanimously attribute the prevalence of the disease to 

 the diet of fish and pork on which they subsist. I have 

 heard more than one Venezuelan say that pork and fishes 

 without scales give leprosy. Has this saying sprung up 

 in the country or is its origin connected with the Old 

 Testament ? ^ 



With reference to fish as an article of food I am re- 

 minded of a curious method of fishing in vogue at Ciudad- 

 Bolivar which I do not remember to have seen anywhere 



' Scomber carnngus. 

 - Leviticus xi. : 



7. And the swine though he divide the hoof, and be cloven-footed, yet 

 he cheweth not the cud, he is unclean to you. 



8. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch, 

 they are unclean to you. 



10. And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, 

 of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the 

 waters, they shall be an abomination unto you. 



12. Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an 

 abomination unto you. 



