110 A NATURALIST IN THE GUIANAS 



heavy expression, the thick lips, the yellowish tinge of 

 the whites of the eyes characteristic of the tribes from 

 Western Africa. During the tonca-bean crop they are 

 engaged, like most of the inhabitants on the Caura, in the 

 collection of sarrapia. At other times they attend to 

 their provision gardens, or are employed cutting wood, 

 principally cedar, of which there is an abundance in the 

 extensive forests of the district. 



I have never visited any spot where ulcers of a 

 virulent and almost incurable type are more common 

 than amongst the dwellers on the Caura, although skin 

 diseases in general are far from being rare in tropical 

 American countries. At least every second man and 

 woman one meets is a victim to these terrible sores, and 

 the blacks of Maripa and Aripao do not enjoy any 

 immunity from what could almost be called the national 

 complaint. Probably personal habits as regards clean- 

 liness have much to do with the prevalence of llagas, as 

 these ulcers are called. In addition to the absence of 

 cleanliness and care, particularly in the early stages of the 

 disease, when the small sores are curable, there is the 

 question of diet, which is of so much importance in con- 

 nection with this disorder and others of a similar nature. 

 There is so little change in the food of the people of the 

 •Caura, and it is so coarse in quality, that it is a marvel 

 how they can continue to subsist, year after year, on 

 so poor and unvaried a regimen. Dried beans and rice 

 simply boiled in water with a little salt, form the principal 

 nourishment of the peon. Fresh meat is rarely obtain- 

 able ; the beef which is used, being roughly salted and 

 dried in the sun, is unpalatable and indigestible. With 

 such poor food, with the inordinate consumption of 

 freshly distilled rum which is generally taken raw, is it 



