THE MATO-PIAROAS US 



swearing in approved nautical fashion. He reviled all 

 peons in general and those of Puerto Antonio Liccioni 

 in particular ; but the men, w^ho had had a night of it 

 and M^ere in good humour with themselves and every- 

 one else, only laughed at him. As one of them told me 

 afterwards : ' How could anyone expect that they would 

 go on a long and dangerous voyage without bidding 

 good-bye to their friends, and could there be a jovial 

 parting without rum? Did not the captain himself 

 get drunk at times ? ' He politely hinted that I was 

 no man if I did not also indulge in an excessive libation 

 now and then. I admitted that his arguments were 

 sound and to get drunk at times was a glorious sensa- 

 tion. Any other logic would have been lost on him. 



At ten o'clock we passed Suapure. There is a pro- 

 nounced bend in the river, which is both broad and deep, 

 towards the east, just above the village. At this spot it 

 receives one of its three important affluents, the Mato, and 

 this tributary is navigable for small dug-outs for a con- 

 siderable part of its course. Two of the Indians who 

 were with me in 1897 and 1898 told me that they had- 

 ascended it for ten days and that it was still navigable 

 when they turned back. They said that game was 

 plentiful on its banks and that its waters were full of 

 fish and turtles. The Mato rises in the Serrania de 

 Mato, near the country of the Piaroas, small bands of 

 whom have, during the last two or three years, paid 

 regular visits to Suapure in quest of bits of iron for their 

 arrow-heads, and such other trifles as they can obtain. It 

 is said of these Piaroas that they make mummies of their 

 dead which they put into large earthenware jars, but I 

 have had no opportunity of seeing any such mummies 

 myself. The Mato brings down a quantity of sand and 



I 



