120 A NATURALIST IN THE GUI AN AS 



At daybreak coffee was brought us. Wherever one 

 stays for the night in the country districts of Venezuela 

 coffee is given in the morning and no payment is expected. 

 Indeed, any offer of money for board or lodging would be 

 considered an insult in most homes ; but a small present 

 may be made to one of the children without hurting the 

 susceptibilities of these hospitable people, who are always 

 glad to share whatever they have with the stranger stay- 

 ing with them. 



While the boats were being got ready for our departure 

 for La Prision, I strolled about. No change had taken 

 place since my last visit. In the kitchen the same woman 

 was grinding the corn for breakfast between two stones, 

 as she had done three years before, while the pigs trotted 

 about in the hope of being able to steal something, and 

 the fowls, dogs, and cats added to the general confusion 

 in this sort of stationary Noah's Ark. 



At eight o'clock the men came up to the house and said 

 that they were ready to start. The cargo had been put 

 into three of the hojufos. The largest boat I decided to 

 leave at Temblador ; it would have been dangerous to 

 have attempted the passage of the rapids in such an 

 unwieldy construction. With a small boat the journey 

 to La Prision takes about three hours, but we were nearly 

 five hours paddling up against the strong current before 

 we got to the stretch of rocks which encumber the 

 Caura for 300 or 400 yards belov/ the landing-place 

 at La Prision. Getting through the narrow channels of 

 this part of the river when the water is low, is tedious 

 and even dangerous. We liad almost reached the port, 

 when our men, while crossing the last channel, allowed 

 their hongo in a moment of carelessness to be driven 

 sideways against a large slab of roclv. In a few seconds 



