DWELLINGS OF THE GUARAUNES. 21 



rendered commodious habitations. When the Ori- 

 noco overflowed its banks during the rainy season, 

 the whole population betook themselves to their 

 aerial habitations, and had no occasion to use their 

 canoes for obtaining food; for not only does the 

 fan-palm afford materials for making mats, and 

 firm pillars on which to hang them, but before 

 the blossoms of the tree expand, the pith of the 

 stem contains a sago-like kind of meal, which is 

 dried in thin cakes like cassava. The sap, when 

 fermented, yields a sweet wine, and the fruit, which 

 resembles a pine-cone, affords like the pisang, and 

 many other tropical productions, a varied nourish- 

 ment in its different stages. But the nations who 

 once inhabited those trees, beside the ceaseless roar 

 of the branching Orinoco, are now far away in the 

 lone wilderness. 



So, too, has the ancient population of the North 

 American continent receded before the influx . of 

 colonization from the East. 



I heard the forests as they cried 



Unto the valleys green, 

 Where is that red-browned hunter-race, 



Who loved our leafy screen ? 

 They humbled 'mid these dewy glades, 



The red-deer's antlered crown, 

 Or soaring at his highest noon, 



Struck the strong eagle down. 



Then in the zephyr's voice, replied 



Those vales so meekly blest, 

 They reared their dwellings on our side, 



Their corn upon our breast. 



