184 CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 



and striking prospect. From the foaming river-bed rise wood- 

 crowned hills, while beyond the western shore of the Orinoco the 

 eye rests on the boundless grassy plain of the Meta, uninterrupted 

 save where at one part of the horizon the mountain of Uniama rises 

 like a threatening cloud. Such is the distance ; the nearer prospect 

 is desolate, and closely hemmed in by high and barren rocks. All 

 is motionless, save where the vulture or the hoarse goat-sucker hover 

 solitary in mid-air, or, as they wing their flight through the deep- 

 sunk ravine, their silent shadows are seen gliding along the face of 

 the bare rocky precipice until they vanish from the eye. 



This precipitous valley is bounded by mountains on whose 

 rounded summits are enormous detached granite spheres of more 

 than 40 to 50 feet diameter : they appear to touch the base on 

 which they rest only in a single point, as if the slightest movement, 

 such as that of a faint earthquake shock, must cause them to roll 

 down. 



The farther part of the valley is densely wooded, and it is in this 

 shady portion that the cave of Ataruipe is situated. It is not pro- 

 perly speaking a cave, but rather a vaulted roof formed by a far 

 over-hanging cliff, the cavity having apparently been formed by the 

 waters when at their ancient level. This place is the vault or 

 cemetery of an, extinct nation (").. .We counted about 600 well- 

 preserved skeletons placed in as many baskets woven from the stalks 

 of palm leaves. These baskets, which the Indians call " mapires," 

 are shaped like square sacks, differing in size according to the age of 

 the deceased. Even new-born children had each its own mapire. 

 The skeletons are so perfect that not a bone or a joint is wanting. 



The bones had been prepared in three different ways; some 

 bleached, some colored red^ with onoto, the pigment of the Bixa 

 Orellana; and some like mummies closely enveloped in sweet- 

 smelling resin and plantain leaves. 



The Indians assured us that the custom had been to bury the 

 fresh corpses for some months in damp earth, which gradually con- 

 sumed the flesh ; they were then dug up, and any remaining flesh 

 scraped away with sharp stones. This the Indians said was still the 

 practice of several tribes in Guiana. Besides the mapires or baskets 

 we found urns of half burnt clay which appeared to contain the 



