18 INHABITANTS OF THE ISLANDS. 



cultivated, and extremely fertile on account of the vapours 

 that rise from the lake. Burro, the largest of these islands, 

 is two miles in length, and is inhabited by some families 

 of mestizos, who rear goats. These simple people seldom 

 visit the shore of Mocundo. To them the lake appears of 

 immense extent ; they have plantains, cassava, milk, and a 

 little fish. A hut constructed of reeds ; hammocks woven 

 from the cotton which the neighbouring fields produce ; a 

 large stone on which the fire is made ; the ligneous fruit of 

 the tutuma (the calabash) in which they draw water, con- 

 stitute their domestic establishment. An old mestizo who 

 offered us some goat's milk had a beautiful daughter. "We 

 learned from our guide, that solitude had rendered him as 

 mistrustful as he might perhaps have been made by the 

 society of men. The day before our arrival, some hunters 

 had visited the island. They were overtaken by the shades 

 of night ; and preferred sleeping in the open air to return- 

 ing to Mocundo. This news spread alarm throughout the 

 island. The father obliged the young girl to climb up a 

 very lofty zamang or acacia, which grew in the plain at 

 some distance from the hut, while he stretched himself at 

 the foot of the tree, and did not permit his daughter to 

 descend till the hunters had departed. 



The lake is in general well stocked with fish ; though it 

 furnishes only three kinds, the flesh of which is soft and 

 insipid, the guavina, the vagre, and the sardina. The two 

 last descend into the lake with the streams that flow into 

 it. The guavina, of which I made a drawing on the spot, 

 is 20 inches long and 3'5 broad. It is perhaps a new 

 species of the genus erythrina of Gronovius. It has large 

 silvery scales edged with green. This fish is extremely 

 voracious, and destroys other kinds. The fishermen as- 

 sured us that a small crocodile, the lava* which often 

 approached us when we were bathing, contributes also to 

 the destruction of the fish. We never could succeed in pro- 

 curing this reptile so as to examine it closely : it generally 



* The bava, or bavilla, is very common at Bordones, near Cumana. 

 See vol. i, p. 160. The name of bava (baveuse) has misled M. Depons; 

 he takes this reptile for a fish of our seas, the Blennius pholis. (Voyage 

 a la Terre Ferme.) The Blennius pholis (smooth blenny), is called by 

 the French baveuse (slaverer), in Spanish, baba. 



