CROCODILES. 179 



from their want of cleanliness, carried their infants on their 

 backs. The thighs and legs of the infants were bound at 

 certain distances by broad strips of cotton cloth, and the 

 flesh, strongly compressed beneath the ligatures, was swelled 

 in the interstices. It is generally to be observed, that the 

 Caribs are as attentive to their exterior and their ornaments, 

 as it is possible for men to be, who are naked and painted 

 red. They attach great importance to certain configurations 

 of the body ; and a mother would be accused of culpable 

 indifference toward her children, if she did not employ arti- 

 ficial means to shape the calf of the leg after the fashion of 

 the country. As none of our Indians of A pure understood 

 the Caribbee language, we could obtain no information from 

 the cacique of Panama respecting the encampments that are 

 made at this season in several islands of the Orinoco for 

 collecting turtles' eggs. 



Near Encaramada a very long island divides the river 

 into two branches. "We passed the night in a rocky creek, 

 opposite the mouth of the Rio Cabullare, which is formed by 

 the Payara and the Atamaica, and is sometimes considered 

 as one of the branches of the Apure, because it commu- 

 nicates with that river by the Rio Arichuna. The evening 

 was beautiful. The moon illumined the tops of the granite 

 rocks. The heat was so uniformly distributed, that, not- 

 withstanding the humidity of the air, no twinkling of the 

 stars was observable, even at four or five degrees above the 

 horizon. The light of the planets was singularly dimmed ; 

 and if, on account of the smallness of the apparent diameter 

 of Jupiter, I had not suspected some error in the observation, 

 I should say, that here, for the first time, we thought we 

 distinguished the disk of Jupiter with the naked eye. 

 Towards midnight, the north-east wind became extremely 

 violent. It brought no clouds, but the vault of the sky was 

 covered more and more with vapours. Strong gusts were 

 felt, and made us fear for the safety of our canoe. During 

 this whole day we had seen very few crocodiles, but all of 

 an extraordinary size, from twenty to twenty-four feet. The 

 Indians assured us that the young crocodiles prefer the 

 marshes, and the rivers that are less broad, and less deep. 

 They crowd together particularly in the Caftos, and we may 

 ay of tlnm, what Abdallatif says of the crocodiles of the 



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