PIQMEXTS. 203 



poets in every language have drawn such enchanting 

 pictures. The savage of the Orinoco appeared to us to be 

 as hideous as the savage of the Mississippi, described by 

 that philosophical traveller Volney, who so well knew how 

 to paint man in different climates. We are eager to persuade 

 ourselves that these natives, crouching before the fire, or 

 seated on large turtle-shells, their bodies covered with earth 

 and grease, their eyes stupidly fixed for whole hours on the 

 beverage they are preparing, far from being the primitive 

 type of our species, are a degenerate race, the feeble remains 

 of nations who, after having been long dispersed in the 

 forests, are replunged into barbarism. 



Bed paint oeing in some sort the only clothing of the 

 Indians, two kinds may be distinguished among them, 

 according as they are more or less affluent. The common 

 decoration of the Caribs, the Ottomacs, and the Jaruros, 

 is onoto* called by the Spaniards achote, and by the planters 

 of Cayenne, rocou. It is the colouring matter extracted 

 from the pulp of the Bixa orellana.t The Indian women 

 prepare the anaio by throwing the serds of the plant into a 

 tub filled with water. They beat tnis water for an hour, 

 and then leave h ro deposit the colouring fecula, which is of 

 an intense brick-red. After having separated the water, 

 they take out the fecula, dry it between their hands, knead 

 it with oil of turtles' eggs, and form it into round cakes o f 

 three or four ounces weight. When turtle oil is wanting, 

 some tribes mix with the anato the fat of the crocodile. 



Another pigment, much more valuable, is extracted from 

 a plant of the family of the bignonise, which M. Bonpland 

 has made known by the name of Bignonia chica. It climbs 

 up and clings to the tallest trees by the aid of tendrils. Its 

 bilabiate flowers are an inch long, of a fine violet colour, 

 and disposed by twos or threes. The bipinnate leaves 

 become reddish in drying. The fruit is a pod, filled with 

 winged seeds, and is two feet long. This plant grows 



* Properly anoto. This word belongs to the Tamanac Indians. The 

 Maypures call it majepa. The Spanish missionaries say onotarse, ' to 

 rub the skin with anato.' 



t The word bixa, adopted by botanists, is derived from the ancie* 

 language of Hayti (the island of St. Domingo). Rocou, the term com- 

 nonly used by the French, is derived from the Brazilian word, tr*r. 



