204 INDIAN PIGMENTS. 



spontaneously, and in great abundance, near Muypures fand 

 in going up the Orinoco, beyond the mouth of the Ghia- 

 viare, from Santa Barbara to the lofty mountain of Duida, 

 particularly near Esmeralda. We also found it on the banks 

 of the Cassiquiare. The red pigment of cJiica is not ob- 

 tained from the fruit, like the onoto, but from the leaves 

 macerated in water. The colouring matter separates in the 

 form of a light powder. It is collected, without being mixed 

 with turtle-oil, into little lumps eight or nine inches long, 

 and from two to three high, rounded at the edges. These 

 lumps, when heated, emit an agreeable smell of benzoin. 

 When the chica is subjected to distillation, it yields no 

 sensible traces of ammonia. It is not, like indigo, a sub- 

 stance combined with azote. It dissolves slightly in sul- 

 phuric and muriatic acids, and even in alkalis. Ground 

 with oil, the chica furnishes a red colour that has a tint of 

 lake. Applied to wool, it might be confounded with mad- 

 der-red. There is no doubt but that the chica, unknown in 

 Europe before our travels, may be employed usefully in the 

 arts. The nations on the Orinoco, by whom this pigment 

 is best prepared, are the Salivas, the Ghiipunaves,* the 

 Caveres, and the Piraoas. The processes of infusion and 

 maceration are in general very common among all the 

 nations on the Orinoco. Thus the Maypures carry on a 

 trade of barter with the little loaves of purtvma, which is a 

 vegetable fecula, dried in the manner of indigo, and yield- 

 ing a very permanent yellow colour. The chemistry of the 

 savage is reduced to the preparation of pigments, that of 

 poisons, and the dulcification of the amylaceous roots, which 

 the aro'ides and the euphorbiaceous plants afford. 



Most of the missionaries of the tipper and Lower Ori- 

 noco permit the Indians of their Missions to paint their 

 skins. It is painful to add, that some of them speculate 

 on this barbarous practice of the natives. In their huts, 

 pompously called conventos,+ I have often seen stores of 

 chica, which they sold as high as four francs the cake. To 

 form a just idea of the extravagance of the decoration of 

 these naked Indians, I must observe, that a man of large 



* Or Guaypuflaves ; they call themselves Uipunavi. 

 f In the Missions, the priest's house bears the name of ' the con 

 rent.' 



