MUSICAL TASTE OF THE INDIANS. 221 



chana, man is called cocco ; woman, gnacu; water, cagua; 

 fire, eyussa ; the earth, seke ; the sky, mwneseke (earth on 

 high) ; the jaguar, impii ; the crocodile, cuipoo ; maize, 

 giomu ; the plaintain, paratuna ; cassava, peibe. I may here 

 mention one of those descriptive compounds that seem to 

 characterise the infancy of language, though they are re- 

 tained in some very perfect idioms.* Thus, as iu the Bis- 

 cayan, thunder is called 'the noise of the cloud (pdotsa)' 

 the sun bears the name, in the Salive dialect, of mume-selce- 

 cocco, 'the man (cocco) of the earth (seke) above (mume).' 



The most ancient abode of the Salive nation appears to 

 have been on the western banks of the Orinoco, between 

 the Rio Vichadaf and the Gruaviare, and also between the 

 Meta and the Rio Paute. Salives are now found not only 

 at Carichana, but in the Missions of the province of Casanre, 

 at Cabapuna, Guanapalo, Cabiuna, and Macuco. They are 

 a social, mild, almost timid people ; and more easy, I will 

 not say to civilize, but to subdue, than the other tribes on 

 the Orinoco. To escape from the dominion of the Caribs, 

 the Salives willingly joined the first Missions of the Jesuits. 

 Accordingly these fathers everywhere in their writings 

 praise the docility and intelligence of that people. The 

 Salives have a great taste for music : in the most remote 

 times they had trumpets of baked earth, four or five feet 

 long, with several large globular cavities communicating 

 with one another by narrow pipes. These trumpets send 

 forth most dismal sounds. The Jesuits have cultivated with 

 success the natural taste of the Salives for instrumental 

 music ; and even since the destruction of the society, the 

 missionaries of Rio Meta have continued at San Miguel de 

 Macuco a fine church choir, and musical instruction for the 

 Indian youth. Very lately a traveller was surprised to see 

 the natives playing on the violin, the violoncello, the tri- 

 angle, the guitar, and the flute. 



We found among these Salive Indians, at Carichana, a 

 white woman, the sister of a Jesuit of New Grenada. It ia 

 difficult to define the satisfaction that is felt when, in the 

 midst of nations of whose language we are ignorant, we 

 meet with a being with whom we can converse without an 



* See vol. i, p. 326. 

 f The Salive mission, on the Rio Vichada, was destroyed by the Caribt. 



