LEGENDS Or HEADLESS MEB. 317 



diffused ovn- the grounid, in the air, and on the surface of 

 the waters. But towards noon, when the sun reaches its 

 .zenith, these strong shadows gradually disappear, and the 

 whole group is veiled by an aerial vapour of a much deeper 

 azure than that of the lower regions of the celestial vault. 

 These vapours, circulating around the rocky ridge, soften 

 its outline, temper the effects of the light, and give the 

 landscape that aspect of calmness and repose which in 

 nature, as m the works of Claude Lorraine and Poussin, 

 arises from the harmony of forms and colours. 



Cruzero, the powerful chief of the Guaypunaves, long 

 resided behind the mountains of Sipapo, after having 

 quitted with his warlike horde the plains between the Rio 

 Inirida and the Chamochiquini. The Indians told us that 

 the forests which cover the Sipapo abound in the climbing 

 plant called vehuco de maimure. This species of liana is 

 celebrated among the Indians, and serves for making 

 baskets and weaving mats. The forests of Sipapo are 

 altogether unknown, and there the missionaries place the 

 nation of the Rayas,* whose mouths are believed to be in 

 their navels. An old Indian, whom we met at Carichana, 

 and who boasted of having often eaten human flesh, had 

 seen these acephah " with his own eyes." These absurd 

 fables are spread as far as the Llanos, where you are not 

 always permitted to doubt the existence of the Raya Indians. 

 In every zono intolerance accompanies credulity; and it 

 might be said that the fictions of ancient geographers had 

 passed from one hemisphere to the other, did we not know 

 that the most fantastic productions of the imagination, like 

 the works of nature, furnish everywhere a certain analogy 

 of aspect and of form. 



We landed at the mouth of the Rio Vichada or Visata to 

 examine the plants of that part of the country. The scenery is 

 very singular. The forest is thin, and an innumerable quantity 



Rays, on account of the pretended analogy with the fish of this name, 

 the mouth of which seems as if forced downwards below the body. This 

 singular legend has been spread far and wide over the earth. Shakespeaw 

 has described Othello as recounting marvellous tales 



" of cannibals that do each other eat : 

 Of Anthropophagi, and men whose heads 

 Do grow beneath their shoulders." 



