354 CANNIBAL TRIBES. 



influence over the neighbouring nations. As he attended 

 us in all our herborizations, we obtained from his own 

 mouth information so much the more useful, as the mis- 

 sionaries have great confidence in his veracity. He assured 

 us, that in his youth he had seen almost all the Indian 

 tribes, that inhabit the vast regions between the Upper 

 Orinoco, the Bio Negro, the Inirida, and the Jupura, eat 

 human flesh. The Daricavanas, the Puchirinavis, and the 

 Manitivitanos, appeared to him to be the greatest cannibals 

 among them. He believes that this abominable practice is 

 with them the effect of a system of vengeance ; they eat 

 only enemies who are made prisoners in battle. The 

 instances where, by a refinement of cruelty, the Indian eats 

 his nearest relations, his wife, or an unfaithful mistress, are 

 extremely rare. The strange custom of the Scythians and 

 Massagetes, the Capanaguas of the Rio Ucayale, and the 

 ancient inhabitants of the West Indian Islands, of honour- 

 ing the dead by eating a part of their remains, is unknown 

 on the banks of the Orinoco. In both continents this trait 

 of manners belongs only to nations that hold in horror the 

 flesh of a prisoner. The Indian of Hayti (Saint Domingo) 

 would think himself wanting in regard to the memory of a 

 relation, if he did not throw into his drink a small portion of 

 the body of the deceased, after having dried it like one of 

 the mummies of the G-uanches, and reduced it to powder. 

 This gives us just occasion to repeat with an eastern poet, 

 " of all animals man is the most fantastic in his manners, 

 and the most disorderly in his propensities." 



The climate of the mission of San Antonio de Javita is 

 extremely rainy. "When you have passed the latitude of 

 three degrees north, and approach the equator, you have 

 seldom an opportunity of observing the sun or the stars. 

 It rains almost the whole year, and the sky is constantly 

 cloudy. As the breeze is not felt in these immense forests 

 of Ghiiana, and the refluent polar currents do not penetrate 

 them, the column of air which reposes on this wooded zone 

 is not renewed by dryer strata. It is saturated with vapours 

 which are condensed into equatorial rains. The missionary 

 assured us that it often rains here four or five months 

 without cessation. 



The temperature of Javita is cooler than that of Mayyures, 



