396 THE AMAZON-STONE. 



garrison of Cayenne (mentioned by La Condamine), whc 

 affirmed that these mineral substances were obtained from 

 the "country of women," west of the rapids of the Oyapoc. 

 The Indians who inhabit the fort of Topayos on the Amazon, 

 five degrees east of the mouth of the Bio Negro, possessed 

 formerly a great number of these stones. Had they received 

 them from the north, that is, from the country pointed out 

 by the Indians of the Bio Negro, which extends from the 

 mountains of Cayenne towards the sources of the Essequibo, 

 the Carony, the Orinoco, the Parime, and the Bio Trom- 

 betas ? or did they come from the south by the Bio Topayos, 

 which descends from the vast table-land of the Campos 

 Parecis? Superstition attaches great importance to these 

 mineral substances : they are worn suspended from the neck 

 as amulets, because, according to popular belief, they pre- 

 serve the wearer from nervous complaints, fevers, and the 

 stings of venomous serpents. They have consequently been 

 for ages an article of trade among the natives, both north 

 and south of the Orinoco. The Caribs, who may be con- 

 sidered as the Bucharians of the New World, made them 

 known along the coasts of Guiana ; and the same stones, 

 like money in circulation, passed successively from nation 

 to nation in opposite directions : their quantity is perhaps 

 not augmented, and the spot which produces them is pro- 

 bably unknown rather than concealed. In the midst of en- 

 lightened Europe, on occasion of a warm contest respecting 

 native bark, a few years ago, the green stones of the Orinoco 

 were gravely proposed as a powerful febrifuge. After this 

 appeal to the credulity of Europeans, we cannot be sur- 

 prised to learn that the Spanish planters share the predilec- 

 tion of the Indians for these amulets, and that they are sold 

 at a very considerable price. The form given to them most 

 frequently is that of the Babylonian cylinders,* longitudi- 

 nally perforated, and loaded with inscriptions and figures. 

 But this is not the work of the Indians of our days, the na- 

 tives of the Orinoco and the Amazon, whom we find in the 

 last degree of barbarism. The Amazon stones, like the per- 

 forated and sculptured emeralds, found in the Cordilleras of 

 New Grenada and Quito, are vestiges of anterior civilization. 



* The price of a cylinder two inches long is from twelve to fifteen 

 piastres. 



