RATTDAL OF ATFRES. 489 



among whom everything is the produce of art, or rather of 

 the most ancient civilization, dc not change their dwelling 

 without carrying along with ohem the bones of their 

 ancestors. Coffins are seen deposited on the banks ot 

 great rivers, to be transported, with the furniture of the 

 family," to a remote province. These removals of bones, 

 heretofore more common among the savages of North 

 America, are not practised among the tribes of Guiana ; but 

 these are not nomad, like nations who live exclusively by 

 hunting. 



We staid at the mission of Atures only during the time 

 necessary for passing the canoe through the Great Cataract. 

 The bottom of our frail bark had become so thin that it re- 

 quired great care to prevent it from splitting. We took leave 

 of the missionary, Bernardo Zea, who remained at Atures, 

 after having accompanied us during two months, and shared 

 all our sufferings. This poor monk still continued to have 

 fits of tertian ague; they had become to him an habitual 

 evil, to which he paid little attention. Other fevers of a 

 more fatal kind prevailed at Atures on our second visit. 

 The greater part of the Indians could not leave their ham- 

 mocks, and we were obliged to send in search of cassava- 

 bread, the most indispensable food of the country, to the 

 independent but neighbouring tribe of the Piraoas. We 

 had hitherto escaped these malignant fevers, which, I 

 believe to be always contagious. 



We ventured to pass in our canoe through the latter half 

 of the Eaudal of Atures. We landed here and there, to 

 climb upon the rocks, which like narrow dikes joined the 

 islands to one another. Sometimes the waters force their 

 way over the dikes, sometimes they fall within them with a 

 hollow noise. A considerable portion of the Orinoco was 

 dry, because the river had found an issue by subterraneous 

 caverns. In these solitary haunts the rock-manakin with 

 gilded plumage (Pipra rupicola), one of the most beautiful 

 birds of the tropics, builds its nest. The llaudalito of 

 Carucari is caused by an accumulation of enormous blocks 

 of granite, several of which are spheroids of five or six feet 

 in diameter, and they are piled together in such a manner, 

 as to form spacious caverns. We entered one of these 

 uiverns to gather the confervas that were spread over the 



