244 CLAY EATEN BY THE OTOMACS. 



sirous of swimming across, in order to seek assist- 

 ance at Atures from Father Zea. Humboldt and 

 the other person who was with them dissuaded him 

 with difficulty from so hazardous an enterprise ; and 

 shortly after two large crocodiles made their appear- 

 ance, attracted by the plaintive cries of the monkeys. 

 At length the Indians arrived with the vessel, and 

 the navigation was continued during part of the 

 night. At Carichana the missionary received them 

 with kindness. Here the travellers remained some 

 days to recruit their exhausted strength, and M. 

 Bonpland had the satisfaction of dissecting a 

 manatee. 



From Carichana they went in two days to the 

 mission of Uruana, the situation of which is ex- 

 tremely picturesque, the village being placed at the 

 foot of a lofty granitic mountain, the columnar 

 rocks appearing at intervals above the trees. Here 

 the river is more than 4263 yards broad, and runs in 

 a straight line directly east. The hamlet is inhabited 

 by the Otomacs, one of the rudest of the American 

 tribes. These Indians swallow quantities of earth 

 for the purpose of allaying hunger. "VVIien the 

 waters are low they live on fish and turtles ; but 

 when the rivers swell, and it becomes difficult to 

 procure that food, they eat daily a large pOrtion of 

 clay. The travellers found in their hiits heaps of it 

 in the form of balls, piled up in pyramids three or 

 four feet high. This substance is fine and unctuous, 

 of a yellowish-gray colour, containing silica and 

 alumina, with three or four per cent, of lime. Being 

 a restless and turbulent people, with unbridled pas- 

 sions and excessively given to intoxication, the little 

 village of Uruana is more difficult to govern than 

 any of the other missions. By inhaling at the nose 

 the powder obtained from the pods of the Acacia 

 niopo they throw themselves into a state of intoxi- 

 cation bordering on madness, that lasts several days, 

 during which dreadful murders are committed. The 



