PALMS. "71 



very abundant, and with it is intimately connected the 

 existence of the Warauns, a tribe of Indians who inhabit 

 the delta, or submerged lands of tlie mouth of the Orino- 

 co. Their habitations are hung between the trees, above 

 the reach of wild beast and inundating floods. The fari- 

 naceous pith of the stem, its fruit, and saccharine juice, 

 supply the dwellers of these aerial homes with food and 

 drink, while from the fibres of the leaves they weave for 

 themselves mats and hammocks. " It is curious to ob- 

 serve," says Humboldt, " in the lowest degree of human 

 civilization, the existence of a whole tribe depending on one 

 single species of palm-tree, similar to those insects which 

 feed on one and the same flower, or on one and the same 

 part of a plant." This veritable "Tree of Life," with 

 its large, shining leaves, preserves a beautiful verdure 

 through the season of greatest drought, and rises above 

 the summer-parched and barren soil of the Llanos, a 

 guide to the traveller and a grateful shelter from the 

 heat of the noonday sun. The tree thrives only in moist 

 ground, and at its base may generally be found a foun- 

 tain of refreshing water; or such can be obtained by a 

 slight excavation. The fact that this palm-tree is always 

 found in the vicinity of water has given rise to the belief, 

 among the natives, that the tree attracts moisture from 

 the earth ; but in this, as well as in many other cases, 

 they have confounded cause and eSect. The sweet and 

 grateful juice of the Moriche palm, either fresh or ferment- 

 ed ; tlie unexpanded young leaves, or what is called cab- 

 bag,e, a most excellent vegetable ; the sago, from the fari- 

 naceous pith of the trunk ; the fruit, which, like the plan- 

 tain, can be eaten raw when mature, or prepared by cook- 

 ing in an almost endless variety of ways ; the spathe of 

 the fruit, resembling coarsely-woven cloth, and useful for 

 bags, mats, and the scanty apparel sometimes worn by tlie 

 native, the value of the leaves for thatching, and their 



