98 AFLOAT UPON THE LLANOS. 



and weaker. Terrified by the noise of the trampling 

 horses, they timidly approach the brink of the morass, 

 where they are wounded by harpoons, and drawn on shore 

 by non-conducting poles of dry wood." 



But what is dreaded even more than the jaws of the 

 crocodile, the coils of the anaconda, or the powerful bat- 

 tery of the electrical eel, is the caribe, or cannibal-fish, 

 which literally swarms the rivers of the Llanos, rendering 

 it exceedingly dangerous to enter the water. The ferocity 

 of this bold and ravenous little pest is terrible ; and at 

 the scent of blood they are attracted in such myriads, 

 that the largest animal will quickly be consumed by them. 

 The largest caribe is four or five inches in length, with 

 fierce eyes, large, mouth, and teeth so exceedingly sharp 

 as to be able to sever ordinary hooks as if they were but 

 slender threads. The Waraun Indians, alluded to in a 

 preceding chapter, who inhabit the submerged lands at 

 the mouth of the Orinoco, and live in trees, without even 

 a spot of ground in which to dejDosit their mortal remains, 

 avail themselves of the ravenous proclivities of the caribe- 

 fish to dispose of the flesh of their deceased relatives. 

 " For this purpose they tie the corpse with a strong rope, 

 and plunge it into the water, securing the other end of the 

 rope to one of the pillars wpon which their dwellings rest ; 

 in less than twenty-four hours the skeleton is hauled out of 

 the water perfectly clean, for the teeth of the caribe have 

 stripped it of flesh, arteries, tendons, etc. Now all that 

 the mourners have to do is, to separate the bones, which 

 they arrange with much care and nicety in baskets made 

 for the purpose, gaudily ornamented with beads of various 

 colors ; and so Avell have they calculated beforehand the 

 space the bones will occupy in the funereal urn, that the 

 skull, tightly adjusted against the sides of the basket ?,t 

 the top, comes to be the lid of it." "• 



* Paez, " Adventures in South and Central America." 



