INDIANS DANCING. 177 



were the musicians. Feeble sounds, drawn from a 

 series of reeds of different lengths, formed a slow and 

 plaintive accompaniment. The first dancer, to mark the 

 time, bent both knees in a kind of cadence. Sometimes 

 they all made a pause in their places, and executed little 

 oscillatory movements, bending the body from one side 

 to the other. When they were weary of dancing the 

 women brought them roasted monkeys and palm cabbage, 

 not forgetting their native liquors, which were strong 

 and heady. 



Leaving Esmeralda on the afternoon of the 23d 

 the travellers reached the bifurcation of the Orinoco, 

 where they remained that night. Descending the river 

 the next morning they passed the mouths of the Rio 

 Cunucunumo, and the Guanami, and Puriname. Be- 

 tween the sources of the Rio Blanco, and the Rio Esse- 

 quibo, they met with rocks and symbolical figures. They 

 were also shown, near the Culimacari, on the banks of 

 the Cassiquiare, traces which were believed to be regular 

 characters. They were however only misshapen figures, 

 representing the heavenly bodies, together with tigers, 

 crocodiles, boas, and instruments used for making the 

 flour of cassava. It was impossible to recognise in these 

 painted rocks any symmetrical arrangement, or characters 

 with regular spaces. 



The travellers stopped at the village of Santa Barbara 

 on the evening of the 25th. During the whole of the 

 next day they enjoyed the view of the fine mountains of 

 Sipapo, which rose at a distance of more than eighteen 

 leagues in the direction of north-north-west. The vege- 

 tation of the banks of the Orinoco was singularly varied 

 in this part of the country; the arborescent ferns de- 



8* 



