192 DIFFICUL TIES WITH THE MULETEERS. 



very much in the style of the monks. A part of the 

 forehead was shaved, which made it appear extremely 

 high, and a circular tuft of hair was left near the crown 

 of the head. The Carib women were less robust and 

 good-looking than the men. On them devolved almost 

 the whole burden of domestic work, as well as much of 

 the out-door labour. They asked the travellers eagerly 

 for pins, which they stuck under their lower lip, making 

 the head of the pin penetrate deeply into the skin. The 

 young girls were painted red, and were almost naked. 



On quitting the mission of Cari, they had some diili- 

 culties to settle with their Indian muleteers. They had 

 discovered that the travellers had brought skeletons with 

 them from the cavern of Ataruipe ; and they were fully 

 persuaded that the beasts of burden which carried the 

 bodies of their old relations would perish on the journey. 

 Every precaution the travellers had taken was useless ; 

 nothing could escape a Carib's penetration and keen sense 

 of smell, and it required all the authority of the mission- 

 ary to forward their passage. They had to cross the Rio 

 Cari in a boat, and the Rio de Agua Clara, by fording, 

 or, it may almost be said, by swimming. They had two 

 bad stations, one at Matagorda and the other at Los 

 Riecetos, before they reached the little town of Pao. 

 They beheld everywhere the same objects; small huts 

 constructed of reeds, and roofed with leather; men on 

 horseback armed with lances, guarding the herds ; herds 

 of cattle half wild, remarkable for their uniform colour, 

 and disputing the pasturage with horses and mules. 



The travellers arrived, on the 23rd, at the town of 

 Nueva Barcelona, less fatigued by the heat of the Llanos, 

 to which they had been long accustomed, than annoyed 



