664 THE CORENTYN RIVER. 



having apparently been put in requisition to furnish forth the 

 most brilliant of their feathers. They had also necklaces of 

 the teeth of monkeys and peccaries, and porcupines' quills ; to 

 which were attached long cotton fringes which hung down 

 their backs, and to which toucan and other skins were 

 suspended securely. Feasting and dancing, kept up by the 

 natives thus dressed, lasted the whole night ; and the con- 

 stantly-repeated burden of their song was " Roraima of the 

 red rock, wrapped in clouds, the ever-fertile source of streams." 



THE CORENTYN RIVER. 



Eastward of the Berbice, and greatly inferior in size to the 

 Essequibo, is the Corentyn, which has its source near the 

 equator, and forms the boundary of the British colony. A 

 few Indians of various tribes dwell on its banks near the 

 mouth, but above their last settlement desolation reigns 

 supreme. 



On the rocks near its banks may be seen a few rude carv- 

 ings, the handiwork of a race long passed away. Day after 

 clay the voyager on its waters passes amid the wildest and 

 most romantic scenery, amid numerous islands, rocks, and 

 rapids ; but no human beings are seen not a light canoe on 

 its waters, not an habitation on its banks. At length, after a 

 jaine days' voyage, enormous rocks appear heaped together, 

 opposing progress ; vast chasms yawn beneath his feet when 

 he lands, and at certain places the streams sink into the earth 

 as if by magic, to reappear where least expected. A thunder- 

 ing noise is heard, and a mist hovers in the air, in which 

 thousands of birds disport themselves, marking the position of 

 the great cataracts of the Corentyn. The scene, however, is 

 too vast .to be beheld in its full grandeur from any single 



