674 THE GUARANIS. 



tinguished them in days of yore, readiness to yield to circum- 

 stances, to labour for wages, and to receive instruction from 

 the white man. Thus they have continued to exist whilst 

 more warlike tribes have been exterminated. They cultivate 

 cassava and other vegetables. From the former they make 

 the intoxicating paiwari the cause of many savage murders 

 among them. They depend greatly on the pith of the 

 mauritia, or ita, as it serves them for bread ; while of other 

 parts of the tree they construct their dwellings. 



The younger people possess good features some of them 

 wearing thin pieces of silver suspended from the cartilage of 

 the nostrils. They are generally short, stoutly built, and 

 capable of great exertion. They are much sought after for 

 labourers. They are also noted for making the best and 

 largest canoes in the country, and with the rudest implements. 

 The Spaniards are said to have employed some of their canoes 

 which could carry one hundred men. Those in use even at 

 the present day are capable of carrying fifty people. 



Though scattered throughout the country, the proper ter- 

 ritory of their nation is on the low swampy country which 

 borders the banks of the Orinoco ; but their lands being com- 

 pletely inundated by the overflowing of the rivers for some 

 months in each year, they construct their dwellings above the 

 water, among the mauritia palms, whose crowns of fan-like 

 leaves wave above their heads and shield them from the rays 

 of the burning sun. Not only does this palm afford them 

 shelter and the materials for constructing their habitations, 

 butjt gives them an abundance of food for the support of life. 

 To the upright trunks of the trees, which they use as posts, 

 they fix the lower beams of their habitations, a few feet above 

 the highest level of the water. On this framework they lay 



