ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 203 



ones, which have been discovered on the Mosquito coast, 

 among wild Indians. (Archseologia Britan. vol. v. 1779, 

 p. 318-324; and vol. vi. 1782, p. 107.) I have had them 

 engraved in the "Picturesque Atlas" which accompanies 

 the historical portion of my Travels to the Equinoctial Re- 

 gions. Antiquaries are astonished at the similarity of these 

 ornaments (resembling a well-known Grecian form), to those 

 of the Palace of Mitla, near Oaxaca, in Mexico. In looking 

 at Peruvian carvings, I have never remarked any figures of the 

 large-nosed race of men, so frequently represented in the bas- 

 reliefs of Palenque in Guatimala, and in the Aztec paint- 

 ings. Klaproth remembered having seen individuals with 

 similar large noses among the Chalcas, a northern Mogul 

 tribe. It is well known that many tribes of the North 

 American red or copper-coloured Indians have fine aquiline 

 noses ; and that this is an essential physiognomic distinction 

 between them and the present inhabitants of Mexico, New 

 Granada, Quito, and Peru. Are the large-eyed, compara- 

 tively fair-complexioned people, spoken of by Marchand as 

 having been seen in 54 and 58 lat. on the north-west 

 coast of America, descended from an Alano-Gothic race, the 

 Usuni of the interior of Asia ? 



( 52 ) p. 25. "Apparently weaponless, and yet prepared 

 for murder" 



The Otomacs often poison the thumb-nail with Curare. 



A mere scratch of the nail is deadly if the curare mixes 



with the blood. We obtained specimens of the climbing 



plant, from the juice of which the curare is prepared, at 



