240 SEPULCHRAL CAVE. 



CHAP. XIX. greatest distances from each otlicr, and tlie most different 

 ^ in respect to civilisation. Tlie inhabitants of the little 



pottery. mission of Maypures execute them at the present day 

 on their most common pottery. They adorn the shields 

 of the Otaheitans, the fisliing-instruments of the Esqui- 

 maux, the walls of the Mexican palace of Mitla, and 

 the vases of Magna Gra;cia. 



Cranio. " ^^® opened, to the great concern of our guides, 



several mapires, for the purpose of attentively examining 

 the form of the skulls. They all presented the charac- 

 ters of the American race, — two or three only ap- 

 proached the Caucasian form. We took several skulls, 

 the skeleton of a child of six or seven years, and those 

 of two full-grown men, of the nation of the Atures. 

 All these bones, some painted red, others covered with 

 odorous resins, were placed in the mapires or baskets 

 already described. They formed nearly the whole 

 lading of a mule ; and, as we were aware of the super- 

 stitious aversion which the natives show towards dead 

 bodies, after they have given them burial, we carefully 



Acntenessof covered the baskets with new mats. Unfortunately 



tlie Indians, for us, the penetration of the Indians, and the extreme 

 delicacy of their organs of smell, rendered our precau- 

 tions useless. Wherever we stopped, — in tlie Carib inis- 

 sions, in the midst of the Llanos, between Angostura and 

 New Barcelona, — the natives collected around our 

 mules to admire the monkeys which we had brought 

 from the Orinoco. These good people had scarcely 

 touched our baggage when they predicted the approach- 

 ing death of the beast of burden ' that carried the dead.' 

 In vain we told them that they were deceived in their 

 conjectures, that the panniers contained bones of croco- 

 diles and lamantins ; they persisted in repeating, that 

 they smelt the resin which surrounded the skeletons, 

 and that ' they were some of their old relatives.' 



" We departed in silence from the cave of Ataruipe. 

 It was one of those calm and serene nights which are so 

 common in the torrid zone. The stars shone with a 

 mild and planetary light ; their scintillation was 



