242 



CLAY EATEN BY THE OTOJfACS. 



Mission of 

 Uruana. 



CHAV.XIX. who was with thciii, dissuaded him with difficulty from 

 Crocodilea so hazardous an enterprise ; and shortly after two large 

 crocodiles made their appearance, attracted by the 

 plaintive cries of the monkeys. At length the Indians 

 arrived with the vessel, and the navigation was continued 

 during part of the night. At Carichana the missionary 

 received them with kindness. Here the travellers 

 remained some days to recruit their exhausted strength, 

 and M. Bonpland had the satisfaction of dissecting a 

 manatee. 



From Carichana they went in two days to the mission 

 of Uruana, the situation of which is extremely pictur- 

 esque, the village being placed at the foot of a lofty 

 granitic mountain, the columnar rocks appearing at 

 intervals above the trees. Here the river is more than 

 6530 yards broad, and runs in a straight line directly 

 east. The hamlet is inhabited by the Otomacs, one of 

 tlie rudest of the American tribes. These Indians 

 swallow quantities of eartli for the purpose of allaying 

 hunger. When the waters are low they live on fish and 

 turtles : but when tlie rivers swell, and it becomes dif- 

 ficult to procure that food, they eat daily a large portion 

 of clay. The travellers found in their huts heaps of it 

 in the form of balls, piled up in pyramids three or four 

 E(Lblcc]ay. feet high. This substance is fine and unctuous, of a 

 yellowish-gray colour, containing silica and alumina, 

 with three or four per cent, of lime. Being a restless 

 and turbulent people, with unbridled passions and 

 excessively given to intoxication, the little village of 

 Uruana is more difficult to govern than any of the other 

 missions. By inhaling at the nose the powder obtained 

 fnjhi the pods of the Acacia niopo they throw themselves 

 into a state of intoxication bordering on madness, that 

 lasts sjveral days, during which dreadful murders are 

 committed. The most vindictive cover the nail of the 

 thuml) with the curare poison, the slightest scratch being 

 tiius sufficient to produce death. When this crime is 

 perpetrated at night they throw the body into the river. 

 "Every time," said the monk, "that I see the women 



