MALLERY.] PETROGLYPHS IN COLOMBIA. 143 
there rises in the middle of the savannah the rock Tepu-Mereme, or painted rock. 
It shows several figures of animals and symbolical outlines which resemble much 
those observed by us at some distance above Encaramada, near Cayeara. Rocks 
thus marked are found between the Cassiquiare and the Atabapo and, what is par- 
ticularly remarkable, 560 geographical miles farther to the east, in the solitudes of 
Parime. Nicholas Hortsmann found on the banks of the Rupunuri, at the spot 
where the river winding between the Macarana mountains forms several small 
cascades, and before arriving at the district immediately surrounding lake Amucu, 
“rocks covered with figures,” or, as he says in Portuguese, ‘de varias letras.” We were 
shown at the rock of Culimacari, on the banks of the Cassiquiare, signs which were 
called characters, arranged in lines, but they were only ill-shaped figures of heavenly 
bodies, boa-serpents, and the utensils employed in preparing manioe meal. I have 
never found among these painted rocks (piedras pintadas) any symmetrical arrange- 
ment or any regular eyen-spaced characters. Iam therefore disposed to think that 
the word “letras,” in Hortsmann’s journal, must not be taken in the strictest sense. 
Schomburgk saw and described other petroglyphs on the banks of the Essequibo, 
near the cascade of Warraputa. Neither promises nor threats could preyail on the 
Indians to give a single blow with a hammer to these rocks, the venerable monu- 
ments of the superior mental cultivation of their predecessors. They regard them 
as the work of the Great Spirit, and the different tribes whom we met with, though 
living at a great distance, were nevertheless acquainted with them. Terror was 
painted on the faces of my Indian companions, who appeared to expect every moment 
that the fire of heaven would fall on my head. I saw clearly that my endeavors 
to detach a portion of the rock would be fruitless, and I contented myself with 
bringing away a complete drawing of these memorials. Even the veneration every- 
where testified by the Indians of the present day for these rude sculptures of their 
predecessors show that they have no idea of the execution of similar works. There 
is another circumstance which should be mentioned. Between Encaramada and 
Cayeara, on the banks of the Orinoco, a number of these hieroglyphical figures are 
sculptured on the face of precipices at a height which could now be reached only by 
means of extraordinarily high seaftolding. If one asks the natives how these figures 
have been eut, they answer, laughing, as if it were a fact of which none but a white 
man could be ignorant, that ‘‘in the days of the great waters their fathers went in 
canoes at that height.” 
UNITED STATES OF COLOMBIA, 
Mr. W. H. Holmes (b), of the Bureau of Ethnology, gives this account 
of petroglyphs in the province of Chiriqui, state of Panama: 
Pictured rocks.—Our accounts of these objects are very meager. The only one 
definitely described is the ‘‘piedra pintal.” A few of the figures engraved upon it 
are given by Seemann, from whom the following paragraph is quoted: 
“At Caldera, a few leagues (north) from the town of David, lies a granite block 
known to the country people as the piedra pintal or painted stone. It is 15 feet 
high, nearly 50 feet in circumference, and flat on the top. Every part, especially 
the eastern side, is covered with figures. One represents a radiant sun; it is fol- 
lowed by a series of heads, all with some variations, scorpions, and fantastic figures. 
The top and the other side have signs of a circular and oval form, crossed by lines. 
The sculpture is ascribed to the Dorachos (or Dorasques), but to what purpose the 
stone was applied no historical account or tradition reveals.” 
These inscriptions are irregularly placed and much scattered. They are thought 
to have been originall, nearly an inch deep, but in places are almost effaced by 
weathering, thus giving a suggestior of great antiquity. Tracings of these figures 
made recently by Mr A. L Pinart show decided differences in detail, and Mr. Me- 
Niel gives still another transcrip 
