RORAIMA. 329 
savannah had, I am sorry to say, no success beyond 
catching six specimens of a small kind of Cavia (C. leu- 
copyga) which is called by them “ Attu.” Considered 
as edible, the animal did not look by any means inviting, 
as it had a decided likeness to a large rat except that 
the tail was wanting. These six rat-like creatures were 
the only result of the day’s stag-hunting and there was 
nothing else to eat except cassava bread. The Indians 
praised their fine flavour, but this could hardly be de- 
pended on when their strange ideas of pleasant flavours 
were considered, however I ordered the six attus to be 
prepared for supper by my cook. 
Meanwhile I examined the colleétions made for me by 
several of the Indians and found them to consist chiefly 
of plants, of which they brought only those parts 
of least value for the herbarium, entirely ignoring 
the flowers and fruits. When some fine leaves attraéted 
their attention they gathered flowerless branches, and 
among these the magnificent Thibaudia nutans with rosy 
immature leaves, the elegant Weinmannia ovalis with 
tender light-green beautifully shaped leaves, Melastomas 
with red velvetty leaves, and soon. The most interesting 
things which JoHN’s wife had colleéted was that mag- 
_nificent Rapatez, Saxo-Fredericia regalis which I men- 
tioned in describing my journey over the Membaru 
mountains, and the superb Utricularia Humboldtii with 
three or four large brilliant ultramarine flowers on long 
stalks. Not to discourage the Indians from colleéting I 
put all their plants between the drying papers whether 
they were worth anything or not, intending to throw 
away those that were useless on returning to my hut. 
After doing this [ lay in my hammock in hungry expecta- 
