RORAIMA. 341 
The sun rose higher, the wind blew and commenced to 
tear asunder the veil of clouds, their great detached frag- 
ments floated towards the cliff and united in lines to form 
a screen, until the wind reached them here also and played 
its daily pranks, chasing them swiftly along the great wall. 
I ascended one of the colossal boulders which lay 
around, sat down on the top and commenced to sketch 
the cliff of Roraima. From the tops of the high trees, 
saturated with moisture, which overhung the rock, great 
drops fell without ceasing upon me and my sketch-book, 
and rendered my work very difficult. Besides this my 
hands were cramped by the cold so that my patience 
was tried to the utmost. Remembering now the name 
of Beckeranta I called my hunter and interpreter, WEY- 
TORREH, so that he might relate the story while I was 
sketching—the story of Beckeranta, the vale of Kuke- 
naam, the grave of the murdered Indians which I had seen 
the day before from the cliff of Roraima. I give it here 
in brief :— ; 
Twenty-four years ago there lived in the settlement 
of Ibirima-yeng, at the foot of Roraima, a Piaiman 
named AWACAIPU, who had, by his great cunning and 
fraud, become famous among the superstitious Indians, 
and was looked upon by them as a superior being. In 
his youth he had resided for some time in Georgetown 
and was one of the attendants of SCHOMBURGK in his 
explorations of the interior, whereby he had acquired 
some knowledge of the English language as well as the 
arts, tricks and bad habits of the negroes and coloured 
people with whom he hadassociated. By means of these 
acquirements he managed, after his return to Ibirima- 
yeng, to acquire some influence over his countrymen, 
XX 
