ITINERARY. XXIX 



if they were all right. The settlement Avas much farther in, and we 

 did not get to it till mvich later. 



It does not seem likely, from the description given by Boddam- 

 Whetham, that the place they called Cashew Cottage could have been 

 near this site; though there certainly wei'e cashew trees here as at 

 other places, and only one house, of the usual type, with conical palm- 

 thatched roof and cla3'-wattled sides, with open sheds close by, under 

 which a good deal of the daytime is spent. The house, however, was 

 an enormous structure of its kind, larger than any I had previously 

 seen except one at the village of Pelowmata, between the Kotinga and 

 Ireng rivers, where we had spent a day during the return on our first 

 journey. It was clearly the home of a large number of people, many 

 of whom were awny at the time. 



Here we saw the only really old Indian I had ever come across in all 

 the colony. He had long white — almost yellow-tinted — hair, and was 

 so feeble and helpless that he had always to be taken out to be sunned. 

 He mumbled to us when we touched him and spoke to him, but we 

 could not catch his words; and the others said that he Avas telling us 

 that he had been with Schomburgk. In this case he must have been 

 Avell over seventy, which I believe to be an extreme old age among 

 these people. 



Around the house was a very extensive area of provision-fields, some 

 of which were in a more or less abandoned state, largely covered with 

 weeds, but with growths of banana, papaw, and sugar-cane scattered 

 about. The rest was fairly well kept, and stocked with mainly cassava, 

 though there were plenty of yam, corn, sugar-cane, pumpkin, banana, 

 etc., between the large trunks of trees which had been felled to make 

 the fields, and the smaller parts of which had been burnt when dry in 

 clearing. It extended over several low hills, on one of which the house 

 was built, and across the intervening valleys. The soil around was 

 clearly good, and the fields had thus been spread widely in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the settlement, rather than at a distance, as so often is the 

 case when houses have been made on sites not favourable for agri- 

 culture, but selected for some other special reason. 



From the highest elevation in a far corner, we were informed that when 

 it is clear a view could be had of Mount Ruraima, and we went on the 

 chance, and were rewarded by a splendid spectacle. Above the line of 

 high trees on the other side of the fields, the mountain I'ose in vivid 

 clearness, the grey-white walls of the perpendicular pediment looking 

 grand and imposing, perched on its sloping glacis. It looked so com- 

 paratively near in its clear outline that it was diflicult to believe it 

 Avas so many miles away, except when one realised that one was looking 

 at some eight or nine miles of length in the escarpment. Even at that 

 distance, we saAv, or imagined tliat we could see, some sort of bre:ik or 

 channel on the line, which we were told was an indication of the 

 position of water falling to the Ivako, the fall being a large one in 

 heavy rains. We had no intention whatever of attempting to fiml any 

 new way up on the unknown western face, so that from the ajipnrent 

 propinquity of the mountain we felt very happy in the belief that we 

 had come by the very ])est route, and that it would not be loTig licfofe 

 we rounded the south-eastern corner and reached our destination. 



