182 CARNIVAL. | 
year its leaves are not moistened by a shower ; its 
branches look as if they were dead and withered ; 
but when the trunk is bored, a bland and nourish- 
ing milk flows from it. It is at sunrise that the 
vegetable fountain flows most freely. At that time 
the blacks and natives are seen coming from all 
parts, provided with large bowls to receive the milk, 
which grows yellow and thickens at its surface. 
Some empty their vessels on the spot, while others 
earry them to their children. One imagines he sees 
the family of a shepherd who is eemey ec the milk 
of his flock.” : 
_ The travellers had resolved to visit the eastern 
extremity of the cordilleras of New Grenada, where 
they end in the Paramos of Tirnotes and Niquitas ; 
but learning at Barbula that this excursion would 
retard their arrival at the Orinoco thirty-five days, 
they judged it prudent to relinquish it, lest they. 
should fail in the real object of their journey, that of 
ascertaining by astronomical observations the point — 
at which the Rio Negro and the River of Amazons 
communicate with the former stream. They therefore 
returned to Guacara, to take leave of the family of 
the Marquis del Toro, and pass three days more on 
the shores of the Lake of Valencia. It happened to 
be the time of carnival, and all was gayety. The 
games in which the common people indulged were 
occasionally not of the most pleasant kind. Some led 
about an ass laden with water, with which they 
sprinkled the apartments wherever they found an 
open window ; while others, carrying bags full of 
the hairs of the Dolichos pruriens, which excite 
great irritation of the skin, blew them into the faces 
of those who were passing by. From Guacara they 
