RELIGIOUS MUMMERY. 315 
for plants, their guides showed them a thick bush 
of acacia cornigera, which had acquired celebrity 
from the following occurrence: A woman, wearied 
of the well-founded jealousy of her husband, bound 
him at night with the assistance of her paramour, 
and threw him into it. The thorns of this species 
of acacia are exceedingly sharp, and of great length, 
and the shrub is infested by ants. The more the 
unfortunate man struggled, the more severely was 
he lacerated by the prickles, and when his cries at 
Jength attracted some persons who were passing, he 
was found covered with blood, and cruelly torment- 
ed by the ants. 
At Carthagena the travellers met with several 
persons whose society was not less agreeable than 
instructive ; and in the house of an officer of artillery, 
Don Domingo Esquiaqui, found a very curious col- 
lection of paintings, models of machinery, and mi- 
nerals. ‘They had also an opportunity of witnessing 
the pageant of the Pascua. Nothing, says Hum- 
boldt, could rival the oddness of the dresses of tie 
principal personages in these processions. Beggars, 
earrying a crown of thorns on their heads, asked 
alms, with crucifixes in their hands, and habited in 
black robes. Pilate was arrayed in a garb of striped 
silk, and the apostles, seated round a large table 
covered with sweetmeats, were carried on the shoul- 
ders of Zambos. At sunset, effigies of Jews in 
French vestments, and formed of straw and other 
eombustibles, were burnt in the principal streets. 
Dreading the insalubrity of the town, the travel- 
lers retired on the 6th April to the Indian village 
of Turbaco, situated in a beautiful district, at the 
entrance of a large forest, about 174 miles to the 
south-west of the Popa, one of the most remarkable 
