quantities  to  other  places.  According  to  the  best  historians,  the 
cities  along  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  were  in  the  habit  of  paying  to  tjre 
Astecs  annually,  among  oth.er  products,  a tribute  of  1 6,000  cargoes 
of  elastic  gum.  Among  other  uses  to  which  this  article  was  put 
included  the  manufacture  of  balls  used  by  them  in  their  games 
which  use  extended,  among  certain  of  our  indigenous  tribes,  right 
down  to  the  South  of  Brazil. 
The  primitive  name  given  to  elastic  gum  in  Mexico  was  JJle,  (i) 
ule^  or  hule  which  was  adapted  and  got  perpetuated  by  those  of 
our  savages  descended  from  the  Caribs. 
By  the  human  avalanche  occurring  from  north  to  south  and 
spreading  into  South  America,  the  use  of  elastic  gum  became 
vulgarised.  One  of  the  subdivision  of  the  tribe  of  Nauhds  reach- 
ing New  Grenada  and  there  establishing  themselves,  were  accused 
of  cannibalism  and  harassed  by  the  Spanish  conquerors,  when  dis- 
persing again,  one  section  descended  and  reached  the  Amazon 
River. 
This  section  of  Nauhas  took  various  nam.es,  becoming  corrupted 
eventually  into  Nauhud,  Magud,  Omand  and  Omngua.  Warred 
against  by  the  tribes  already  established  along  the  margins  of  this 
great  river,  they  were  by  these  tribes  called  Cambebas  (2)  that  is  to 
S3iy,^al  heads  from  their  use  of  the  platycephaliay  which  custom 
disappeared  towards  the  end  of  the  last  century,  on  the  advent  in 
that  region,  of  religion  and  civilization. 
This  tribe  of  Omanas  gave  to  those  tribes  already  inhabiting  this 
region,  their  knowledge  of  elastic  gum,  of  its  application  and  of  its 
preparation  for  the  use  of  civilization. 
The  Nauhas  utilized  the  Ule  (Castilloa  elastica  Cerv.)  and  the 
Omanas,  not  finding  this  in  the  Amazons,  substituted  with  advan- 
tage the  Hevea,  giving  to  it  also  the  name  of  Ule.  This  name  the 
Caribs  of  Guiana  corrupted  into  Heve.  The  French  botanist  AUBLET 
adopted  this  name  scientifically  and  from  it  arose  the  genus  Hevea. 
By  the  coagulation  of  the  milk  furnished  by  these  trees,  the 
Omanas  prepared,  by  processes  acquired  from  their  ancestors, 
flambeaux,  balls,  tubs,  flagons  &c.,  for  their  damestic  use  and 
as  repositories  for  their  beverages.  Among  other  objects  prepared 
by  these  people  figured  the  syringe  [Seringa)  using  it  in  their 
festivals,  likewise  in  cases  of  sickness. 
Though  elastic  gum  was  known  to  the  Cambebas  since  the  six- 
teenth century,  they  were  yet  ingorant  of  the  source  from  which  it 
came  or  how  it  was  prepared.  Later  on,  towards  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  when  the  Portuguese  missions  began  to  ex- 
tend, and  through  them,  products  from  the  Amazons  were  remitted 
to  Europe,  were  many  articles  made  by  these  Cambebas  or  Omauas 
from  Ule. 
The  first  known  elastic  gum  in  Europe,  came  from  the  East 
Indies,  and  its  use  was  exclusively  confined,  until  1820,  to  eras- 
ing pencil  lines  made  on  paper,  hence  the  derivation  of  the  name 
(1)  is  an  Asiatic  word  introduced  by  the  Phoenicians  from  Greece,  meaning 
dripping  water,  and  which  gave  origin  to  the  word  nligo,  humidity. 
(2)  From  Akong  head,  and  pena  flat. 
