INTERIOR OF THE CAVE. 



89 



is subsequently melted in clay vessels over fires of 

 brushwood. This substance is semifluid, transpa- 

 rent, destitute of smell, and keeps above a year with- 

 out becoming rancid. At the convent of Caripe it 

 was used in the kitchen of the monks, and our trav- 

 ellers never found that it communicated any dis- 

 agreeable smell or taste to the food. 



The guacharoes would have been long ago de- 

 stroyed, had not the superstitious dread of the In- 

 dians prevented them from penetrating far into the 

 cavern. It also appears, that birds of the same 

 species dwell in other inaccessible places in the 

 neighbourhood, and that the great cave is repeopled 

 by colonies from them. The hard and dry fruits 

 which are found in the crops and gizzards of the 

 young ones are considered as an excellent remedy 

 against intermittent fevers, and regularly sent to Ca- 

 riaco and other parts of the lower districts where 

 such diseases prevail. 



The travellers followed the banks of the small 

 river which issues from the cavern as far as the 

 mounds of calcareous incrustations permitted them, 

 and afterward descended into its bed. The cave 

 preserved the same direction, breadth, and height 

 as at its entrance, to the distance of 1554 feet. The 

 natives having a belief that the souls of their an- 

 cestors inhabit its deep recesses, the Indians who 

 accompanied our travellers could hardly be persuaded 

 to venture into it. Shooting at random in the dark, 

 they obtained two specimens of the guacharo. Hav- 

 ing proceeded to a certain distance, they came to a 

 mass of stalactite, beyond which the cave became 

 narrower, although it retained its original direction. 

 Here the rivulet had deposited a blackish mould re- 

 sembling that observed at Muggendorf in Franconia. 

 The seeds which the birds carry to their young 

 spring up wherever they are dropped into it ; and M. 

 Humboldt and his friend were astonished to find 

 blanched stalks that had attained a height of two feet. 

 H2 



