382 



venomous serpents. Tims they have been for 

 ages an article of trade among the natives, both 

 in the north and on the south of the Oroonoko. 

 The Caribbees, who may be considered as the 

 Buchanans of the New World, made them 

 known on the coast of Guyana ; and the same 

 stones, like money in circulation, having passed 

 successively from nation to nation in opposite 

 directions, their quantity is perhaps not aug- 

 mented, and the spot which produces them is 

 rather unknown than concealed. In the midst 

 of enlightened Europe, on occasion of a warm 

 contest respecting native bark, a few years ago, 

 the green stones of the Oroonoko were gravely 

 proposed as a powerful febrifuge. After this 

 appeal to the credulity of the Europeans, we 

 cannot be surprised to learn, that the Spanish 

 planters share the predilection of the Indians for 

 these amulets, and that they are sold at a very 

 considerable price *. The form given to them most 

 frequently is that of the Persepolitan cylinders^, 

 longitudinally perforated, and loaded with in- 

 scriptions and figures. But it is not the Indians 

 of our days, the natives of the Oroonoko and 

 the Amazon, whom we find in the last degree 

 of barbarism, that pierced such hard substances, 



# The price of a cylinder two inches long is from twelve 

 to fifteen piastres. 



t Dorow, ueber die Assyrische KeiUchrift, 1820, p. 4. 



