229 



The sports in which the people indulge them- 

 selves, and which are called games of carries 

 iollendas, assume sometimes a little of a savage 

 character. Some led an ass loaded with water, 

 and, wherever they found a window open, 

 sprinkled the apartment within by means of a 

 pump. Others carry bags filled with the hairs 

 of picapica, or dolichos pruriens ; and blow the 

 hair, which causes a great irritation of the skin, 

 into the faces of those who pass by. 



From Guacara we returned to Nueva Valen- 

 cia *. We found there a few French emigrants, 

 the only ones we saw during five years passed 

 in the Spanish colonies. Notwithstanding the 

 ties of blood, that unite the royal families of 

 France and Spain, even French priests were not 

 permitted to take refuge in that part of the New 

 World, where man with such facility finds food 

 and shelter. Beyond the ocean, the United 

 States of America afforded the only asylum to 



* I found the latitude of the Hacienda de Cura, one of 

 the best determined points, 10° 15' 40"; that of Guacara, 

 10° 11' 23"; that of Nueva Valencia, 10° 9' 56", (Obs. Ast., 

 vol. i, p. 190—204, and 207—209. The variation of the 

 needle, at the Hacienda de Cura, on the 17th of February, 

 1800, was 4° 48' 50" N. E. The magnetic dip amounted, 

 at Hacienda de Cura, to 41-20° ; at Nueva Valencia, to 

 41*75°. In these two places, the oscillations in ten minutes 

 time were two hundred and thirty and two hundred and 

 twenty-four. All these observations were made in the open 

 air, far from any edifice. See above, chap, xv, p. 108. 



