472 



natives of those countries have retained the be- 

 lief, that, " at the time of the great waters, when 

 " their fathers were forced to have recourse to 

 " boats, to escape the general inundation, the 

 % waves of the sea beat against the rocks of En- 

 % caramada." This belief is not confined to one 

 nation singly, the Tamanacks ; it makes part of 

 a system of historical traditions, of which we find 

 scattered notions among the May pu res of the 

 great cataracts ; among the Indians of Rio Ere- 

 vato*, which runs into the Caura; and among 

 almost all the tribes of the Upper Oroonoko. 

 When the Tamanacks are asked how the human 

 race survived this great deluge, the age of water 

 of the Mexicans, they say, " a man and a woman 

 saved themselves on a high mountain, called 

 Tamanacu, situate on the banks of the Asiveru ; 

 and, casting behind them, over their heads, the 

 fruits of the mauritia palm-tree, they saw the 

 seeds contained in those fruits produce men and 

 women, who repeopled the Earth." Thus we 

 find in all it's simplicity, among nations now 

 savage, a tradition, which the Greeks have em- 

 bellished with all the charms of imagination ! 

 A few leagues from Encaramada, a rock, called 

 Tepu-mereme, or " the painted rock," rises in the 



* For the Indians of the Erevato, I can cite the testimony 

 of our unfortunate friend, Fray Juan Gonzales, who lived for 

 a long time in the missions of the Caura. See above, vol. iii, 

 p. 351. 



