XII 
IN HUMBOLDT'S COUNTRY 
411 
passed in one place a lane which some squall had 
opened through the trees, extending westwards to 
the limits of vision ; its breadth was perhaps 40 
yards. The trees were rarely uprooted, but were 
broken off at about 15 feet from the ground as if 
some giant hand had passed over them. 
There were but two houses completed in the 
usual style of the Rio Negro and Orinoco ; one 
is Tussari's, the other the casa real. They are 
very neat — whitened outside and inside and painted 
in original devices by Tussari's own hand — the 
colours being red and black. Inside I noticed 
some figures of men wearing coats, and some on 
horseback. I was more interested in the other 
houses (two or three) in the ancient style of the 
Maquiri tares — from a circular base they are sub- 
hemispherical and tapering to the apex almost in 
the form of a Turkish minaret. They all consist 
of the broad fronds of Bussii palm fastened on 
there on protuberances. Like other mountains, this shows many white patches 
(mica). 
There is another pueblo — San Jose, above San Francisco, and there is 
only one raudal between them. There is also a passage by land from one 
to the other. 
From San Francisco to the Ventuari by land takes four days. 
This information about the Upper Cunucunuma I derived from a Portuguese, 
Senhor Jose do Eirado, who went there in June 1854. During his stay with 
Tussari there came a number of Maquiritares from Padamo, their captain and 
six others by water and fourteen by land. Their object was to make a Dabo- 
curi for Tussari, and they brought presents, ollas, guapas, and roasted frogs and 
grubs. 
The articles which the Maquiritares trade with the whites are curiaras 
(cascos, of which they furnish the largest and best that appear on the Rio 
Negro), guapa, curari, and gravatanas, manioc, Aceite de Cuparba, Seringa 
(only lately begun), carana, and tagamahaca, the two last only when particularly 
commissioned beforehand. 
Senhor Eirado found the water of the Cunucunuma with a decidedly whitish 
tinge in the winter. Mosquitoes were few, as also on the Orinoco and at 
Esmeralda. 
