12 
The Powis and the Southern Ckoss. 
vmnna cliooses the Mauiitia for its breeding place, so do the Cassicus 
pcraicKS and C. cristotiis partäcnlai ly prefer the isolated standing Cordia 
from which to hang their piirse-shaix^d nests, that naturally assist in 
making the tree look still more extraordinaiy than it already is. 
Ii 29. Just as plentiful as the Cordia tetrapJtyUa was an arborescent 
MalpigJiia the ripe orange-coloured berries of Avhich covered the whole 
ground, where they were eagerly gathered by our Indians ; by no manner 
of means conld we discover the *'sweet-tootli" they found in them. More 
beautiful in its form and brancli-structure however seemed to me a 
Mimosa with bright grey trunk and fine feathery vivid green leaves. 
Unfortunately we found no blossoms on either of these very interesting 
trees . 
30. A somewhat cleaner spot on tlie left bank of the Mahu offered 
us a convenient camping ground. It was some hours after our uirival 
tliat both boats put in an ai)i)('aranee. As the Mahu had coffee-brown 
water, and the Takutu a greenish -blue one — which again reminded me 
very forcibly of the pleasant waters of my native Rhine, except that the 
eye searched in vain for the proud liattlements of the old feudal castles 
and simply found an immense yellow })lain — so here also, as in the case of 
the Essetjuibo and the Rupununi, the dividing line of the ^x aters of botii 
streams only disappeared after a long stretch. At the junction of their 
two sides, the breadth of the ^lahu amounted to 263 yards, and that of 
the Takutu to 192, which might easily lead us to assume that the latter 
is a tributary of the former. The Wapisianas and Atorais, who occupy 
its basin, call it Butu-auuru: our Macusis called the Mahu Ireng. As 
the geographical latitude of tiie junction of botli streams liad not yet been 
determined, it was necessarj' to remain here until the sky should p'^rmit 
of taking astronomical observations. Owing to this delay my lov-i for 
the chase found plenty of scope on account of the numerous Psittaewi 
that were met with. The Cucurit and Sawari palms sheltered t)ie blue 
macaws, the IMalpighia laden with ripe fruit had its lovely sun-parrots 
{Psittaeiifi solstitialis Linn., Kessi-Kessi of the Indians), which I also saw 
here for the firet time, while the broad forest belt proved a favouiite 
resort of the beautiful ITokko-hen (Cra.r tomonfofia S])ix, Oiira.r fri/thro- 
rjij/)ic]nts! Sw., Pauitiiinia of t>ie Indians). As the glorious nu4allic-lus- 
tred bird is found only in the forested banks of the savannah streams 
tlie Tolonists call it tlie Savannah Powis. 
31. According to the circum-meridian altitude of the Southern 
Cross, the mouth of the Mahu is situate in 3° 35' 8" lat. N.. This beau- 
tiful constellation is generally regarded by the Indians as the abode of 
the Spirit of the Savannah, just as they also wanted us to believe that 
the moment it reaches the zenith, the fact is notified to them by the 
deep wailing note of the Pauituimas. We had always disavowedly laughed 
at this assurance. For although the statement had once previously been 
really confirmed, and the Cross happened to have reached its zenitli at 
the very time that the bird usually sounds its liollow melancholy note, 
namely, at 4 o'clock in the morning, we could not in tliis one particular 
case be quite satisfied with its corroboration. But on the 4th April, the 
alpha of the Cross had ju^^t reached its meridian at 35 ininutes past 11 at 
