164 
Ete-1)isease Amongst the Indians. 
ornaments were to be seen in tlie pierced ears : several also wore them in 
the bored under-lip: with some, the sticks in the ears were replaced by 
little birds' heads. The neck was decorated with strings of pekari 
tusks, or monkeys' canines, from which long threads Avith tufts of birds' 
skins or roughly-stutted squirrel skins hung down the back. The waist- 
belt was made of liuman hair. AYe got to see really little or nothing of 
the Avomen and girls, as they did not come out from hiding, but Avatched 
us from a respectful distance. They also had the Avhole body painted 
with arnatto: their necklaces Avere strung Avith laba's incisors, or 
monkeys' canines: they were strongly tattooed from the corners of the 
mouth to the ears. Tliey Avore their long black hair carefully plaited and 
done up at the nape of the neck in a knob. This was the toilette of the 
otherwise well-proportioned female figures. The settlement consisted of 
23 people of whom the greatest number suffered from bad eye-disease: 
two of the occupants were quite blind, and the chief not far from it. The 
blind ones at least wanted to feel us, and for that purpose were led to 
us to squeeze our hands : their eyes were less inflamed but on the other 
hand covered with a thick white film.* These symptoms of disease 
surprised us all the more, as we had never found them so generally 
present since we left the Warraus. 
393. The language of the XrekunasI appears to differ only dialecti- 
cally from the Macusis. 
394. Our two Indians Avho had hastened ahead (sect. 378) had 
already left again in the morning, and had placed in front of the house 
the provisions — a bundle of plantains, a couple of baskets with yams 
and' some sugar-cane — that could be spared by the residents. The 
assurance of the old chief that in all the settlenients to be visited on our 
way to Roraima, we Avould find just as little as at his place, disheartened 
ns more than the vanished liope of a hearty meal to-day. As a result of 
the family feud already mentioned (sect. 376) a large number of the 
Arekunas had betaken themselves farther Avestwards: the provision-fields 
however had been partly destroyed by the victors, and owing to the 
war had remained partly uncultivated. We had up till now seen just 
as little game in the attractive valley as on the rocky heights, and the 
finger-long fish in the streams, mostly belonging to the genus Hypostoma 
Avould have to be caught in their thousands to satisfy the more than 
70 liungry mouths. Vegetables remained our only consolation. 
395. Under these depressing circumstances our stay could only be 
of short duration and after willingly accepting the offer of two young 
men to accompany us to Roraima, although this meant two more mouths 
to fill, and after two old Avomen had summoned up sufficient courage to 
bring us three cassav^a cakes, some roasted maize, and several calabashes 
of casiri, Avhich latter we gladly handed over to our Indians, Ave left 
Yawangra settlement more doAvnhearted than Avhen Ave reached it. In 
the course of a few hours we were to meet another settlement, where 
however we should find just as little food. 
The thick white film over the eye refers to corneal opacity, the result of pa,«c septic 
mmation and ulceration of the cornea (ulcerative Keratitis.) (F.G-.R.) 
