262 
The Legenü of the Amazons. 
Vol. 1. p. lyJ:, loS) some of whom he would gladly have caught and 
taken with him to present to Queen Isabella."! All the more extra- 
ordinary therefore must be the recent publication in New York of a book 
under the name of "El Dorado" wherein a certain van Heuvel tries not 
only to retain the original size of the mythic Parima Lake, although he 
is vei-y well acquainted with Alexander von Humboldt's works, but 
where, according to the attached maps, even at the present day, from out 
of the lake in question we have the Kio Branco streaming into the 
Takutu, Eio Negro, and Amazon stream, the Cuyuni pouring into the 
Siparuni, Mazaruni, and Essequibo, and finally the Paragua into the 
Orinoco. Van Ileuvel was never in the interioi.' of Guiana: all he 
did Avas only and solely to pick up hurriedly and greedily all the in- 
formation he possibly could relative to the geographical relations of 
Guiana, El Dorado and the Amazon without submitting it to critical 
examination. He was anxious to preserve the historical truth of those 
poetical fancies and repeated, without l)othering himself over it, what 
had been already puldislied. Van Heuvel gives Lake Parima a length of 
2.50 miles. Just as he still believes in this wonderful lake and all its 
mythical glory, so in his imagination, excited by the fantastic tales and 
legends alleged to liave been received from Mahanarva, the last Cacique 
of the Caribs, he still harbours a republic of viragoes. According to 
what Mahanarva told hira, these women occupy a spot on the river 
Wara which is entirely enclosed by mountains to which only one single 
entrance, a single opening, leads. In fact he also names from hearsay 
the tribe which tlie Amazons annually visit: they are the Teyrous or 
Tairas in Cayenne, of Carib stock. The river Ouassa is a branch of the 
Oyapok where Condamine says these "long-ear" Indians lived, as was 
stated to liave lieen the case by Harcourt during his journey in the year 
1608 : its inhabitants are Caribs, of which long-eared nation some occupy 
the Marawini. We found the myths concerning the Amazons most 
widely distributed amongst the Macusis and Arawaks, and we had no 
reason whatever to grumble at any reticence, because information was 
vei-y readily imparted to us by eveiybody, though in general it was but 
a repetition of wliat was already known. Every tribe transferred the 
locality to a different place which up till now had not been visited and 
accordingly remained unknown to it. ^ An Arawak chief told me that his 
brother, who lived on the upper Mazaruni, had visited them on one 
occasion and had received from the Wirisamoca as he called the Amazons, 
one of their green stones as a present. They worked their fields without 
any male help, used the bow and blow-pipe and permitted men to visit 
them annually but once : his brother, hoAvever, had been charged by the 
Wirisamocas to invite his triliesmen to come and see them, but the 
number of visitors accompanying him must; not exceed twenty. Male 
children were killed. The old chief had heard this from his own 
brother, but none of the Indians whom I interviewed concerning these 
fabled women had seen tliem themselves: this had always been the luck 
of their grandfather, father, or some relative or other who was nofi iio^ 
+ Alex, von Humboldt : Sxamm o-itiqub dä Vhistoire de Id geograpkie^ etc, aocordino to the 
translation, 'Vol. I, p. 275. 
