62 
Bota7iical Reminisce^ices. 
Europeans, in wliicli ceremony lie was followed by all his 
subjects from the oldest man and oldest woman to the 
smallest boy and girl, with the exclamation, Bakung- 
baimong (good day, and welcome). 
Such a hearty reception we never had before received from 
the fair sex, and we were the more surprised at it as they 
had not seen an European before. 
Men and women were distinguished not onlj^ by their fine 
forms but also by their regular physiognomy, and a great 
many amongst them by their wonderful long, black, curly 
hair. The men wore also pieces of bamboo through the 
septum of the nose, lips, and ears ; the women were much 
tattooed. 
After the ceremonies.. of welcome had been gone through 
the women and girls busied themselves in supplying us with 
fresh baked cassava bread, pepperpot, paiwari, even -with a 
kind of cabbage, prepared from the young sj>routs of the 
Manihot, but which delicacy, after the first mouthful, we 
declined as, in consequence of the strong addition of capsicum^ 
we imagined we swallowed fire. 
A look of the chief seemed to have commanded his wife 
and daughters to serve us with eatables, as they did not leave 
our side except to fetch another dish. 
Amofigst the delicacies which were served, small animals, 
which had been roasted with their skin, had great similarity 
with rats, which prevented us from tasting them. They 
called them ^^Atuh,^^ and later we found that they were 
Cavia leucopyga, Brandt. 
It was an interesting picture to see about 100 half-starved 
men in a number of groups squat round the dishes, which 
were emptied in a few moments, and to see how the craving 
of an Indian stomach was to be satisfied, an enjoyment 
which had been denied to them a long time. 
To obtain here some important trigonometrical points for 
the map of British Guiana, it was necessary to stay for some 
time before ascending the Boraima mountains, which a few 
miles from us rose with all their imposing grandeur. 
The inhabitants promised to supply us during our stay with 
provisions, therefore we at once set to work to build ourselves 
comfortable huts, assisted by the inhabitants. 
Our Indians from Pirara followed our example, and in a 
few days rose a small settlement round our two huts, which 
we christened Our Village.^^ 
