16 
METHODS OF BODX-PAINTING. 
infinitely rich in mines.” It seems probable that there was 
something in the ceremonies of the worship introcinccd by 
Bochica, which gave rise to a tradition so generally spread. 
The strangest customs are found in the New World. In 
Mexico the sacrificers painted their bodies, and wore a Itiiid 
of cope, with hanging sleeves of tanned human skin. 
On the banks of the Caura, and in other wild parts of 
Guiana, where painting the body is used instead of tattoo- 
ing, the nations anoint themselves with turtle-fat, and stick 
spangles of mica with a metallic lustre, white as silver and 
red as copper, on their skin, so that at a distance they seem 
to wear laced clothes. The fable of ‘ the gilded man’ is, 
perhaps, founded on a similar custom ; and, as there were 
two sovereign princes in New Granada, the lama of Iraca, 
and the secular chief or zaque of Tunja, we cannot bo sur- 
prised that the same ceremony was attributed sometimes to 
the prince, and sometimes to the high-priest. It is more 
extraordinary that, as early as the year 1535, the country of 
El Dorado was sought for on the east of the Andes. 
Eobertson is mistaken in admitting that Orellana received 
the first notions of it (1540) on the banks of the Amazon. 
The history of Fray Piedro Simon, founded on the memoirs 
of Queseda, the conqueror of Cundirumarca, proves directly 
the contrary; and Gonzalo Diaz de Pineda, as early as 1536, 
sought for ‘ the gilded man’ beyond the plains of the pro- 
vince of Quixos. The ambassador of Bogota, whom Daza 
met with in the kingdom of Quito, had spoken of a country 
situate toward the east. Was this because the table-land 
of New Granada is not on the north, but on the north-east 
of Quito ? We may venture to say, that the tradition of a 
naked man covered w'ith powdered gold must have belonged 
originally to a hot region, and not to the cold table-lands of 
Cundirumarca, where I often saw the thermometer sink 
below four or five degrees ; however, on account of the 
e.xtraordiuary configuration of the country, the climate differs 
greatly at Guatavita, Tunja, Iraca, and on the banks of the 
SSogamozo. Sometimes, also, religious ceremonies are pre- 
served which took rise in another zone ; and the Muyseas, 
according to ancient traditions, made Bochica, their first 
legislator and the founder of their worship, arrive from the 
Ulains situate to the east of the Cordilleras. I shall not 
