Ar.MOSPlIEIlIC PHENOMENA. 
9 
ftnotTier place that the niauritia palm-tree, the “tree of life” 
oi the missionaries, not only aifords the Guaraons a safe 
dwelling during the risings of the Orinoco, but that its 
shelly fruit, its farinaceous pith, its juice, abounding in sac- 
charine matter, and the fibres of its petioles, furnish them 
With food, wine,* and thread proper for making cords and 
Weaving hammocks. These customs of the Indians of the 
^ita ot the Orinoco were found formerly in the Gulf of 
^arien (TJraba), and in the greater part of the inundated 
iands between the Guarapiche and the mouths of the 
Amazon. It is curious to observe in the lowest degree of 
human civilization the existence of a whole tribe depending 
cn one single species of palm-tree, similar to those insects 
M hieh feed on one and the same flower, or on one and the 
same part of a plant. 
J-he navigation of the river, whether vessels arrive by the 
oca de Navios, or risk entering the labyrinth of the hocas 
c ica«, requires various precautions, according as the waters 
^f\n oy low. The regularity of these periodical risings 
o the Orinoco has been long an object of admiration to 
ravellers, as the overflowungs of the Nile furnished the 
^P^icrs of antiquity with a problem diBBcult to solve. 
Orinoco and the Nile, contrary to the direction of the 
anges the Indus, the Eio de la IPlata, and the Euphrates, 
/^‘''^sfrom the south toward the north; but the sources 
?, Orinoco are five or six degrees nearer to the equator 
an tliose of the Nile. Observing every day the accidental 
ariations of the atmosphere, we find it difficult to persuade 
rseives, that in a great space of time the effects of these 
siicn” mutually compensate each other ; that in a long 
hi years the averages of the temperature of the 
Pj, ™mity, and of the barometric pressure, differ so little 
nm month to month ; and that nature, notwithstanding 
^ e multitude of partial perturbations, follows a constant 
r'iv*^ ^ meteorological phenomena. Great 
ers unite in one receptacle the waters which a surface 
hut K uurial cloisters in the country of Treves, in Germany ; 
,"1'® opposed these extravagant and perilous enterprises. 
liccles., p. 192.) See Humboldt’s Views qf 
Guaraon moriche wine however is not very eoramon. Tha 
118 p.sfer in general a beverage of fermented honey. 
