182 
TRADITIONS OF T«T! DELUDE. 
almost imperceptible manner in tbe very mass of granite 
rocks, without our being able to perceive that there is a 
ramification and an intertwining of small veins. Not long 
ago the Indians of Encaramada found in the Quebrada del 
'J'igre* a piece of native gold two lines in diameter. It was 
rounded, and appeared to have been washed along by the 
waters. This discovery excited the attention of tbe mis- 
sionaries much more than of the natives; it was followed by 
no other of the same kind. 
I cannot quit this first link of the mountains of Encu- 
ramada without recalling to mind a fact that was not un- 
known to Father Grili, and which was often mentioned to 
me during our abode in the Missions of tbe Orinoco. The 
natives of those countries have retained the belief that, “ at 
the time of the great waters, when their fathers were forced 
to have recourse to boats, to escape the general inundation, 
the waves of the sea beat against the rocks of Encaramada. 
This belief is not confined to one nation singly, the Tama- 
n»cs; it makes part of a system of historical tradition, of 
which we find scattered notions among the Maypures of the 
'great cataracts ; among the Indians of the Kao Erevato, which 
runs into the Caura; and among almost all the tribes of the 
Upper Orinoco. When the Tamanacs are asked how the 
human race survived this great deluge, the ‘ age of water, 
of the Mexicans, they say, “a man and a woman saved 
themselves on a high mountain, called Tamanacu, situated on 
the hanks of the Asiveru ; and casting behind them, over 
their heads, the fruits of the mauritia palm-tree, they saw 
the seeds contained in those fruits produce men and women, 
who repeopled the earth.” Thus we find in all its simpli- 
city, among nations now in a savage state, a tradition winch 
the Greeks embellished with all the charms of imagination 
A few leagues from Encaramada, a rock, called Tepu-mereffic> 
or ‘ the painted rock,’ rises in the midst of the savannah. 
Upon it are traced representations of animals, and symboli' 
figures resembling those we saw in going down the Orinoco- 
at a small distance below Encaramada, near the town Cav- 
cara. Similar rocks in Africa are called by travellers/fiff^ 
stones. 1 shall not make use of this term, because fetishist 1 
does not prevail among the natives of the Orinoco ; and the 
* The Tiger-ravine. 
