204 
INDIAN PIGMENTS. 
spontaneously, and in great abundance, near M&ypures ; and 
in going up the Orinoco, beyond the mouth of the Gua- 
viare, from Santa Barbara to the lofty mountain of Duida, 
particularly near Esmeralda. We also found it on the banks 
of the Cassiquiare. The red pigment of chica is not ob- 
tained from the fruit, like the onoto, but from the leaves 
macerated in water. The colouring matter separates in the 
form of a light powder. It is collected, without being mixed 
with turtle-oil, into little lumps eight or nine inches long, 
and from two to three high, rounded at the edges. These 
lumps, when heated, emit an agreeable smell of benzoin. 
When the chica is subjected to distillation, it yields no 
sensible traces of ammonia. It is not, like indigo, a sub- 
stance combined with azote. It dissolves slightly in sul- 
phuric and muriatic acids, and even in alkalis. G-rourul 
with oil, the chica furnishes a red colour that has a tint of 
lake. Applied to wool, it might be confounded with mad- 
der-red. There is no doubt but that the chica, unknown in 
Europe before our travels, may be employed usefully in the 
arts. The nations on the Orinoco, by whom this pigment 
is best prepared, are the Salivas, the Guipunaves,* the 
Caveres, and the Piraoas. The processes of infusion and 
maceration are in general very common among all the 
nations on the Orinoco. Thus the Maypures carry on a 
trade of barter with the little loaves of paruma, which is a 
vegetable fecula, dried in the maimer of indigo, and yield- 
ing a very permanent yellow colour. The chemistry of the 
savage is reduced to the preparation of pigments, that of 
poisons, and the dulcification of the amylaceous roots, which 
the aroi'des and the euphorbiaceous plants afford. 
Most of the missionaries of the Upper and Lower Ori- 
noco permit the Indians of their Missions to paint their 
skins. It is painful to add, that some of them speculate 
on this barbarous practice of the natives. In their huts, 
pompously called conventos,\ I have often seen stores of 
chica, which they sold as high as four francs the cake. To 
form a just idea of the extravagance of the decoration of 
these naked Indians, I must observe, that a man of largo 
* Or GuaypuAaves ; they call themselves Uipuham. 
t In the Missions, the priest's house bears the name of ‘the coo- 
vent.’ 
