39G 
THE AMAZON-STONE. 
garrison of Cayenne (mentioned by La Condamme), who 
affirmed that these mineral substances were obtained from 
the “ country of women,” west of the rapids of the Oyapoe. 
The Indians who inhabit the fort of Topayos on the Amazon, 
five degrees east of the mouth of the Eio Negro, possessed 
formerly a great number of these stones. Had they received 
them from the north, that is, from the country pointed out 
by the Indians of the Eio Negro, which extends from the 
mountains of Caycmie towards the sources of the Essequibo, 
the Carony, the Orinoco, the Parime, and the Eio Trom- 
betas ? or did they come from the south by the Eio Topayos, 
which descends from the vast table-land of the Campos 
Parecis ? Superstition attaches great importance to these 
mineral substances : they are worn suspended from the neck 
as amulets, because, according to popular belief, they pre- 
serve the wearer from nervous complaints, fevers, and the 
stings of venomous serpents. They have consequently been 
for ages an article of trade among the natives, both north 
and south of the Orinoco. The Caribs, who may be con- 
sidered as the Bucharians of the New World, made them 
known along the coasts of G-uiana ; and the same stones, 
like money in circulation, passed successively from nation 
to nation in opposite directions : their quantity is perhaps 
not augmented, and the spot which produces them is pro- 
bably unknown rather than concealed. In the midst of en- 
lightened Europe, on occasion of a warm contest respecting 
native bark, a few years ago, the green stones of the Orinoco 
were gravely proposed as a powerful febrifuge. After this 
appeal to the credulity of Europeans, we cannot be sur- 
prised to learn that the Spanish planters share the predilec- 
tion of the Indians for these amulets, and that they are sold 
at a very considerable price. The form given to them roost 
frequently is that of the Babylonian cylinders,* longitudi- 
nally perforated, and loaded with inscriptions and figures. 
But this is not the work of the Indians of our days, the na- 
tives of the Orinoco and the Amazon, whom we find in the 
last degree of barbarism. The Amazon stones, like the per- 
forated and sculptured emeralds, found in the Cordilleras of 
New Grenada and Quito, are vestiges of anterior civilization. 
* The price of a cylinder two inches long is from twelve to fift< e * 
piastres. * • 
