454 
NATURAL SHIRTS AND CAPS. 
our fire-arms. What is the monocotvledonous plant* that 
furnishes these admirable reeds ? Did we see in fact the 
internodes (parts between the knots) of a gramen of the tribe 
of nastoides P or may this cares be perhaps a cyperaceous 
plantt destitute of knots ? I cannot solve this question, or 
determine to what genus another^ plant belongs, which 
furnishes the shirts of marima. We saw on the slope oi 
the Cerra Duida ‘ shirt-trees’ fifty feet high. The Indians 
cut off cylindrical pieces two feet in diameter, from which 
they peel the red and fibrous bark, without making any 
longitudinal incision. This bark affords them a sort of 
garment, which resembles sacks of a very coarse texture, and 
without a seam. The upper opening serves for the head ; 
and two lateral holes are cut for the arms to pass through. 
The natives wear these shirts of marima in the rainy 
season : they have the form of the ponchos and rrnnas . of 
cotton, which are so common in New Grenada, at Quito, 
and in Peru. In these climates the riches and beneficence 
of nature being regarded as the primary causes of the 
indolence of the inhabitants, the missionaries say in show- 
ing the shirts of marima, “in the forests of the Orinoco 
garments are found ready-made on the trees.” \\ e may 
also mention the pointed caps, which the spathes of certain 
palm-trees furnish, and which resemble coarse network. 
At the festival of which we were the spectators, the 
womer, who were excluded from the dance, and every sort 
of public rejoicing, were daily occupied in serving the 
men with roasted monkey, fermented liquors, and palm- 
cabbage. This last production has the taste of our cauli- 
flowers, and in no other country had we seen specimens of 
such an immense size. The leaves that are not unfolded 
are united with the young stem, and we measured cylinders 
of six feet long and five inches in diameter. Another 
substance, which is much more nutritive, is obtained from 
the animal kingdom : this \a fish-flour (manioc de pescado) . 
The Indians throughout the Upper Orinoco fry fish, dry 
* The smooth surface of these tubes sufficiently proves that they are 
not furnished by a plant of the family of umbellifera;. 
f The caricillo del manati, which grows abundantly on the banks oi 
the Orinoco, attains from eight to ten feet in height. 
