EA.TJDAL OF ATUBES. 
489 
among whom everything is the produce of art, or rather of 
the most ancient civilization, dc not change their dwelling 
without carrying along with them the bones of their 
ancestors. Coffins are seen deposited on the hanks ot 
great rivers, to be transported, with the furniture of the 
family, to a remote province. These removals of bones, 
heretofore more common among the savages of North 
America, are not practised among the tribes of Guiana ; but 
these are not nomad, like nations who live exclusively by 
hunting. 
We staid at the mission of Atures only during the time 
necessary for passing the canoe through the Great Cataract. 
The bottom of our frail bark had become so thin that it re- 
quired great care to prevent it from splitting. We took leave 
of the missionary, Bernardo Zea, who remained at Atures, 
after having accompanied us during two months, and shared 
all our sufferings. This poor monk still continued to have 
fits of tertian ague; they had become to him an habitual 
evil, to which he paid little attention. Other fevers of a 
more fatal kind prevailed at Atures on our second visit. 
The greater part of the Indians could not leave their ham- 
mocks, and we were obliged to send in search of cassava- 
bread, the most indispensable food of the country, to the 
independent but neighbouring tribe of the Piraoas. We 
had hitherto escaped these malignant fevers, which, T 
believe to be always contagious. 
We ventured to pass in our canoe through the latter half 
of the Baudal of Atures. We landed here and there, to 
climb upon the rocks, which like narrow dikes joined the 
islands to one another. Sometimes the waters force their 
way over the dikes, sometimes they fall within them with a 
hollow noise. A considerable portion of the Orinoco was 
dry, because the river had found an issue by subterraneous 
caverns. In these solitary haunts the rock-manakin with 
gilded plumage (Pipra rupicola), one of the most beautiful 
birds of the tropics, builds its nest. The Baudalito of 
Carucari is caused by an accumulation of enormous blocks 
of granite, several of which are spheroids of five or six feet 
in diameter, and they are piled together in such a manner, 
as to form spacious caverns. We entered one of these 
caverns to gather the confervas that were spread over the- 
