400 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION. 
everywhere near the beach we could see, through the trees 
and bushes, ponds, or probably connected lines of brackish 
■water. It was impossible to judge in its present state of 
jungle and water what extent or character of useful sur- 
face there was. It looked the character it bore for health, 
that of being a feverish, sickly place. It would make a 
large Cacao estate, and must have abundance of fertile 
land behind the lagoons or swamps, to insure it being a 
productive one. In one of the dells near the path we saw 
an old cacao cultivation. Maraca was the Indian name of 
’the rattle or shak-shak, the fruit of the wild calabash tree, 
the Crescentia latifolia, a tall erect forest tree, very unlike 
its congener the common calabash tree of our gardens ; it 
bears a small spherical calabash (in Spanish Totumo), into 
which, when dry, hard, and cleaned out, was dropped 
through the small hole through which it has been cleaned, 
a number of Indian shot (the hard black shot-like seed of the 
Tuloma or Toulema (creole, Tous-les-mois) a species of Canna, ^ 
called by Schomburgk C. achiras , Gillies. The further end 
of a short stick was then run through the shak-shak, and j 
with one of these sticks in each hand, the chef d’orchestre, . 
properly oiled, painted and refreshed no doubt, was ready ) 
to commence operations. Time was sharply and exactly 
marked by him, accompanied by an action reminding one of > , 
castanets. This place, I have been assured, is the true Ca- 
racas, the valley south of Tocutche now called the 
Valley of Maracas, being properly the Valley of St. Joseph, 
anciently San Jose, after the Village of that name; the j 
river is yet called the St. Joseph Itiver. Tocutche was 1 
long called in the maps the Maracas Mountain, and this, 
seen as at the bead of the St. Joseph Valley, in turn gave 
the same name to it also. This at least seem the more 
