PUKE-PIAPA, 
A REMARKABLE BASALTIC COLUMN IN GUIANA. 
Latitude, 3° 59' N. Longitude, 59° 28' W. 
THE second day after we had left Pirara, on our journey to Esmeralda, and when that village was in a south-eastern direction, about 
thirty miles from us, we entered the chain of mountains, which we had hitherto followed only along their southern offsets. A large 
valley was before us, bounded on each side by precipitous and rugged mountains, crowned with wall-like masses of trappean rocks, the 
strangeness of the forms of which did not fail to excite the attention of the Indians, who, as usual, were frightened at approaching what 
they believed to be the abodes of evil spirits. We traversed this valley, which was but thinly covered with grass, and bore evidences 
of having been lately inundated, and after a turn to the northward we entered a basin-like expanse, surrounded by high mountains, 
and remarkable for the singular appearance of three masses of rocks. Mara-etshiba, the highest, appears to be of columnar basalt, ter- 
minating on the summit in one abrupt pillar about fifty feet in height : a portion which bulges out in the middle of this mass of 
rock has, by the ever-fruitful imagination of the Indian, been assimilated to the Maraca, a large rattle made of the fruit of the 
calabash-tree, filled with pebbles, feathers, and snake-teeth, and which is the indispensable instrument of the Piatsang, Piai-man, or Indian 
sorcerer, during his conjurations. 
Near the entrance to the valley, and rising from sixty to eighty feet above the plain, is a columnar group of trap-rocks, the largest 
of which has been named by the Macusis, Canuye-piajDa, or the Guava tree-stump. Half a mile further westward, and not quite so 
high, is another mass of rocks, which the traveller might mistake for the trunk of some large old tree, deprived of its leafy crown. It 
is a great object of wonder amongst the Indians far and near, who call it Pure-piapa, “ the felled tree.” So complete was the illusion, 
that I almost doubted my guides when they told me it was the work of nature, and was composed of stone. The rock rises straight to a 
height of at least fifty feet, its sides are partly covered by a red Lichen, and in some places it is more acted upon by weather than in others : 
the delusion being increased by this play of colours, the mind can scarcely divest itself of the belief that it is the gigantic trunk of a 
tree, the head of which, stricken by years, or shivered by lightning, lies mouldering at its foot. On its summit, a Jabiru, a species of 
stork*, had built its nest, above which we saw the head of a young one. On our approach its mother hastened from a neighbouring 
savannah to its protection, and perched on one leg, on the summit of the rock, stood sentinel over the plain around. 
The rock may be considered sacred by the Macusi Indians, but it did not afford an asylum to the poor bird ; for before I was aware 
of it, or could prevent it, we heard the report of a gun, saw the poor bird balance itself for a few moments, and, pierced by the ball, 
fall at the foot of the column. One of the Indians had taken my rifle, and he being too unerring a marksman, even the height which 
the bird had selected for its nest could not preserve its life. 
We fixed our night-quarters near a streamlet, and as soon as the necessary arrangements for our camp had been made, I set off 
to visit this singular rock. The access to it is difficult, in consequence of the numerous boulders which lie on the side of the hill, 
with which we also found the summit to be strewed in confused masses. Sharp-pointed rocks, many thirty feet long, and scarcely 
six to eio'ht inches thick, stood either erect or overlaid each other. They were of trap, and similar to those in the valley of the Malm, 
and at St. Bernard’s in Tortola. Interspersed with these broken rocks we found a few Palms, Cacti, the Agave Americana, Bursera 
gummifera, Lecythidege, and the wild Jatropha manihot. Amongst those in blossom, the snow-white flowers and purple fruits of the 
Cactus repandus were strikingly conspicuous. 
It is not to be wondered at that three such remarkable objects as the Mara-etshiba, CanuyC and Pure-piapa have given rise to some 
tradition, the more so since the Indian who inhabits the mountains is like our mountaineers, more vivid and fanciful in his imagination, 
and possesses a larger stock of traditional history than he of the forest or of tlie plain ; consequently it is related, that when Makunaima, 
the good spirit, wandered still upon earth, he passed these savannahs, and fatigued and thirsty, he observed a tree on the summit of a 
hill, which, in the hope of finding it covered with fruit, he cut with a stone axe. He was disappointed, and proceeded further 
eastward, and discovered the Canuye or Guava tree full of fruit; he cut it likewise, and after having refreshed himself, he proceeded 
* Mycteria Americana. Wlien full grown they stand from six, to six and a half feet high. 
