The Guahivos. 319 
and also a square plot enclosed by a wall of the same 
substance. This supposition seems almost certain when 
taken in conjunction with the fa<5t that the place, though 
not mentioned to my knowledge in any map, is known 
to the dwellers in San Martin by the name of "San 
Vicenti" , a name clearly indicating its origin ; moreover 
the Indians themselves call it by a similarly sounding title. 
Nothing happened to mar the peacefulness of my 
visit, and we parted with many expressions, or rather 
signs, of friendship. I gave them all the little things I 
could spare, and they loaded me with arrows, hammocks 
and other curiosities until my mule and myself looked 
somewhat like a travelling caravan. The chief sadly 
wanted my coat, but this was more than I cared to part 
with. KiNGSLEY mentions the Guahivos in "Westward 
Ho !" as belonging to the earth-eating tribes, but I saw 
nothing during my visit that would corroborate his 
statement.* 
* Probably in such a work, Kingsley used the term Guahivos to 
include not only the most important tribe of the wandering savannah 
Indians, but also the other closely allied tribes (Indios andantes) \ The 
term would thus include the rude tribe of the Ottomacs, already referred 
to, who, during several months of the year, as related by Humboldt, 
swallow considerable quantities of clayey earth. Humboldt implies 
that the Guahivos proper were not addicted to this habit, for he relates 
the case of a Guahivo girl, who, by earth-eating had been reduced to a 
lamentable condition of atrophy, as an instance of theeffecl; of the habit 
on tribes not accustomed to it. — Ed. 
SS 2 
