Chap. VIII. THE SUPA, OR PIJIYAYE. 125 
ferent kinds of bitterns, and others. The white herons are 
called garza, the large white bird with the black wings 
and the naked head and neck has the two names of 
garzon or gudiron, and the spoonbill is known by the name 
of garza morena. I shot specimens of all these different 
kinds, without being able to preserve them for scientific 
purposes. 
While my companions remained at Acoyapa, I made an 
excursion to the table-land on the other side of the dividing 
ridge. From what I have already observed in describing 
the road from Masapa to Acoyapa, I need not say that 
the dividing ridge is to the north-east of Acoya ; but as all 
the former maps have laid down this town on the table- 
land of Mosquitia, instead of placing it between the divid- 
ing ridge and the lake, it may be useful to state this fact 
expressly. The Alcalde provided me with a guide, and I 
started from Acoyapa in the direction to the sources of the 
Rio Mico ; that is to say, the Rio Mico which is a tribu- 
tary of the Bluefield river. 
The road led in a north-north-easterly direction, first 
across an open plain, then over hills covered with shrubs 
and trees, at last through a valley, along the dry bed of a 
torrent lined with high trees and thickets of bamboo and 
of a diminutive palm-tree called Supa in the language of 
the Woolwa Indians, and Pijivaye 1 in the dialect of Nica- 
ragua. The stem of the little tree is rarely higher than 
six feet and thicker than a finger. It bears a cluster of 
nuts of the size of a walnut, which are eaten, and, when 
roasted, have a taste very much like the chestnut. The 
bed of the torrent is filled with blocks and boulders of 
various sizes, all of porphyritic rocks with a predominating 
1 The above word is spelled according to the rules of Spanish pronunciation. 
