150 
ON THE CARAJURU AND CHICA. 
tails about this product, which has been imported to be 
tried in dyeing. 
The Crajuru or Carajuru (Carucuru according to 
others) is a kind of powder or fecula, in pieces somewhat 
light, inodorous, insipid or slightly bitter, not soluble in 
water, but soluble in alcohol, ether and the oils and fats, 
without being completely resinous, burning with a name, 
but leaving a quantity of gray cinders. It is wholly dis- 
solved by alkalies, and acids precipitate it without greatly 
altering its color, if they are not concentrated. 
The Chica of M. de Humboldt came from the neighbor- 
hood of the Orenoko, near Rio Meta ; but the Crajuru 
seems to be the kind mentioned by Hancock, from Guiana, 
as being purer, and sent in the form of balls, enveloped in 
the bark of trees or palm-leaves. Indeed, the Crajuru is 
of an intense violet tint, with a coppery lustre when rubbed 
on a hard body. MM. Boussingault and Rivero also state 
that it is advantageously used in dyeing. 
It would therefore appear that it is not only the Bignonia 
chica,but perhaps other kinds of shrubs of the same genus, 
which afford the finest Carajuru. The Galibis, and other 
savage tribes, boil the stalks and leaves of these Bignonias, 
which are of a red tint at their advanced period of vegeta- 
tion, to obtain it. It is passed through a sieve made of the 
bark of a tree, and the fecula is well washed in water, and 
then exposed to the sun to dry. 
The natives only use the Chica or the Crajuru for paint- 
ing the skin, either as a defence against humidity and the 
bites of insects, or as a brilliant ornament, and in order to 
render themselves formidable in their wars. For this pur- 
pose they pound the Chica or Crajuru with a fat liquid, as 
the bitter and yellow oil of the fruit of the carapa, (Xylo- 
carpus carapa,) made fragrant with the balm aracouchini 
{Jimyris heterophylla, Wild.) Other travellers assert that 
the aborigines prefer the fat of tortoises, which is green, or 
still better, the musky fat of the Crocodilus acutus, for 
