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Zitierempfehlung

Alexander von Humboldt: „Sepulchral Cave in South America“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1808-Ansichten_der_Natur_Wasserfaelle-06-neu> [abgerufen am 25.03.2025].

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Titel

Sepulchral Cave in South America

Jahr

1834

Ort

Rochester, New York

Nachweis

in: The Genesee Farmer and Gardener’s Journal 4:49 (6. Dezember 1834), S. 392.

Sprache

Englisch

Typografischer Befund

Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung; Schmuck: Kapitälchen.

Identifikation

Textnummer Druckausgabe: II.64
Dateiname: 1808-Ansichten_der_Natur_Wasserfaelle-06-neu

Statistiken

Seitenanzahl:	1
Zeichenanzahl:	1872

Weitere Fassungen
	Ansichten der Natur mit wissenschaftlichen Erläuterungen, von Alex. v. Humboldt. Erster Band. 16. Tübingen, in der J. G. Cotta’schen Buchhandlung. Ueber die Wasserfälle des Orinoco bey Atures und Maypures (Stuttgart; Tübingen, 1808, Deutsch)
	Der Orinoco (Brünn, 1818, Deutsch)
	О водопадах рѣки Ориноко [O vodopadach rěki Orinoko] (Sankt Petersburg, 1818, Russisch)
	O progach (kataraktach) rzéki Orenoko, przez Alexandra de Humboldt (Lwiw, 1819, Polnisch)
	Die Knochenhöhle von Ataruipe in Amerika (Stralsund, 1828, Deutsch)
	Sepulchral Cave in South America (Rochester, New York, 1834, Englisch)
	Оринокскiе водопады [Orinokskie vodopady] (Sankt Petersburg, 1834, Russisch)
	О теченiи рѣки Ориноко [O tečenii rěki Orinoko] (Sankt Petersburg, 1834, Russisch)
	Sounds of Waters in the Night (Kendal, 1849, Englisch)
	The Cataracts of Orinoco (Carlisle, 1849, Englisch)
	Black Waters (Reading, 1849, Englisch)
	Cataracts of the Orinoco (London, 1849, Englisch)
	Cataracts of the Orinoco (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1850, Englisch)
	Cataracts of the Orinoco (Edinburgh, 1852, Englisch)

|392|

Sepulchral Cave in South America.

—In the shady and solitary place, on thedeclivity of a high mountain, opens thecave of Ataruipe. It is less a cave than aprojecting rock, in which the waters havescoped a great hollow when, in the ancientrevolutions of our planet, they had reach-ed to the height. In this tomb of a wholeextinct tribe was soon counted nearly 600skeletons in good preservation, and arran-ged so regularly that it would have beendifficult to make an error in numberingthem. Each skeleton rests upon a kind ofbasket formed of the petioles of palms.These baskets, which the natives call ma-pires, have the form of a square bag.—Their size is proportional to the age of thedead; and there are even some for infantswhich had died at the moment of birth.—We saw them from ten inches and a halfto three feet six inches and a half in length.All the skeletons are bent, and so entirethat no rib or a bone of the fingers and toesis wanting. The bones have been prepar-ed in three different ways; whitened inthe air and sun, dyed red with aroto, a co-loring matter obtained from the bixa orel-lanx; or, like mummies, covered withodorous resins, and enveloped in leaves ofheliconia and banana. The Indians rela-ted to us that the corpse is first placed inthe humid earth, that the flesh may be con-sumed by degrees. Some months after, itis taken out and the flesh that remains onthe bones is scraped off with sharp stones.Near the mapires or baskets there were va-ses of half burnt clay, which appeared tocontain the bones of the same family. Thelargest of these vases or funeral urns arethree feet two inches high, and four feetsix inches long. The handles are made inthe form of crocodiles or serpents, and theedge is encircled by meanders, labyrinths,and greeques, with narrow lines variouslycombined.— Humboldt.