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Antiqua
Antiqua; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung; Fußnoten mit Asterisken; Schmuck: Kapitälchen.
The Cueva del Guacharo is pierced in the vertical
profile of a rock. The entrance is toward the
south, and forms a vault eighty feet broad, and
seventy-two
the grotto, is covered with trees of gigantic height.
The mammee-tree, and the genipa with large
and shining leaves, raise their branches vertically
toward the sky; while those of the courbaril and
the erythrina form, as they extend themselves, a
thick vault of verdure. Plants of the family of
Pothos with succulent stems, oxalises, and orchideæ
of a singular structure, rise in the driest clefts of
the rocks; while creeping plants, waving in the
winds, are interwoven in festoons before the open-
festoons a bignonia of a violet blue, the purple
dolichos, and for the first time that
olandra, the orange flower of which has a fleshy
tube more than four inches long. The entrances
of grottoes, like the view of cascades, derive their
principal charm from the situation, more or less
majestic, in which they are placed, and which in
some sort determines the character of the land-
scape. What a contrast between the Cueva of
Caripe, and those caverns of the North crowned
with oaks and gloomy larch trees!
But this luxury of vegetation embellishes not
only the outside of the vaults, it appears even in
the vestibule of the grotto. We saw with astonish-
ment plaintain-leaved heliconias eighteen feet high,
the praga palm-tree, and arborescent arums, follow
the banks of the river even to these subterranean
places. The vegetation continues in the cave of
Caripe, as in those deep crevices of the Andes, half
excluded from the light of day; and does not
disappear, till, advancing in the interior, we reach
thirty or forty paces from the entrance. We
measured the way by means of a cord; and we
went on about four hundred and thirty feet, without
being obliged to light our torches.
Daylight penetrates into this region, because
the grotto forms but one channel, which keeps the
same direction from south-east to north-west.
Where the light begins to fail, we heard from afar
the hoarse sounds of the nocturnal birds, sounds
which the natives think belong exclusively to those
subterraneous places. The guacharo is the size of
our fowls, has the mouth of the goatsuckers and
procnias, and the port of those vultures, the crooked
beak of which is surrounded with stiff silky hairs.
It is difficult to form an idea of the horrible noise
occasioned by thousands of these birds in the dark
part of the cavern, and which can only be compared
to the croaking of our crows, which, in the pine
forests of the north, live in society, and construct
their nests upon trees, the tops of which touch each
other. The shrill and piercing cries of the gua-
charos strike upon the vaults of the rocks, and
are repeated by the echo in the depth of the
cavern. The Indians shewed us the nests of these
birds, by fixing torches to the end of a long pole.
These nests were fifty or sixty feet high above our
heads, in holes in the shape of funnels, with which
the roof of the grotto is pierced like a sieve. The
noise increased as we advanced, and the birds were
affrighted by the light of the torches of copal.
distance the plaintive cries of the birds roosting in
other ramifications of the cavern.
The Indians enter into the Cueva del Guacharo
once a-year, near midsummer, armed with poles,
by means of which they destroy the greater part of
the nests. At this season several thousands of birds
are killed; and the old ones to defend their brood,
hover around the heads of the savage Indians,
uttering terrible cries, which would appal any heart
but that of man in an untutored state.
We followed, as we continued our progress
through the cavern, the bank of the small river
which issued from it, and is from twenty-eight to
thirty feet wide. We walked on the banks, as far
as the hills formed of calcareous incrustations per-
mitted us. Where the torrent winds among very
high masses of stalactites, we were often obliged to
descend into its bed, which is only two feet in
depth. We learnt, with surprise, that this subterrane-
ous rivulet is the origin of the river Caripe, which,
at a few leagues distance, after having joined the
smaller river of Santa Maria, is navigable for
canoes. It enters into the river Areo under the
name of Canno de Terezen. We found on the
banks of the subterraneous rivulet a great quantity
the Indians climb to reach the nests hanging to the
roofs of the cavern. The rings formed by the
vestiges of the old foot-stalks of the leaves, furnished
as it were the footsteps of a ladder perpendicularly
placed.
The Grotto of Caripe preserves the same direc-
tion, the same breadth, and its primitive height of
sixty or seventy feet, to the distance of 1,458 feet,
accurately measured. I have never seen a cavern
in either continent, of so uniform and regular a con-
struction. We had great difficulty in persuading
the Indians to pass beyond the outer part of the
grotto, the only part which they
collect the fat. The whole authority of los padres
was necessary, to induce them to proceed as far as
the spot where the soil rises abruptly at an inclina-
tion of sixty degrees, and where the torrent forms a
small subterraneous cascade. The natives connect
mystic ideas with this cave, inhabited with noctur-
nal birds; they believe, that the souls of their an-
cestors sojourn in the deep recesses of the cavern.
“Man,” say they, “should avoid places which are
enlightened neither by the Sun nor by the Moon.”
At the point where the river forms the subter-
raneous cascade, a hill covered with vegetation,
sents itself in a very picturesque manner. It ap-
pears at the extremity of a straight passage, 240
toises in length. The stalactites, which descend
from the vault, and which resemble columns sus-
pended in the air, display themselves on a back-
ground of verdure. The opening of this cavern
appeared singularly contracted, when we saw it
about the middle of the day, illumined by the
vivid light reflected at once from the sky, the
plants, and the rocks. The distant light of day
formed somewhat of magical contrast with the
darkness that surrounded us in those vast caverns.
We climbed, not without some difficulty, the small
hill, whence the subterraneous rivulet descends.
We saw that the grotto was perceptibly contracted,
retaining only forty feet in height; and that it
continued stretching to the north-east, without
deviating from its primitive direction, which is
parallel to that of the great valley of Caripe.
The missionaries, with all their authority, could
not induce the Indians to penetrate farther into the
cavern. As the vaults grow lower, the cries of the
guacharoes become more shrill. We were obliged
to yield to the pusillanimity of our guides, and re-
trace our steps. We followed the course of the
were dazzled with the light of day, we saw, outside
the grotto, the water of the river sparkling amid
the foliage of the trees that concealed it. Having
at length reached the entrance, and seated our-
selves on the bank of the rivulet, we rested after
our fatigues. We were glad to be beyond the
hoarse cries of the birds, and to leave a place where
darkness does not offer even the charm of silence
and tranquillity.