Digitalphilologie

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	Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, during the years 1799–1804. By Alexander de Humboldt, and Aimé Bonpland, &c. &c. London, 1821, 8vo. 2 Vols. pp. 864 (London, 1821, Englisch)
	Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, during the years 1799–1804. By Alexander de Humboldt, and Aimé Bonpland, &c. &c. London, 1821, 8vo. 2 Vols. pp. 864 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1821, Englisch)
	Moschettoes (Musquetoes) of S. America (Washington, District of Columbia, 1821, Englisch)
	Savages on the Oronoko (Boston, Massachusetts, 1821, Englisch)
	Moschettoes (Musquetoes) of South America (Chillicothe, Ohio, 1821, Englisch)
	Moschettoes (Musquetoes) of S. America (Salisbury, North Carolina, 1821, Englisch)
	From Humbolt’s Narrative of a Tour on the Oronoko (Amherst, New Hampshire, 1821, Englisch)
	Humboldt’s and Bonpland’s Travels (Boston, Massachusetts, 1821, Englisch)
	Savages on the Oronoko (Concord, New Hampshire, 1821, Englisch)
	Tiger familiarity with infants (Leeds, 1821, Englisch)
	Savages on the Oronoko (Danville, Vermont, 1821, Englisch)
	Savages on the Oronoko (Woodstock, Vermont, 1821, Englisch)
	Savage prejudices (Liverpool, 1821, Englisch)
	Musquitos (London, 1821, Englisch)
	Opisanie historyczne podróźy Alexandra Humboldta i Emego Bompland do krain międzyzwrótnikowych nowego świata; tomu II, część 2, z cztérma rycinami. Paris chez Maze Libr. 1821 (Vilnius, 1822, Polnisch)
	Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte der Mosquitos (Erfurt; Weimar; Leipzig, 1822, Deutsch)
	Innocence (London, 1822, Englisch)

(London Magazines, June.)

humboldt’s and bonpland’s travels.

* These volumes, translated by H. Maria Williams, terminate the second volume (in quarto) of M. Humboldt’s personal narrative; and belong to a work so universally celebrated, that we need only say, they are, if possible, more thickly studded with pieces of valuable information and curious matter, than the parts which have preceded them.We never take up Humboldt but hereminds us of Othello, who

—Spake of most disastrous chances, Of moving accidents, by flood, and field; Of hair-breadth ’scapes— And portance in his travel’s history; Wherein of antres vast, and deserts idle, Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touchheaven,— And of the cannibals that each other eat; The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders,

he told the marvellous stories. Ourauthor is hardly a trace behind him;and, like the fair Desdemona, we, withgreedy ear, devour up his discourse;whence, without further preface, weshall now proceed to draw for the ben-efit of our readers.The natives near the cataracts or raudales of the Oroonoko, up which river M. de Humboldt made his way to a height little known to Europeans,|Spaltenumbruch|are distinguished by several remarkable prejudices, among which, none are more fatal than those narrated in the following:— “Among the causes of the depopulation of the Raudales, I have not reckoned the small pox; that malady which, in other parts of America, makes such cruel ravages, that the natives, seized with dismay, burn their huts, kill their children, and renounce every kind of society.† This scourge is almost unknown on the banks of the Oronoko. What depopulates the Christian settlements is, the repugnance of the Indians for the regulations of the missions, the insalubrity of a climate at once hot and damp, bad nourishment, want of care in the diseases of children, and the guilty practice of mothers of preventing pregnancy by the use of deleterious herbs. Among the barbarous people of Guyana, as well as those of the half-civilized islands of the South Sea, young wives will not become mothers. If they have children, their offspring are exposed, not only to the dangers of savage life, but also to the dangers arising from the strangest popular prejudices. When twins are born, false notions of propriety and family honour require, that one of them should be destroyed. ‘To

* Personal Narrative of Travels in the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, &c. London 1821.† As the Mahas in the plains of the Missouri, according to the accounts of the American travellers,Clark and Lewis.|663| |Spaltenumbruch|bring twins into the world, is to be exposed to public scorn; it is to resemble rats, opossums, and the vilest animals, which bring forth a great number of young at a time.’ Nay more: ‘two children born at the same time cannot belong to the same father.’ This is an axiom of physiology of the Salivas; and in every zone, and in different states of society, when the vulgar seize upon an axiom, they adhere to it with more stedfastness than the better informed men, by whom it was first hazarded. To avoid a disturbance of conjugal tranquillity, the old female relations of the mother, or the mure japoic-nei (midwives,) take care, that one of the twins shall disappear. If the new-born infant, though not a twin, have any physical deformity, the father instantly puts it to death. They will have only robust and well-made children, for deformities indicate some influence of the evil spirit Ioloquiamo, or the bird Tikitiki, the enemy of the human race. Sometimes children of a feeble constitution undergo the same fate. When the father is asked, what is become of one of his sons, he will pretend, that he has lost him by a natural death. He will disavow an action, that appears to him blameable, but not criminal. ’The poor mure,*” he will tell you, ’could not follow us; we must have waited for him every moment; he has not been seen again, he did not come to sleep where we passed the night.’ Such is the candour and simplicity of manners, such the boasted happiness of man in the state of nature! He kills his son, to escape the ridicule of having twins, or to avoid journeying more slowly; in fact, to avoid a little inconvenience.”Amid the prodigality and magnificence of nature, such are the moral evils which deform the scene; and we are often compelled to leave the author’s glowing descriptions of superb landscape in the torrid zone, to vex our spirits with similar details. But, the able manner in which distant objects and remote similitudes are brought to bear on almost every subject discussed, is the great charm of this work; and we have so vast a quantity of intelligence combined with so rich a fund of amusing anecdote, that the mind never tires. It has been |Spaltenumbruch|alleged, that Mr. H. is too prone to this sort of classification, and to theories built upon it; but however that may be in a philosophical point of view, as a popular performance, it wonderfully enhances the attractions of his narrative. He is, in truth, the very Jacques of travellers; and his way is delectable, “ compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects; and, indeed, the sundry contemplation of his travels, in which his often rumination wraps him in a most humourous sadness.” He morals on every thing; for example:—“The inhabitants of Atures and Maypures, whatever the missionaries may have asserted in their works, are not more struck with deafness by the noise of the great cataracts, than the catadupes of the Nile. When this noise is heard in the plain that surrounds the mission, at the distance of more than a league, you seem to be near a coast skirted by reefs and breakers. The noise is three times as loud by night as by day, and gives an inexpressible charm to these solitary scenes. What can be the cause of this increased intensity of sound in a desert, where nothing seems to interrupt the silence of nature? The velocity of the propagation of sound, far from augmenting, decreases with the lowering of the temperature. The intensity diminishes in air, agitated by a wind, which is contrary to the direction of the sound; it diminishes also by dilatation of the air, and is weaker in the higher than in the lower regions of the atmosphere, where the number of particles of air in motion is greater in the same radius. The intensity is the same in dry air, and in air mingled with vapours; but it is feebler in carbonic acid gas, than in mixtures of azot and oxygen. From these facts, which are all we know with any certainty, it is difficult to explain a phenomenon observed near every cascade in Europe, and which, long before our arrival in the village of Atures, had struck the missionary and the Indians. The nocturnal temperature of the atmosphere is 3° less than the temperature of the day; at the same time the apparent humidity augments at night, and the mist that covers the cataracts becomes thicker. We have just seen, that the hygroscopic state of the air has no influence on the propagation of the sound, and that the cooling of the air diminishes its swiftness. “It may be thought, that, even in places not inhabited by man, the hum of insects, the song of birds, the rustling of leaves agitated by the feeblest winds, occasion, during the day, a confused noise, which we perceive the less because it is uniform, and constantly strikes the ear. Now this noise, however slightly perceptible it may be, may diminish the intensity of a louder, noise; and this diminution may cease, if during the calm of the night the song of birds, the hum of insects, and the action of the wind upon the leaves, be interrupted. But this reasoning, even admitting its justness, can scarcely be applied to the forests of the Oroonoko, where the air is constantly filled by an innumerable quantity of moschettoes, where the hum of insects is much louder by night than by day, and where the breeze, if ever it be felt, blows only after sunset.” This hypothesis is well worth further investigations; but we must surrender it to the scientific journals, and continue our more mixed career.“The Indians of Atures,” says Mr. H., “are mild, moderate, and accustomed, from the effects of their idleness, to the greatest |Spaltenumbruch|privations. Formerly, excited to labour by the Jesuits, they did not want for food. The fathers cultivated maize, French beans, (frisoles), and other European vegetables; they even planted sweet oranges and tamarinds round the villages ; and they possessed twenty or thirty thousand head of cows and horses, in the savannahs of Atures and Carichana. They had at their service a great number of slaves and servants (peones), to take care of their herds. Nothing is now cultivated but a little cassava, and a few plantains. The fertility of the soil however is such, that at Atures I counted on a single branch of musa 108 fruits, 4 or 5 of which would almost suffice for the daily nourishment of a man. The culture of maize is entirely neglected, and the horses and cows have disappeared. Near the raudal, a part of the village still bears the name of Passo del ganado (ford of the cattle), while the descendants of those very Indians, whom the Jesuits had assembled in a mission, speak of horned cattle as of animals of a race that is lost. In going up the Oroonoko, toward San Carlos del Rio Negro, we saw the last cow at Carichana. The fathers of the Observance, who now govern these vast countries, did not immediately succeed the Jesuits. During an interregnum of eighteen years, the missions were visited only from time to time, and by Capuchin monks. The agents of the secular government, under the title of Commissioners of the King, managed the hatos or farms of the Jesuits with culpable negligence. They killed the cattle in order to sell the hides. Many heifers were devoured by tigers, and a greater number perished in consequence of wounds made by the bats of the raudales, which are much less, but far bolder than the bats of the Llanos. At the time of the expedition of the boundaries, the horses of Encaramada, Carichana, and Atures, were conveyed as far as San Jose of Maravitanos, where, on the banks of the Rio Negro, the Portugueze could only procure them after a long passage, and of a very inferior quality, by the river Amazon and Grand Para. Since the year 1795, the cattle of the Jesuits have entirely disappeared. There now remains in testimony of the ancient cultivation of these countries, and the industrious activity of the first missionaries, only a few trunks of the orange and tamarind in the savannahs, surrounded by wild trees.“The tigers, or jaguars, which are less dangerous for the cattle than the bats, come into the village at Atures, and devour the pigs of the poor Indians. The missionary related to us a striking instance of the familiarity of these animals, upon the whole so ferocious. Some months before our arrival, a jaguar, which was thought to be young, though of a large size, had wounded a child in playing with him; I use confidently this expression, which may seem strange, having on the spot verified facts which are not without interest in the history of the manners of animals. Two Indian children, a boy and a girl, about eight and nine years of age, were seated |Spaltenumbruch|on the grass near the village of Atures, in the middle of a savannah, which we have often traversed. At two o’clock in the afternoon, a jaguar issued from the forest, and approached the children, bounding around them; sometimes he hid himself in the high grass, sometimes he sprang forward, his back bent, his head hung down, in the manner of our cats. The little boy, ignorant of his danger, seemed to be sensible of it only when the jaguar with one of bis paws gave him some blows on the head. These blows, at first slight, became ruder and ruder; the claws of the jaguar wounded the child, and the blood flowed with violence. The little girl then took a branch of a tree, struck the animal, and it fled from her. The Indians ran up at the cries of the children, and saw the jaguar, which retired bounding, without the least show of resistance. “The little boy was brought to us, who appeared lively and intelligent. The claw of the jaguar had taken away the skin from the lower part of the forehead, and there was a second scar at the top of the head.” “It was among the cataracts that we began to hear of the hairy man of the woods, called salvaje, that carries off women, constructs huts, and sometimes eats human flesh. The Tamanacks call it achi, and the Maypures vasitri, or great devil. The natives and the missionaries have no doubt of the existence of this anthropomorphous monkey, which they singularly dread. Father Gili gravely relates the history of a lady in the town of San Carlos, who much praised the gentle character and attentions of the man of the woods. She lived several years with one in great domestic harmony, and only requested some hunters to take her back, ‘because she was tired, she and her children (a little hairy also), of living far from the church and the sacraments.” The same author, notwithstanding his credulity, confesses, that he had not been able to find an Indian, who asserted positively that he had seen the salvaje with his own eyes. This fable, which the missionaries, the European planters, and the negroes of Africa, have no doubt embellished with many features taken from the description of the manners of the ourang outang, the gibbon, the jocko or chimpanzee, and the pongo, pursued us during five years from the northern to the southern hemisphere; and we were every where blamed, in the most cultivated class of society, for being the only persons to doubt the existence of the great anthropomorphous monkey of America. We shall first observe, that there are certain regions, where this belief is particularly prevalent among the people; such are the banks of the Upper Oroonoko, the valley of Upar near the Lake of Maracaybo, the mountains of Santa Martha and of Merida, the provinces of Quixos, and the banks of the Amazon near Tomependa. In all these places, so distant one from the other, it is repeated, that the salvaje is easily recognized by the traces of its feet, the toes of which are turned backward. But if there exist a monkey of a large size in the New Continent, how has it happened, that during three centuries no man worthy of belief has been able to procure the skin of one? Several hypotheses present themselves to the mind, in order to explain the source of so ancient an error or belief. Has the famous capuchin monkey of Esmeralda, the canine teeth of which are more than six lines and a half long, the physiognomy much more like man’s than that of the ourang outang, and which, when irritated, rubs its beard with its hand, give rise to the fable of the salvaje? It is not so large indeed as the coaita (simia paniscus); but when seen at the top of a tree, and the head only visible, it might easily be taken for a human being. It may be also (and this opinion appears to me the most probable), that the man of the woods was one of those large bears, the footsteps of which resemble those of a man, and which is believed in every country to attack women. The animal killed in my time at the foot of the mountains of Merida, and sent, by the name of salvaje, to Colonel Ungaro, the governor of the province Varinas, was in fact a bear with black and smooth fur.”These extraordinary accounts are succeeded by a detailed history of the Moschettoes of this region; perhaps the most remarkable of all its animal phenomena.“Persons who have not navigated the great rivers of equinoctial America, for instance, the Oroonoko and the Rio Magdalena, can scarcely conceive, how without interruption, at every instant of life, you may be tormented by insects flying in the air, and how the multitude of these little animals may render vast regions wholly uninhabitable. However accustomed you may be to endure pain without complaint, however lively an interest you may take in the objects of your researches, it is impossible not to be constantly disturbed by the moschettoes, zancudoes, jejens and tempraneroes, that cover the face and hands, pierce the clothes with their long sucker in the form of a needle, and, getting into the mouth and nostrils, set you coughing and sneezing whenever you attempt to speak in the open air. In the missions of the Oroonoko, in the villages placed on the banks of the river, surrounded by immense forests, the plaga de las moscas, the plague of the flies, affords an inexhaustible subject of conversation. When |Spaltenumbruch|two persons meet in the morning, the first questions they address to each other are, ‘How did you find the zancudoes during the night? How are we to day for the moschettoes.’ These questions remind us of a Chinese form of politeness, which indicates the ancient state of the country where it took birth. Salutations were made heretofore in the celestial empire, in the following words, vou-tou-hou, ‘Have you been incommoded in the night by the serpents?’ We shall soon see, that on the banks of the Tuamini, in the river Magdalena, and still more at Choco, the country of gold and platina, the Chinese compliment on the serpents might be added to that of the moschettoes.”Other curious facts are recorded, and illustrate this subject. Mr. H. says—“At Mandavaca we found an old missionary, who told us with an air of sadness, that he bad spent his twenty years of moschettoes in America. He desired us to look well at his legs, that we might be able to tell one day, ‘poor alla (beyond sea), what the poor monks suffer in the forests of Cassiquiare.’ Every sting leaving a small darkish brown point, his legs were so speckled, that it was difficult to recognize the whiteness of his skin through the spots of coagulated blood. If the insects of the simulium genus abound in the Cassiquiare, which has white waters, the culices, or zancudoes, are so much the more rare; you scarcely find any there, while on the rivers of black waters, in the Atabapo and the Rio Negro, there are generally some zancudoes and no moschettoes.” “I have just shown, from my own observations, how much the geographical distribution of venomous insects varies in this labyrinth of rivers with white and black waters. It were to be wished, that a learned entomologist could study on the spot the specific differences of these noxious insects, which in the torrid zone, in spite of their littleness, act an important part in the economy of nature. What appeared to us very remarkable, and is a fact, known to all the missionaries, is, that the different species do not associate together, and that at different hours of the day you are stung by a distinct species. Every time that the scene changes, and to use the simple expression of the missionaries, other insects ‘mount guard,’ you have a few minutes, often a quarter of an hour, of repose. The insects that disappear have not their places instantly supplied in equal numbers by their successors. From half after six in the morning till five in the afternoon, the air is filled with moschettoes; which have not, as we find related in some travels, the form of our gnats, but that of a small fly. They are simuliums of the family nemoceræ of the system of Latreille. Their sting is as painful as that of stomoxes. It leaves a little reddish-brown spot, which is extravasated and coagulated blood, where their proboscis has pierced the skin. An hour before sun-set a species of small gnats, called tempraneros, because they appear also at sun-rise, take the place of the moschettoes. Their presence scarcely lasts an hour and a half; they disappear between six and seven in the evening, or, as they say here, after the Angelus(a la oracion). After a few minutes repose, you feel yourself stund by zancudoes, another species of gnat (culex) with very long legs. The zancudo, the proboscis of which contains a sharp pointed sucker, causes the most acute pain, and a swelling that remains several weeks. Its hum resembles that of our gnats in Europe, but is louder and more prolonged. The Indians pretend to distinguish ‘by their song’ the zancudoes and the tempraneroes; the latter of which are real twilight insects, while the zancudoes are most frequently nocturnal insects, and disappear towards sun-rise. “The culices of South America, have generally the wings, corselet, and legs of an azure colour, annulated, and variable from a mixture of spots of a metallic lustre. Here, as in Europe, the males, which are distinguished by their feathered antennæ, are extremely rare; you are seldom stung except by females. The preponderance of this sex explains the immense increase of the species, each female laying several hundred eggs. In going up one of the great rivers of Ameriva, it is observed, that the appearance of a new species of culex denotes the approximity of a new stream flowing in.’“The whites born in the torrid zone walk barefoot with impunity in the same apartment where a European recently landed is exposed to the attack of the niguas or chegoes (pulex penetrans). These animals, almost invisible to the eye, get under the nails of the feet, and there acquire the size of a small pea by the quick increase of its eggs, which are placed in a bag under the belly of the insect. The nigua, therefore, distinguishes, what the most delicate chemical analysis could not distinguish, the cellular membrane and blood of a European from those of a Creole white. It is not so with the moschettoes.“In the day, even when labouring at the oar, the natives, in order to chase the insects, are continually giving one another smart slaps with the palm of the hand. Rude in all their movements, they strike themselves and their comrades mechanically during their sleep. The violence of their blows reminds us of the Persian tale of the bear, that tried to kill with his paw the insects on the forehead of his sleeping master. Near Maypures we saw some young Indians seated in a circle and rubbing cruelly each others backs with the bark of trees dried at the fire. Indian women were occupied with a degree of patience, of which |Spaltenumbruch|the copper-coloured race alone are capable, in extirpating by means of a sharp bone the little mass of coagulated blood, that forms the centre of every sting, and gives the skin a speckled appearance. One of the most barbarous nations of the Oroonoko, that of the Otomacs, is acquainted with the use of moschetto curtains (mosquiteros) formed of a tissue of fibres of the palm tree, murichi. We had lately seen, that at Higuerote, on the coast of Caraccas, the people of a copper colour sleep buried in the sand. In the villages of the Rio Magdalena the Indians often invited us to stretch ourselves with them on ox-skins, near the church, in the middle of the plaza grande, where they had assembled all the cows in the neighbourhood. The proximity of cattle give some repose to man. The Indians of the Upper Oroonoko and the Cassiquiare, seeing that Mr. Bonpland could not prepare his herbal, on account of the continual torment of the moschettoes, invited him to enter their oveus, (hornitos). Thus they call little chambers, without doors or windows, into which they creep horizontally through a very small opening. When they have driven away the insects by means of a fire of wet brush-wood, which emits a great deal of smoke, they close the opening of the oven. The absence of moschettoes is purchased clearly enough by the excessive heat of stagnant air, and the smoke of a torch of copal, which lights the oven during your stay in it. Mr. Bonpland, with courage and patience well worthy of praise, dried hundreds of plants, shut up in these hornitos of the Indians. By this time we fancy our readers are as well acquainted with the habits of the moschettoes, as if they had been bitten by them all over; and further knowledge being unnecessary, we shall advance to other subjects. Above the cataract of Atures, at the mouth of the Rio Calaniapo, Mr. Humboldt gives the following account of an extinct tribe:“We were shown at a distance, on the right of the river, the rocks that surround the cavern of Ataruipe; but we had not time to visit the cemetry of the destroyed tribe of the Atures. We regretted this so much the more, as father Zea was never weary of talking to us of the skeletons painted with anotta, which this cavern contained; of the large vases of baked earth, in which the bones of separate families appeared to be collected; and of many other curious objects, which we proposed to examine at our return from the Rio Negro.” At Maypure, higher up, we hear more of the pottery of the Indians: “In every part of the forests, far from any human habitation, on digging the earth, fragments of pottery and delft are found. The taste for this kind of fabrication seems to have been common heretofore to the natives of both Americas. To the north of Mexico,—on the banks of the Rio Gala— among the ruins of an Azteck city—in the United States—near the tumuli of the Miamis; in Florida—and in every place where any trace of ancient civilization could be found, the soil covers fragments of painted pottery; and the extreme resemblances of the ornaments they display is striking. Savage nations, and those civilized people, who are condemned by their political and religious institutions always to imitate themselves, strive, as if by instinct, to perpetuate the same forms, to preserve a peculiar type or style, and to follow the methods and processes which were employed by their ancestors. In North America, fragments of delft have been discovered in places where lines of fortification are found, and the walls of towns constructed by an unknown nation, now entirely extinct. The paintings on these fragments have a great similitude to those which are executed in our days on earthenware by the natives of Louisiana and Florida. Thus too the Indians of Maypure often painted before our eyes the same ornaments as we had observed in the cavern of Ataruipe, on the vases containing human bones. They are real grecques, meandrites, and figures of crocodiles, of monkeys, and of a large quadruped, which I could not recognize, though it has always the same squat form.” We cannot, even in the midst of the in-teresting works which are at present almostdaily issuing from the press, do better thancontinue to devote a page or our Gazette tothe agreeable narrative of this enterprisingand intelligent traveller. In a precedingpaper we have remarked upon the extraor-dinary degree of general knowledge whichhe brings to bear on any topic he is illus-trating. The following is an admirableexample of the truth of this position: “Every hemisphere produces plants of a different species; and it is not by the diversity of climates that we can attempt to explain why equinoctial Africa has no laurineæ, and the New World no heaths; why the calceolariæ are found only in the Southern hemisphere; why the birds of the continent of India glow with colours less splendid than the birds of the hot parts of America; finally, why the tiger is peculiar to Asia, and the ornithorhincus to New Holland. In the vegetable, as well as in the animal kingdom, the causes of the distribution of the species are among the number of mysteries which natural philosophy cannot reach. This science is not occupied in the investigation of the origin of beings, but of the laws according to which they are distributed on the globe. It examines the things that are, the coexistence of vegetable and animal forms, in each latitude, at different heights, and at different degrees of temperature; it studies the relations under which particular organizations are more vigorously developed, multiplied or modified; but it approaches not problems, the solution of which is impossible, since they touch the origin, the first existence of a germ of life. We may add, that the attempts that have been made to explain the distribution of various species on the globe, by the sole influence of climate, date at a period when physical geography was still in its infancy; when, recurring incessantly to pretended contrasts between the two worlds, it was imagined, that the whole of Africa and of America resembled the deserts of Egypt, and the marshes of Cayenne. At present, when men judge of the state of things not from one type arbitrarily chosen, but from positive knowledge, it is ascertained that the two continents, in their immense extent, contain countries that are altogether analogous. There are regions of America, as barren and burning as the interior of Africa. The islands that produce the spices of India are scarcely remarkable for their dryness; and it is not on account of the humidity of the climate, as it has been affirmed in recent works, that the New Continent is deprived of those fine species of laurineæ and myristicæ, which are found united in one little corner of the earth, in the archipelago of India. For some years past, the real cinnamon has been cultivated with success in several parts of the New Continent; and a zone that produces the coumarouna, the vanilla, the pucheri, the pine-apple, the myrtus pimenta, the balsam of tolu, the myroxylon peruvianum, the crotons, the citrosmas, the pejoa, the incienso of the silla of Caraccas, the quereme, the pancratium, and so many majestic liliaceous plants, cannot be considered as destitute of aromatics. Besides, a dry air favours the developement of the aromatic, or exciting properties, only in certain species of plants. The most cruel poisons are produced in the most humid zone of America: and it is precisely under the influence of the long rains of the tropics that the American pimento, capsicum baccatum, the fruit of which is often as caustic and fiery as Indian pepper, vegetates best. From the whole of these considerations, it follows, 1st, that the new continent possesses spices, aromatics, and very active vegetable poisons that are peculiar to itself, differing specifically from those of the ancient world; 2dly, that the primitive distribution of species in the torrid zone cannot be explained by the influence of climate solely, or by the distribution of temperature, which we observe in the present state of our planet; but that this difference of climate leads us to perceive, why a given type of organization developes itself more vigorously in such or such local circumstances. We can conceive, that a small number of the families of plants, for instance the musaceæ and the palms, cannot belong to very cold regions, on account of their internal structure and the importance of certain organs; but we cannot explain why no one of the family of melastomas vegetates north of the parallel of thirty degrees, or why no rose tree belongs to the southern hemisphere. Analogy of climates is often found in the two continents, without identity of productions.” “Its trunk, armed with thorns, is more than sixty feet high; its leaves are pinnated, very thin, undulated, and frizzled towards the points. The fruits of this tree are very extraordinary; every cluster contains from fifty to eighty; they are yellow like apples, grow purple in proportion as they ripen, two or three inches thick, and generally, from abortion, without a kernel. Among the eighty or ninety species of palm-trees peculiar to the New Continent, which I have enumerated in the Nova Genera Plantarum Aequinoctialum, there are none in which the sarcocarp is developed in a manner so extraordinary. The fruit of the pirijao furnishes a farinaceous substance, as yellow as the yolk of an egg, slightly saccharine, and extremely nutritious. It is eaten like plantains or potatoes, boiled or roasted in the ashes, and affords a wholesome and agreeable aliment. The Indians and the missionaries are unwearied in their praises of this noble palm-tree, which might be called the peach-palm. We found it cultivated in abundance at San Fernando, San Balthasar, Santa Barbara, and wherever we advanced towards the south or the east along the banks of the Atabapo and the Upper Orinoco. In those wild regions we are involuntarily reminded of the assertion of Linnaeus, that the country of palm-trees was the first abode of our species, and that man is essentially palmivorous. On examining the provision accumulated in the huts of the Indians, we perceive that their subsistence during several months of the year depends as much on the farinaceous fruit of the pirijao, as on the cassava and plantain. The tree bears fruit but once a year, but to the amount of three clusters, consequently from one hundred and fifty to two hundred fruits.” Here, also, is the gigantic bombax … they landed to measure it. “The height was nearly one hundred and twenty feet, and the diameter between fourteen and fifteen. This enormous specimen of vegetation surprised us the more, as we had till then seen on the banks of the Atabapo only small trees with slender trunks, which from afar resembled young cherry-trees. The Indians assured that these small trees do not form a very extensive group. They are checked in their growth by the inundations of the river; while the dry grounds near the Atabapo, the Temi, and the Tuamini, furnish excellent timber for building.” Thus (as we have stated), interspersedwith anecdote, does Mr. Humboldt vary hisentertaining volumes; and that our reviewmay partake of the character of its subject,we shall conclude the present division of itby copying a very affecting story. Wherethe Atabapo enters the Rio Temi, the nar-rative says: “Before we reached its confluence, a granitic eminence on the western bank, near the mouth of the Guasacavi, fixed our attention: it is called Piedra de la Guahiba (Rock of the Guahiba woman), or the Piedra de la Madre (Mother's Rock.) We inquired the cause of so singular a denomination. Father Zea could not satisfy our curiosity; but some weeks after, another missionary, one of the predecessors of that ecclesiastic, whom we found settled at San Fernando as president of the missions, related to us an event which excited in our minds the most painful feelings. If, in these solitary scenes, man scarcely leaves behind him any trace of his existence, it is doubly humiliating for a European to see perpetuated by so imperishable a monument of nature as a rock, the remembrance of the moral degradation of our species, and the contrast between the virtue of a savage, and the barbarism of civilized man!“In 1797 the missionary of San Fernando had led his Indians to the banks of the Rio Guaviare, on one of those hostile incursions which are prohibited alike by religion and the Spanish laws. They found in an Indian hut a Guahiba woman with her three children (two of whom were still infants), occupied in preparing the flour of cassava. Resistance was impossible; the father was gone to fish, and the mother tried in vain to flee with her children. Scarcely had she reached the savannah when she was seized by the Indians of the mission, who hunt human beings, like the Whites and the Negroes in Africa. The mother and her children were bound, and dragged to the bank of the river. The monk, seated in his boat, waited the issue of an expedition of which he shared not the danger. Had the mother made too violent a resistance the Indians would have killed her, for everything is permitted for the sake of the conquest of souls (la conquista espirituel), and it is particularly desirable to capture children, who may be treated in the Mission as poitos, or slaves of the Christians. The prisoners were carried to San Fernando, in the hope that the mother would be unable to find her way back to her home by land. Separated from her other children who had accompanied their father on the day in which she had been carried off, the unhappy woman showed signs of the deepest despair. She attempted to take back to her home the children who had been seized by the missionary; and she fled with them repeatedly from the village of San Fernando. But the Indians never failed to recapture her; and the missionary, after having caused her to be mercilessly beaten, took the cruel resolution of separating the mother from the two children who had been carried off with her. She was conveyed alone to the missions of the Rio Negro, going up the Atabapo. Slightly bound, she was seated at the bow of the boat, ignorant of the fate that awaited her; but she judged by the direction of the sun, that she was removing farther and farther from her hut and her native country. She succeeded in breaking her bonds, threw herself into the water, and swam to the left bank of the Atabapo. The current carried her to a shelf of rock, which bears her name to this day. She landed and took shelter in the woods, but the president of the missions ordered the Indians to row to the shore, and follow the traces of the Guahiba. In the evening she was brought back. Stretched upon the rock (la Piedra de la Madre) a cruel punishment was inflicted on her with those straps of manatee leather, which serve for whips in that country, and with which the alcaldes are always furnished. This unhappy woman, her hands tied behind her back with strong stalks of mavacure, was then dragged to the mission of Javita.“She was there thrown into one of the caravanserais, called las Casas del Rey. It was the rainy season, and the night was profoundly dark. Forests till then believed to be impenetrable separated the mission of Javita from that of San Fernando, which was twenty-five leagues distant in a straight line. No other route is known than that by the rivers; no man ever attempted to go by land from one village to another. But such difficulties could not deter a mother, separated from her children. The Guahiba was carelessly guarded in the caravanserai. Her arms being wounded, the Indians of Javita had loosened her bonds, unknown to the missionary and the alcaldes. Having succeeded by the help of her teeth in breaking them entirely, she disappeared during the night; and at the fourth sunrise was seen at the mission of San Fernando, hovering around the hut where her children were confined. "What that woman performed," added the missionary, who gave us this sad narrative, "the most robust Indian would not have ventured to undertake!" She traversed the woods at a season when the sky is constantly covered with clouds, and the sun during whole days appears but for a few minutes. Did the course of the waters direct her way? The inundations of the rivers forced her to go far from the banks of the main stream, through the midst of woods where the movement of the water is almost imperceptible. How often must she have been stopped by the thorny lianas, that form a network around the trunks they entwine! How often must she have swum across the rivulets that run into the Atabapo! This unfortunate woman was asked how she had sustained herself during four days. She said that, exhausted with fatigue, she could find no other nourishment than those great black ants called vachacos, which climb the trees in long bands, to suspend on them their resinous nests. We pressed the missionary to tell us whether the Guahiba had peacefully enjoyed the happiness of remaining with her children; and if any repentance had followed this excess of cruelty. He would not satisfy our curiosity; but at our return from the Rio Negro we learned that the Indian mother was again separated from her children, and sent to one of the missions of the Upper Orinoco. There she died, refusing all kind of nourishment, as savages frequently do in great calamities.“Such is the remembrance annexed to this fatal rock, to Piedra de la Madre.

humboldt’s and bonpland’s travels.

This journal is so pregnant with instruc-tive and interesting matter, that we couldhardly, as we think, place any thing betterbefore our readers, though we might bemore instant with a greater variety of no-velty. We therefore continue our extracts.The following is a curious account of theIndian Rubber:—“Here (Says Mr. H. at the mission of St. Balthasar on the Atobapo) we saw, for the first time, that white and fungoussubstance, which I have made known by the name of dapicho and zapis. We immediately perceived, that itwas analogous to the elastic resin; but, as the Indiansmade us understand by signs, that it was found underground, we were inclined to think, till we arrived atthe mission of Javita, that the dapicho was a fossil

* In Tamanack mure signifies a child; emuru, a son.|243| caoutchouc, though different from the elastic bitumenof Derbyshire. A Poimisano Indian, seated by thefire, in the hut of the missionary, was employed inreducing the dapicho into black caoutchouc. He hadspitted several bits on a slender stick, and was roast-ing them like meat. The dapicho blackens in propor-tion as it grows softer, and gains in elasticity. Theresinous and aromatic smell, which filled the hut,seemed to indicate, that this coloration is the effect ofthe decomposition of a carburet of hydrogen, and thatthe carbon appears in proportion as the hydrogenburns at a low heat. The Indian beat the softenedand blackened mass with a piece of brazil wood, end-ing in the form of a club; he then kneaded the dapi-cho into balls of three or four inches in diameter, and letit cool. These balls exactly resemble the caoutchoucof the shops, but their surface remains in generalslightly viscous. They are used at San Balthasar inthe Indian game of tennis, which is so celebratedamong the inhabitants of Uruana and Encaramada;they are cut into cylinders, to be used as corks, andare far preferable to those made of the bark of thecork-tree.” Soon after, we obtained precise information respect-ing this substance:—it was shown us at the depth oftwo or three feet, in a marshy soil, between the rootsof two trees known by the name of the jacio and the curvana. The first is the hevea of Aublet, or siphonia of the modern botanists, known to furnish the caout-chouc of commerce in Cayenne and the Grand Para;the second has pinnate leaves, and its juice is milky,but very thin, and almost destitute of viscocity. The dapicho appears to be the result of an extravasation ofthe sap from the roots. This extravasation takesplace more especially when the trees have attained agreat age, and the interior of the trunk begins todecay. The bark and alburnum crack; and thus is |244| effected naturally, what the art of man performs tocollect in abundance the milky juices of the hevea, thecastilloa, and the caoutchouc fig tree.” The river Temi, near the banks of which this production is found in sufficient quantities to supply allEurope, runs through forests which overshadow it inso wild and luxuriant a manner as almost to mingletogether the creatures of the several elements of air,earth, and water, and realize the classic images:

Sæculum Pyrrhæ, nova monstra questæ; Omne quum Proteus pecus egit altos Visere montes; Piscium et summa genus hæsit ulmo, Nota quæ sedes fuerat Columbis, Et superjecto pavidæ natarunt Æquore damæ.

“The Indians (says Mr. H.) made us leave the bed of theriver; and we went up towards the south, acrossthe forest, through paths (sendas) that is, throughopen channels of four or five feet broad. Thedepth of the water seldom exceeds half a fathom.These sendas are formed in the inundated forest-likepaths on dry ground. The Indians, in going fromone mission to another, pass with their boats as muchas possible by the same way; but the communicationsnot being frequent, the force of vegetation sometimesproduces unexpected obstacles. An Indian, furnishedwith a machette (a great knife, the blade of which isfourteen inches long,) stood at the head of our boat,employed continually in chopping off the branchesthat cross each other from the two sides of the channel.In the thickest part of the forest we were astonishedby an extraordinary noise. On beating the bushes,a shoal of toninas (fresh water dolphins) four feetlong, surrounded our boat. These animals had con-cealed themselves beneath the branches of a fromageror bombax ceiba. They fled across the forest, throw-ing out those spouts of compressed air and water, |245| which have given them in every language the name of blowers. How singular was this spectacle in the mid-dle of the land, three or four hundred leagues fromthe mouths of the Oroonoko and the Amazon! I amnot ignorant, that the pleuronectes of the Atlantic goup the Loire as far as Orleans; but I persist in think-ing, that the dolphins of the Temi, like those of theGanges, and like the skate (raia) of the Oroonoko, areof a species essentially different from the dolphins andskates of the ocean. In the immense rivers of SouthAmerica, and the great lakes of North America,nature seems to repeat several pelagic forms. TheNile has no porpoises: those of the sea go up theDelta no farther than Biana and Metonbis towardSelamoun.” But these … —“We felt an extraordinary irritation on the joints of our fingers, and on the backs of our hands. The missionary told us it was caused by the aradores, (ploughman insects), which get under the skin. We could distinguish with a lens nothing but streaks, or parallel and whitish furrows. It is the form of these furrows, that has obtained for the insect the name of ploughman. A mulatto woman was sent for, who professed to be thoroughly acquainted with all the little insects that burrow in the human skin; the chego, the nuche, the coya, and the arador; she was the curandera, or surgeon of the place. She promised to extirpate, one by one, the insects which caused this smarting irritation. Having heated at a lamp the point a little bit of hard wood, she dug with it into the furrows that marked the skin. After long examination, she announced with the pedantic gravity peculiar to the mulatto race, that an arador was found. I saw a little round bag, which I suspected to be the egg of an acarus. I was to find relief when the mulatto woman had succeeded in taking out three or four of these aradores. Having the skin of both hands filled with acari, I had not the patience to wait the end of an operation, which had already lasted till late at night. The next day an Indian of Javita cured us radically, and with surprising promptitude. He brought us the branch of a shrub, called uzao. The annexed natives of the … —“The nations of the Upper Orinoco, the Atabapo, and the Inirida, like the ancient Germans and the Persians, have no other worship than that of the powers of nature. They call the good principle Cachimana; it is the Manitou, the Great Spirit, that regulates the seasons, and favours the harvests. Along with Cachimana there is an evil principle, Iolokiamo, less powerful, but more artful, and in particular more active. The Indians of the forest, when they occasionally visit the missions, conceive with difficulty the idea of a temple or an image. "These good people," said the missionary, "like only processions in the open air. When I last celebrated the festival of San Antonio, the patron of my village, the Indians of Inirida were present at mass. 'Your God,' said they to me, 'keeps himself shut up in a house, as if he were old and infirm; ours is in the forest, in the fields, and on the mountains of Sipapu, whence the rains come.'" Among the more numerous, and on this account less barbarous tribes, religious societies of a singular kind are formed. Some old Indians pretend to be better instructed than others on points regarding divinity; and to them is confided the famous botuto, of which I have spoken, and which is sounded under the palm-trees that they may bear abundance of fruit. On the banks of the Orinoco there exists no idol, as among all the nations who have remained faithful to the first worship of nature, but the botuto, the sacred trumpet, is an object of veneration. To be initiated into the mysteries of the botuto, it is requisite to be of pure morals, and to have lived single. The initiated are subjected to flagellations, fastings, and other painful exercises. There are but a small number of these sacred trumpets. The most anciently celebrated is that upon a hill near the confluence of the Tomo and the Guainia. It is pretended, that it is heard at once on the banks of the Tuamini, and at the mission of San Miguel de Davipe, a distance of ten leagues. Father Cereso assured us, that the Indians speak of the botuto of Tomo as an object of worship common to many surrounding tribes. Fruit and intoxicating liquors are placed beside the sacred trumpet. Sometimes the Great Spirit himself makes the botuto resound; sometimes he is content to manifest his will through him to whom the keeping of the instrument is entrusted. These juggleries being very ancient (from the fathers of our fathers, say the Indians), we must not be surprised that some unbelievers are already to be found; but they express their disbelief of the mysteries of the botuto only in whispers. Women are not permitted to see this marvellous instrument; and are excluded from all the ceremonies of this worship. If a woman have the misfortune to see the trumpet, she is put to death without mercy.”

(Literary Gazette, Sept.) TRAVELS OF ALEXANDER HUMBOLDT.translated by helen maria williams.

A fewA Few weeks since, when this addition … “Esmeralda is the most celebrated spot on the Oroonoko forthe fabrication of that active poison which is employed in war,in the chase, and, what is singular enough, as a remedy for gastricobstructions. The poison of the ficunas of the Amazon, the upas-tieute of Java, and the curare of Guyana, are the most deleterious substances that are known. Raleigh, toward the end of the six-teenth century, had heard the name of curare pronounced asbeing a vegetable substance, with which arrows were envenomed;yet no fixed notions of this poison had reached Europe. Themissionaries Gumilla and Gili had not been able to penetrate in-to the country where the curare is manufactured. Gumilla as-serts that this preparable was enveloped in great mystery; thatits principal ingredient was furnished by a subterraneous plant,by a tuberose root, which never puts forth leaves, and which iscalled the root by way of eminence, raiz de si misma; that thevenomous exhalations, which arise from the pots, cause the oldwomen (the most useless) to perish who are chosen to watchover this operation; finally, that these vegetable juices neverappear sufficiently concentrated, till a few drops produce at adistance a repulsive action on the blood. An Indian wounds him-self slightly; and a dart dipped in the liquid curare is held nearthe wound. If it make the blood return to the vessels withouthaving been brought into contact with them, the poison is judgedto be sufficiently concentrated. I shall not stop to refute thesepopular tales collected by Father Gumilla. When we arrived at Esmeralda, the greater part of the In-dians were returning from an excursion which they had made tothe east beyond the Rio Padamo, to gather juvias, or the fruitof the Bertholletia, and the liana which yields the curare. Theirreturn was celebrated by a festival, which is called in the Mission la fiesta de las juvias, and which resembles our harvest homesand vintage feasts. The women had prepared a quantity of fer-mented liquor, and during two days the Indians were in a stateof intoxication. Among nations that attach great importanceto the fruits of the palm-trees and of some others useful for thenourishment of man, the period when these fruits are gatheredis marked by public rejoicings, and time is divided according tothese festivals, which succeed one another in a course invariablythe same. We were fortunate enough to find an old Indian lessdrunk than the rest, who was employed in preparing the curare poison from freshly gathered plants. He was the chemist ofthe place. We found at his dwelling large earthen pots forboiling vegetable juice, shallower vessels to favour the evaporationby a larger surface, and leaves of the plane-tree rolled up in theshape of our filters, and used to filtrate the liquors more or lessloaded with fibrous matter. The greatest order and neatnessprevailed in this hut, which was transformed into a chemical la-boratory. The Indian who was to instruct us, is known through-out the mission by the name of the master of poison (amo delcurare): he had that self-sufficient air and tone of pedantry, ofwhich the pharmacopolists of Europe were formerly accused; “ I know,” said he, “that the whites have the secret of fabricatingsoap, and that black powder which has the effect of making anoise and killing animals, when they are wanted. The curare, which we prepare from father to son, is superior to any thing youcan make down yonder (beyond sea). It is the juice of an herbwhich kills silently (without any one knowing whence the strokecomes).” This chemical operation, to which the master of the curare attached so much importance, appears to us extremely simple.The liana (bujuco), which is used at Esmeralda for the prepara-tion of the poison, bears the same name as in the forest of Javita.It is the bejuco de mavacure, which is gathered in abundanceeast of the Mission, on the left bank of the Oroonoko, beyondthe Rio Amaguaca, in the mountains and granatic lands of Gua-naya and Yumariquin. The juice of the liana, when it has been recently gathered, isnot regarded as poisonous; perhaps it acts in a sensible manneronly when it is strongly concentrated. It is the bark, and a partof the alburnum, which contains this terrible poison. Branchesof the mavacure four or five lines in diameter, are scraped with aknife; and the bark that comes off is bruised, and reduced intovery thin filaments, on the stone employed for grinding cassava.The venomous juice being yellow, the whole fibrous mass takesthis colour. It is thrown into a funnel nine inches high, with anopening four inches wide. This funnel was, of all the instru-ments of the Indian laboratory, that of which the master of poi-son seemed to be most proud. He asked us repeatedly, of poralla (down yonder, that is in Europe) we had ever seen any thingto be compared to his empudo. It was a leaf of a plantain treerolled up in the form of a cone, and placed in another strongercone made of the leaves of the palm-tree. The whole of thisapparatus was supported by slight frame work made of the petioliand ribs of palm leaves. A cold infusion is first prepared bypouring water on the fibrous matter, which is the ground bark ofthe mavacure. A yellowish water filters during several hours,drop by drop, through the leafy funnel. This filtered water is thevenomous liquor, but it acquires strength only when it is concen-trated by evaporation, like molasses in a large earthen pot.The Indian from time to time invited us to taste the liquid; itstaste, more or less bitter, decides when the concentration by firehas been carried sufficiently far. There is no danger in this ope-ration, the curare being deleterious only when it comes into im-mediate contact with the blood. The vapours, therefore, thatare disengaged from the pans, are not hurtful, notwithstandingwhat has been asserted on this point by the Missionaries of theOroonoko. Fontana, in his fine experiments on the poison of the ticunas of the river of Amazons, long ago proved, that the va-pours arising from this poison when thrown on burning charcoal,may be inhaled without apprehension; and that it is false, asM. de la Condamine has announced, that Indian women, when con-demned to death, have been killed by the vapours of the poisonof the ticunas. The juice is thickened with a glutinous substance to cause itto stick to the darts, which it renders mortal; but taken inter-nally, the Indians consider the curare to be an excellent stoma-chic. Scarcely a fowl is eaten (adds our author) on the banksof the Oroonoko, which has not been killed with a poisonedarrow. The Missionaries pretend, that the flesh of animals isnever so good as when these means are employed. Father Zea,who accompanied us, though ill of a tertian fever, caused everymorning the live fowl allotted for our repast to be brought to hishammock, together with an arrow. Notwithstanding his habi-tual state of weakness, he would not confide this operation, towhich he attached great importance, to any other person. Largebirds, a guan (pava de monte) for instance, or a curassoa (alse-tor,) when wounded in the thigh, perish in two or three minutes;but it is often ten or twelve before a pig or a pecari expires.” M. Humboldt does not seem to be acquainted with any certain antidote,if such exists, to this fatal poison. Sugar, garlic, the muriate of soda, &c.are mentioned doubtingly. ... “The old Indian, who was called the master of poison, seemed flattered by the interest we had taken in his chemical processes. He found us sufficiently intelligent to lead him to the belief that we knew how to make soap, an art which, next to the preparation of curare, appeared to him one of the finest of human inventions. When the liquid poison had been poured into the vessels prepared for their reception, we accompanied the Indian to the festival of the juvias. The harvest of juvias, or fruits of the Bertholletia excelsa, was celebrated by dancing, and by excesses of wild intoxication. The hut where the natives were assembled, displayed during several days a very singular aspect. There was neither table nor bench; but large roasted monkeys, blackened by smoke, were ranged in regular order against the wall. These were the marimondes (Ateles belzebuth), and those bearded monkeys called capuchins, which must not be confounded with the weeper, or sai (Simia capucina of Buffon). The manner of roasting these anthropomorphous animals contributes to render their appearance extremely disagreeable in the eyes of civilized man. A little grating or lattice of very hard wood is formed, and raised one foot from the ground. The monkey is skinned, and bent into a sitting posture; the head generally resting on the arms, which are meagre and long; but sometimes these are crossed behind the back. When it is tied on the grating, a very clear fire is kindled below. The monkey, enveloped in smoke and flame, is broiled and blackened at the same time. On seeing the natives devour the arm or leg of a roasted monkey, it is difficult not to believe that this habit of eating animals so closely resembling man in their physical organization, has, to a certain degree, contributed to diminish the horror of cannibalism among these people. Roasted monkeys, particularly those which have very round heads, display a hideous resemblance to a child; and consequently Europeans who are obliged to feed on them prefer separating the head and the hands, and serve up only the rest of the animal at their tables. The flesh of monkeys is so lean and dry, that M. Bonpland has preserved in his collections at Paris an arm and hand, which had been broiled over the fire at Esmeralda; and no smell has arisen from them after the lapse of a great number of years. “We saw the Indians dance. The monotony of their dancing is increased by the women not daring to take part in it. The men, young and old, form a circle, holding each others' hands; and turn sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left, for whole hours, with silent gravity. Most frequently the dancers themselves are the musicians. Feeble sounds, drawn from a series of reeds of different lengths, form a slow and plaintive accompaniment. The first dancer, to mark the time, bends both knees in a kind of cadence. Sometimes they all make a pause in their places, and execute little oscillatory movements, bending the body from one side to the other. The reeds ranged in a line, and fastened together, resemble the Pan's pipes, as we find them represented in the bacchanalian processions on Grecian vases. To unite reeds of different lengths, and make them sound in succession by passing them before the lips, is a simple idea, and has naturally presented itself to every nation. We were surprised to see with what promptitude the young Indians constructed and tuned these pipes, when they found reeds on the bank of the river. Uncivilized men, in every zone, make great use of these gramina with high stalks. The Greeks, with truth, said that reeds had contributed to subjugate nations by furnishing arrows, to soften men's manners by the charm of music, and to unfold their understanding by affording the first instruments for tracing letters. These different uses of reeds mark in some sort three different periods in the life of nations. We must admit that the tribes of the Orinoco are in the first stage of dawning civilization. The reed serves them only as an instrument of war and of hunting; and the Pan's pipes, of which we have spoken, have not yet, on those distant shores, yielded sounds capable of awakening mild and humane feelings.” M.H. gives an interesting account ... “We saw on the slope of the Cerra Duida shirt-trees fifty feet high. The Indians cut off cylindrical pieces two feet in diameter, from which they peel the red and fibrous bark, without making any longitudinal incision. This bark affords them a sort of garment, which resembles sacks of a very coarse texture, and without a seam. The upper opening serves for the head; and two lateral holes are cut for the arms to pass through. The natives wear these shirts of marima in the rainy season: they have the form of the ponchos and ruanas of cotton, which are so common in New Grenada, at Quito, and in Peru. In these climates the riches and beneficence of nature being regarded as the primary causes of the indolence of the inhabitants, the missionaries say in showing the shirts of marima, in the forests of the Orinoco garments are found ready-made on the trees. We may also mention the pointed caps, which the spathes of certain palm-trees furnish, and which resemble coarse network. “At the festival of which we were the spectators, the women, who were excluded from the dance, and every sort of public rejoicing, were daily occupied in serving the men with roasted monkey, fermented liquors, and palm-cabbage. This last production has the taste of our cauliflowers, and in no other country had we seen specimens of such an immense size. The leaves that are not unfolded are united with the young stem, and we measured cylinders of six feet long and five inches in diameter. Another substance, which is much more nutritive, is obtained from the animal kingdom: this is fish-flour (manioc de pescado). The Indians throughout the Upper Orinoco fry fish, dry them in the sun, and reduce them to powder without separating the bones. I have seen masses of fifty or sixty pounds of this flour, which resembles that of cassava. When it is wanted for eating, it is mixed with water, and reduced to a paste. In every climate the abundance of fish has led to the invention of the same means of preserving them. Pliny and Diodorus Siculus have described the fish-bread of the ichthyophagous nations, that dwelt on the Persian Gulf and the shores of the Red Sea.”

HUMBOLDT’S PERSONAL NARRATIVE. (Literary Gazette.) Dirt-Eaters.

“THE inhabitants of Uruana, be-long to those nations of the sa-vannahs (Indios andantes,) who, moredifficult to civilize than the nations ofthe forest, (Indios del monte,) have adecided aversion to cultivate the land,and live almost exclusively on huntingand fishing. They are men of veryrobust constitution; but ugly, savage,vindictive, and passionately fond offermented liquors. They are omnivo-rous animals in the highest degree;and therefore the other Indians, whoconsider them as barbarians, have acommon saying, ‘nothing is so disgust-ing that an Otomac will not eat it.’While the waters of the Oroonoko andits tributary streams are low, the Oto-macs subsist on fish and turtles. Theformer they kill with surprising dexter-ity, by shooting them with an arrow,when they appear at the surface of thewater. When the rivers swell, whichin South America as well as in Egyptand in Nubia, is erroneously attributedto the melting of the snows, and whichoccurs periodically in every part of thetorrid zone, fishing almost entirelyceases. It is then as difficult to pro-cure fish in the rivers which are be-come deeper, as when you are sailing |Spaltenumbruch| on the open sea. It often fails the poormissionaries, on fast-days as well asflesh days, though all the young Indiansare under the obligation of ‘fishing forthe convent.’ At the period of theseinundations, which lasts two or threemonths, the Otomacs swallow a prodi-gious quantity of earth. We foundheaps of balls in their huts, piled up inpyramids three or four feet high. Theseballs were five or six inches in diame-ter. The earth which the Otomacs eatis a very fine and unctuous clay, of ayellowish grey colour; and, being slight-ly baked in the fire, the hardened crusthas a tint inclining to red, owing to theoxid of iron which is mingled with it.We brought away some of this earth,which we took from the winter provis-ion of the Indians; and it is absolutelyfalse, that it is steatitic, and containsmagnesia. Mr. Vauquelin did not dis-cover any traces of this earth in it; buthe found that it contained more silex thanalumin, and three or four per cent of lime. “The Otomacs do not eat everykind of clay indifferently; they choosethe alluvial beds or strata that containthe most unctuous earth, and thesmoothest to the feel. I inquired ofthe missionary, whether the moistenedclay were made to undergo, as Father |199| |Spaltenumbruch| Gumilla asserts, that peculiar decom-position, which is indicated by a dis-engagement of carbonic acid and sul-phuretted hydrogen, and which is de-signated in every language by theterm of putrefaction; but he assuredus, that the natives neither cause the clay to rot, nor do they mingle it withflour of maize, oil of turtles’ eggs, or fatof the crocodile. We ourselves exam-ined, both at the Oroonoko and after ourreturn to Paris, the balls of earth whichwe brought away with us, and foundno trace of the mixture of any organicsubstance, whether oily or farinaceous.The savage regards every thing as nour-ishing that appeases hunger; when,therefore, you inquire of an Otomac onwhat he subsists during the two monthswhen the river is the highest, he showsyou his balls of clayey earth. This hecalls his principal food; for all this pe-riod he can seldom procure a lizard, aroot of fern, or a dead fish swimming atthe surface of the water. If the Indianeat earth from want during two months,(and from three quarters to five quar-ters of a pound in twenty-four hours,)he does not the less regale himself withit during the rest of the year. Everyday in the season of drought, when fish-ing is most abundant, he scrapes hisballs of poya, and mingles a little claywith his other aliment. What is mostsurprising is, that the Otomacs do notbecome lean by swallowing such quan-tities of earth; they are, on the contra-ry, extremely robust, and far from hav-ing the belly tense and puffed up. Themissionary Fray Ramon Bueno asserts,that he never remarked any alterationin the health of the natives at the peri-od of the great risings of the Oroonoko. “The following are the facts in alltheir simplicity, which we were able toverify. The Otomacs during somemonths, eat daily three quarters of apound of clay slightly hardened by fire,without their health being materiallyaffected by it. They moisten the earthafresh when they are going to swallowit. It has not been possible to verifyhitherto with precision how much nu-tritious vegetable or animal matter theIndians take in a week at the sametime; but it is certain that they attri-bute the sensation of satiety which they |Spaltenumbruch| feel, to the clay, and not to the wretch-ed aliments which they take with itoccasionally. No physiological phe-nomenon being entirely insulated, itmay be interesting to examine severalanalogous phenomena, which I havebeen able to collect. “I observed every where within thetorrid zone, in a great number of indi-viduals, children, women, and some-times even full-grown men, an inordi-nate and almost irresistible desire ofswallowing earth; not an alkaline orcalcareous earth, to neutralize (as it isvulgarly said) acid juices, but a fat clay,unctuous, and exhaling a strong smell.It is often found necessary to tie thechildren’s hands, or to confine them, toprevent their eating earth when the rainceases to fall. At the village of Banco,on the bank of the river Magdalena, Isaw the Indian women who make pot-tery continually swallowing great piecesof clay.” The author goes at some length intoanalogies and reasoning on them, butwe confine our quotation principally tothe facts. “The negroes on the coast of Guineadelight in eating a yellowish earth whichthey call caouac. The slaves who aretaken to America try to procure forthemselves the same enjoyment; but itis constantly detrimental to their health.They say, ‘that the earth of the WestIndies is not so easy of digestion as thatof their country.’” * * * “In the Indian Archipelago, at theisland of Java, Mr. Labillardière saw,between Surabaya and Samarang, littlesquare and reddish cakes exposed tosale. These cakes, called tanaampo, were cakes of clay, slightly baked,which the natives eat with appetite.The attention of physiologists, sincemy return from the Oroonoko, havingbeen powerfully fixed on these phenom-ena of geophagy, Mr. Leschenault,(one of the naturalists of the expeditionto the Southern Lands under the com-mand of Captain Baudin) has publishedsome curious details on the tanaampo, or ampo, of the Javanese. ‘The red-dish and somewhat ferruginous clay,’he says, ‘which the inhabitants of Javaare fond of eating occasionally is spreadon a plate of iron, and baked, after |200| |Spaltenumbruch| having been rolled into little cylindersin the form of the bark of cinnamon.In this state it takes the name of ampo, and is sold in the public markets. Thisclay has a peculiar taste, which is owingto the torrefaction; it is very absorbent,and adheres to the tongue, which itdries. In general it is only the Java-nese women who eat the ampo, eitherin the time of their pregnancy, or inorder to grow thin; the want of plump-ness being a kind of beauty in thiscountry. The use of this earth is fatalto health; the women lose their appe-tite imperceptibly, and no longer takewithout disgust a very small quantityof food: but the desire of becominglean, and of preserving a slender shape,can brave these dangers, and maintainsthe credit of the ampo.’ The savageinhabitants of New Caledonia also, toappease their hunger in times of scar-city, eat great pieces of a friable lapisollaris. Mr. Vauquelin analysed thisstone, and found in it, beside magnesiaand silex in equal portions, a smallquantity of oxid of copper. Mr. Gold-berry had seen the negroes in Africa,in the islands of Bunck and Los Idolos,eat an earth of which he had himselfeaten, without being incommoded by it,and which also was a white and friablesteatite.” * * * * * |Spaltenumbruch| “When we reflect on the whole ofthese facts, we perceive that this disor-derly appetite for clayey, magnesian,and calcareous earth, is most commonamong the people of the torrid zone;that it is not always a cause of disease;and that some tribes eat earth fromchoice, while others (the Otomacs inAmerica, and the inhabitants of NewCaledonia, in the Pacific Ocean,) eat itfrom want, and to appease hunger.” “The observations, which I made onthe banks of the Oroonoko, have beenrecently confirmed by the direct experi-ments of two distinguished young phy-siologists, Messrs. Hippolite Cloquetand Breschet. After long fasting, theyate as much as five ounces of a silverygreen and very fiexible laminar talc.Their hunger was completely satisfied,and they felt no inconvenience from akind of food, to which their organs wereunaccustomed. It is known that greatuse is still made in the East of the bolarand sigillated earths of Lemnos, whichare clay mingled with oxid of iron. InGermany, the workmen employed inthe quarries of sandstone worked at themountain of Kiffhæuser spread a veryfine clay upon their bread, instead ofbutter, which they call steinbutter, * stone butter; and they find it singularlyfilling, and easy of digestion†.”

HUMBOLDT’S NARRATIVE. Concluded. Stories of Crocodiles.

Our latter extracts from this publicationhave been as desultory as the curious na-ture of the author’s inquiries seemed to re-quire, without servilely following himthrough all his topographical details, andphilosophical generalizations. In the samespirit, we shall now conclude our notice ofthese volumes with a brief sequel relatingto the crocodiles of the Oroonoko. “When the waters (says Mr. H.) arehigh, the river inundates the keys; and itsometimes happens, that even in the townimprudent men become the prey of croco-diles. I shall transcribe from my journal afact, that took place during Mr. Bonpland’sillness. A Guaykeri Indian, from the islandde la Margaretta, went to anchor his canoein a cove, where there were not three feetof water. A very fierce crocodile, that ha-bitually haunted that spot, seized him bythe leg, and withdrew from the shore, re-maining on the surface of the water. The |Spaltenumbruch| cries of the Indian drew together a crowdof spectators. This unfortunate man wasfirst seen seeking with astonishing couragefor a knife in the pocket of his pantaloons.Not being able to find it, he seized the headof the crocodile, and thrust his fingers intoits eyes. No man in the hot regions ofAmerica is ignorant, that this carnivorousreptile, covered with a buckler of hard anddry scales, is extremely sensible in the onlyparts of his body which are soft and unpro-tected, such as the eyes, the hollow under-neath the shoulders, the nostrils, and be-neath the lower jaw, where there are twoglands of musk. The Guaykeri Indian hadrecourse to the same means which savedthe negro of Mungo Park, and the girl ofUritucu, whom I have mentioned above;but he was less fortunate than they hadbeen, for the crocodile did not open itsjaws, and lose hold of its prey. The ani-mal, yielding to the pain, plunged to thebottom of the river; and, after havingdrowned the Indian, came up to the surfaceof the water, dragging the dead body to anisland opposite the port. I arrived at themoment when a great number of the inha-bitants of Angostura had witnessed this me-lancholy spectacle. “As the crocodile, on account of thestructure of its larynx, of the hyoid bone,and of the folds of its tongue, can seize,though not swallow, its prey under water;a man seldom disappears without the ani-mal being perceived some hours after nearthe spot where the misfortune has happened,devouring its prey on a neighbouring beach.The number of individuals who perish an-nually, the victims of their own imprudenceand of the ferocity of these reptiles, is muchgreater than it is believed to be in Europe.It is particularly so in villages, where theneighbouring grounds are often inundated.The same crocodiles remain long in thesame places. They become from year toyear more daring, especially, as the Indiansassert, if they have once tasted of humanflesh. These animals are so wary, that theyare killed with difficulty. A ball does notpierce their skin, and the shot is only mor-tal when directed at the throat, or beneaththe shoulder. The Indians, who knowlittle of the use of fire-arms, attack the cro-codile with lances, after it is caught withlarge pointed iron hooks, baited with piecesof meat, and fastened by a chain to thetrunk of a tree. They do not approach theanimal till it has struggled a long time todisengage itself from the iron fixed in theupper jaw. There is little probability thata country in which a labyrinth of riverswithout number brings every day new bandsof crocodiles from the eastern back of theAndes, by the Meta and the Apure, towardsthe coast of Spanish Guyana, should everbe delivered from these reptiles. All thatwill be gained by civilization will be, torender them more timid, and more easilyput to flight. “Affecting instances are related of Afri-can slaves, who have exposed their livesto save those of their masters, who hadfallen into the jaws of the crocodile. A fewyears ago, between Uritucu and the Mission

* “This steinbutter must not be confounded with the mountain butter, bergbutter, which is a salinesubstance, owing to a decomposition of aluminous schists.”† “Freiesleben, Kupferschiefer, vol. iv. p. 118. Kesler, in Gilbert’s Annalen, B. 28, p. 492.”|663| |Spaltenumbruch| de Abaxo, a negro, hearing the cries of hismaster, flew to the spot, armed with a longknife, (machette,) and plunged into theriver. He forced the crocodile, by puttingout his eyes, to let go his prey, and hidehimself under the water. The slave borehis expiring master to the shore, but allsuccour was unavailing to restore him tolife. He died of suffocation, for his woundswere not deep; the crocodile, like thedog, appears not to close its jaws firmlywhile swimming. It is almost superfluousto add, that the children of the deceased,though poor, gave the slave his freedom.” Upon the whole, this portion of Mr.Humboldt’s work is equally entertainingwith what has gone before, and throwsmuch light on Physics and Geography.

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