In the morning the women were engaged in manufacturing a coarse kind of earthen ware. Their most curious workmanship consisted of mats, baskets, and very neat bags. The material they made use of for these was a kind of hemp, not unlike our colonial pite; but finer. The tree which produced it was in their language called, marichi. At noon the women quitted labour and went to join their husbands in their diversion. They immediately took part in the game, ranging themselves twelve upon each side of the party already formed; so that by this addition they amounted in all to forty-eight persons engaged at once in the same game, and yet not the smallest confusion was to be seen amongst them. Each remained at his post and left to his neighbour the ball that came most convenient for his stand. The women played with a kind of battle-door, which they wielded with incredible dexterity.

At 4 o'clock in the afternoon the fishermen arrived with their canoes full of fish. Upon this the party at play immediately broke up; all went to wash themselves in the river, and afterwards retired to their respective homes. The women and children unloaded the boats, and carried the fish before the captain's gates, who distributed them amongst the several families in proportion to the number of their members. Then the village sat down to the only repast which they had made through the day, except some fruits and morsels of earth, of which we shall say more hereafter. After that, they went again and washed themselves; in the interim, night came on; the dance commenced, and was not closed till mid

night. The same routine of exercises was repeated every day. At Terra Firma, no other Indian nation is known to have presented the spectacle of a similar republic, more proper to give a lesson of concord and sound morals to certain civilized states, than to receive any from them. The misfortune is that it has lost almost all the purity of its primitive institutions, so that hardly a trace remains of them.

Indians who eat Earth.

It is observed that the Otomaques are amongst the most voracious of the Indians; it is easy to account for this from their mode of living. They are accused of eating earth, and the charge is founded on fact; but according to their primitive system of administration, it appears that that strange habit is retained more from taste than necessity. It is true, according to father Gumilla, that it is a particular kind of earth kneaded and mixed with alligator or other fat, and which afterwards undergoes some sort of cooking, which prevents it from being hurtful to the body. He neglected to tell that the fat is only mixed with the earth which is prepared for the chief. All the vagrant tribes who are found on the borders of Meta likewise eat earth. There are some on the banks of the Casiquiare who even make ants their principal nourishment.

Food of the Indians.

Next to the Otomaques the Guaraunos, who inhabit the islands which are formed by the mouth of

the Oronoko, enjoy the most comfortable subsist

ence.

Their position insures them as much fish as they please. They have besides a kind of palm they call murichi, which abundantly furnishes bread, wine, &c. &c. but, in general, the subsistence of the wild Indians is neither abundant nor at all seasons equal.

The chace is subject to casualties, and fishing is not less so; besides, they both depend on the weather, and the fruits have likewise their season; to all this, let the improvident spirit of the Indians be added, and we shall see that they would frequently be under the necessity of prolonging their sleep, for want of victuals to eat, unless providence had provided them with such resources, as are indispensable for a people who hate labour.

Turtle Fishery.

Every year, on the fall of the waters of the Oronoko, which begins in the month of February, millions of turtles deposit their eggs among the sands on the beach of the river, and wait till they are hatched, and the young ones far enough advanced not to require their assistance: at this period all the Indians, in the nighbourhood of the Oronoko, repair with their families to its borders, in order to catch turtles, which they preserve by drying them at the fire. They use the same precaution with the eggs, excepting that part of them from which they extract an oil no wise inferior to sweet oil of the first quality. All these articles, besides a sufficient stock of provision, afford a surplus to be employed in barter with Indians at a

distance from the Oronoko, whom laziness or fear prevent from coming abroad.

Marriages of the Indians.

Marriage, an institution coeval with the world, is found established among the Indians. With them, however, it has no connection with religion; as there is nothing implied in it which bears any relation to the divinity; nay, polygamy profanes the sanctity which naturally belongs to it, and diminishes the felicity which it is calculated to confer. There is no law amongst them to prohibit marriage between near relations, and yet there appears no instance of incestuous union sanctioned by the name of marriage.

In this transaction the father has no controul over the will of his son; but he exercises an absolute controul over that of his daughter. She must always blindly give her hand to the spouse, or rather the master whom her father destines for her. Instead of giving a dowry with his daughter, he receives one from his new son-in-law, who pays it in labour, game, fish, or some other articles. The whole ceremony of marriage consists in dancing and drinking

to excess.

Amongst the Indians of Terra-Firma, the relations, neighbours and friends of both spouses were invited. The men who attended, carried the wood and straw necessary for building the hut destined for the young couple; the women presented to the bride as much fish, fruit, bread and liquor, as was necessary for the celebration of the marriage; the men sung an Epi

thalamium to the bride groom and the women to the bride; they danced and sang till night; and as soon as darkness succeeded the light of day, they presented the bride to the husband, and the ceremony was closed. The piaches had no right with respect to the first wives, who were exclusively legitimate; those whom they afterwards married were only adoptive or supernumerary. Men of distinction amongst them were very delicate with regard to their first alliance. To be worthy the hand of a chief, the wife must be descended of a family distinguished by the military exploits, or other remarkable actions, of some of her

ancestors.

Upon the borders of the Oronoko, these sorts of ceremonies are nearly the same. The only difference is in the kind of Epithalamia which some old dames sing to the young brides.. Ah! my daughter, says one of them, what torment thou preparest for thyself! Hadst thou foreseen them, thou wouldst not have married. Ah! says another, couldst thou have believed, that in the conjugal state, thou wouldst pass a single moment without shedding tears of blood? The pains of childbed, says a third, are nothing compared to those with which thy husband shall afflict thee; he shall be thy tyrant and thou shalt be his victim.

Deplorable situation of the Women of Oronoko.

These predictions are but too well fulfilled; for besides what the women have to suffer amongst the H h

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