Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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He Hoped To Return In A Short Time To
Madrid, Where He Intended To Publish The Result Of His Researches On
The Figures And Characters That Cover The Rocks Of Uruana.
In the countries we had just passed through, between the Meta, the
Arauca, and the Apure, there were found, at the time of the first
expeditions to the Orinoco, in 1535, those mute dogs, called by the
natives maios, and auries.
This fact is curious in many points of
view. We cannot doubt that the dog, whatever Father Gili may assert,
is indigenous in South America. The different Indian languages furnish
words to designate this animal, which are scarcely derived from any
European tongue. To this day the word auri, mentioned three hundred
years ago by Alonzo de Herrera, is found in the Maypure. The dogs we
saw at the Orinoco may perhaps have descended from those that the
Spaniards carried to the coast of Caracas; but it is not less certain
that there existed a race of dogs before the conquest, in Peru, in New
Granada, and in Guiana, resembling our shepherds' dogs. The allco of
the natives of Peru, and in general all the dogs that we found in the
wildest countries of South America, bark frequently. The first
historians, however, all speak of mute dogs (perros mudos). They still
exist in Canada; and, what appears to me worthy of attention, it was
this dumb variety that was eaten in preference in Mexico,* and at the
Orinoco. (* See on the Mexican techichi and on the numerous
difficulties that occur in the history of mute dogs and dogs destitute
of hair the Views of Nature Bohn's edition page 85.) A very well
informed traveller, M. Giesecke, who resided six years in Greenland,
assured me that the dogs of the Esquimaux, which pass their lives in
the open air and bury themselves in winter beneath the snow, do not
bark, but howl like wolves.* (* They sit down in a circle, one of them
begins to howl alone and the others follow in the same tone. The
groups of alouate monkeys howl in the same manner, and among them the
Indians distinguish the leader of the band. It was the practice at
Mexico to castrate the mute dogs in order to fatten them. This
operation must have contributed to alter the organ of the voice.)
The practice of eating the flesh of dogs is now entirely unknown on
the banks of the Orinoco; but as it is a Tartar custom spread through
all the eastern part of Asia, it appears to me highly interesting for
the history of nations to have ascertained that it existed heretofore
in the hot regions of Guiana and on the table-lands of Mexico. I must
observe, also, that on the confines of the province of Durango, at the
northern extremity of New Spain, the Comanches have preserved the
habit of loading the backs of the great dogs that accompany them in
their migrations with their tents of buffalo-leather. It is well known
that employing dogs as beasts of burthen and of draught is equally
common near the Slave Lake and in Siberia. I dwell on these features
of conformity in the manners of nations, which become of some weight
when they are not solitary, and are connected with the analogies
furnished by the structure of languages, the division of time, and
religious creeds and institutions.
We passed the night at the island of Cucuruparu, called also Playa de
la Tortuga, because the Indians of Uruana go thither to collect the
turtles' eggs. It is one of the best determined points of latitude
along the banks of the Orinoco. I was there fortunate enough to
observe the passage of three stars over the meridian. To the east of
the island is the mouth of the Cano de la Tortuga, which descends from
the mountains of Cerbatana, continually wrapped in electric clouds. On
the southern bank of the Cano, between the tributary streams Parapara
and Oche, lies the almost ruined mission of San Miguel de la Tortuga.
The Indians assured us that the environs of this little mission abound
in otters with a very fine fur, called by the Portuguese water-dogs
(perritos de agua); and what is still more remarkable, in lizards
(lagartos) with only two feet. The whole of this country, which is
very accessible between the Rio Cuchivero and the strait of Baraguan,
is worthy of being visited by a well-informed zoologist. The lagarto
destitute of hinder extremities is perhaps a species of Siren,
different from the Siren lacertina of Carolina. If it were a saurian,
a real Bimanis (Chirotes, Cuvier), the natives would not have compared
it to a lizard. Besides the arrau turtles, of which I have in a former
place given a detailed account, an innumerable quantity of land
tortoises also, called morocoi, are found on the banks of the Orinoco,
between Uruana and Encaramada. During the great heats of summer, in
the time of drought, these animals remain without taking food, hidden
beneath stones, or in the holes they have dug. They issue from their
shelter and begin to eat, only when the humidity of the first rains
penetrates into the earth. The terekay, or tajelu turtle which lives
in fresh water, has the same habits. I have already spoken of the
summer-sleep of some animals of the tropics. As the natives know the
holes in which the tortoises sleep amidst the dried lands, they get
out a great number at once, by digging fifteen or eighteen inches
deep. Father Gili says that this operation, which he had seen, is not
without danger, because serpents often bury themselves in summer with
the terekays.
From the island of Cucuruparu, to the capital of Guiana, commonly
called Angostura, we were but nine days on the water. The distance is
somewhat less than ninety-five leagues. We seldom slept on shore but
the torment of the mosquitos diminished in proportion as we advanced.
We landed on the 8th of June at a farm (Hato de San Rafael del
Capuchino) opposite the mouth of the Rio Apure.
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