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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The Whites Only, Particularly
The Soldiers Of The Little Fort Of San Carlos, Know How To Procure
Pure Salt, Either From The Coast Of Caracas, Or From Chita* By The Rio
Meta.
(* North of Morocote, at the eastern declivity of the Cordillera
of New Grenada.
The salt of the coasts, which the Indians call
yuquira, costs two piastres the almuda at San Carlos.) Here, as
throughout America, the Indians eat little meat, and consume scarcely
any salt. The chivi of Javita is a mixture of muriate of potash and of
soda, of caustic lime, and of several other earthy salts. The Indians
dissolve a few particles in water, fill with this solution a leaf of
heliconia folded in a conical form, and let drop a little, as from the
extremity of a filter, on their food.
On the 5th of May we set off, to follow on foot our canoe, which had
at length arrived, by the portage, at the Cano Pimichin. We had to
ford a great number of streams; and these passages require some
caution on account of the vipers with which the marshes abound. The
Indians pointed out to us on the moist clay the traces of the little
black bears so common on the banks of the Temi. They differ at least
in size from the Ursus americanus. The missionaries call them osso
carnicero, to distinguish them from the osso palmero or tamanoir
(Myrmecophaga jubata), and from the osso hormigero, or anteater
(tamandua). The flesh of these animals is good to eat; the first two
defend themselves by rising on their hind feet.
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