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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No Commercial
Advantage Is Here Made Of The Igua; But I Saw Vessels Arrive On The
Coast Of Terra Firma,
That came from Demerara laden with the fruit of
the Caryocar tomentosum, which is the Pekea tuberculosa of Aublet.
These
Trees reach a hundred feet in height, and present, by the beauty
of their corolla, and the multitude of their stamens, a magnificent
appearance. I should weary the reader by continuing the enumeration of
the vegetable wonders which these vast forests contain. Their variety
depends on the coexistence of such a great number of families in a
small space of ground, on the stimulating power of light and heat, and
on the perfect elaboration of the juices that circulate in these
gigantic plants.
We passed the night in a hut lately abandoned by an Indian family, who
had left behind them their fishing-tackle, pottery, nets made of the
petioles of palm-trees; in short, all that composes the household
furniture of that careless race of men, little attached to property. A
great store of mani (a mixture of the resin of the moronoboea and the
Amyris carana) was accumulated round the house. This is used by the
Indians here, as at Cayenne, to pitch their canoes, and fix the bony
spines of the ray at the points of their arrows. We found in the same
place jars filled with a vegetable milk, which serves as a varnish,
and is celebrated in the missions by the name of leche para pintar
(milk for painting). They coat with this viscous juice those articles
of furniture to which they wish to give a fine white colour.
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