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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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.
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