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
Opinion That This Stone Is Taken In A Soft State Like Paste From The
Little Lake Amucu, Though Very Prevalent At Angostura, Is Wholly
Without Foundation.
A curious geognostic discovery remains to be made
in the eastern part of America, that of finding in a primitive soil a
rock of euphotide containing the piedra de Macagua.
I shall here proceed to give some information respecting the tribes of
dwarf and fair Indians, which ancient traditions have placed near the
sources of the Orinoco. I had an opportunity of seeing some of these
Indians at Esmeralda, and can affirm that the short stature of the
Guaicas, and the fair complexion of the Guaharibos, whom Father Caulin
calls Guaribos blancos, have been alike exaggerated. The Guaicas, whom
I measured, were in general from four feet seven inches to four feet
eight inches high (old measure of France).* (* About five feet three
inches English measure.) We were assured that the whole tribe were of
this diminutive size; but we must not forget that what is called a
tribe constitutes, properly speaking, but one family, owing to the
exclusion of all foreign connections. The Indians of the lowest
stature next to the Guaicas are the Guainares and the Poignaves. It is
singular, that all these nations are found in near proximity to the
Caribs, who are remarkably tall. They all inhabit the same climate,
and subsist on the same aliments. They are varieties in the race,
which no doubt existed previously to the settlement of these tribes
(tall and short, fair and dark brown) in the same country.
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