Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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We Lodged As Usual At The Convent, That Is, With
The Clergyman.
Our host could scarcely comprehend how natives of the
north of Europe could arrive at his dwelling from the frontiers of
Brazil by the Rio Negro, and not by way of the coast of Cumana.
He
behaved to us in the most affable manner, at the same time manifesting
that somewhat importunate curiosity which the appearance of a
stranger, not a Spaniard, always excites in South America. He
expressed his belief that the minerals we had collected must contain
gold; and that the plants, dried with so much care, must be medicinal.
Here, as in many parts of Europe, the sciences are thought worthy to
occupy the mind only so far as they confer some immediate and
practical benefit on society.
We found more than five hundred Caribs in the village of Cari; and saw
many others in the surrounding missions. It is curious to observe this
nomad people, recently attached to the soil, and differing from all
the other Indians in their physical and intellectual powers. They are
a very tall race of men, their height being from five feet six inches,
to five feet ten inches. According to a practice common in America,
the women are more sparingly clothed than the men. The former wear
only the guajuco, or perizoma, in the form of a band. The men have the
lower part of the body wrapped in a piece of blue cloth, so dark as to
be almost black.
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