This precipitous valley is bounded by mountains on whose rounded summits are enormous detached granite spheres of more than 40 to 50 feet diameter: they appear to touch the base on which they rest only in a single point, as if the slightest movement, such as that of a faint earthquake shock, must cause them to roll down.
The farther part of the valley is densely wooded, and it is in this shady portion that the cave of Ataruipe is situated. It is not properly speaking a cave, but rather a vaulted roof formed by a far over-hanging cliff, the cavity having apparently been formed by the waters when at their ancient level. This place is the vault or cemetery of an extinct nation.[63] We counted about 600 well-preserved skeletons placed in as many baskets woven from the stalks of palm leaves. These baskets, which the Indians call “mapires,” are shaped like square sacks, differing in size according to the age of the deceased. Even new-born children had each its own mapire. The skeletons are so perfect that not a bone or a joint is wanting.
The bones had been prepared in three different ways; some bleached, some coloured red with onoto, the pigment of the Bixa Orellana; and some like mummies closely enveloped in sweet-smelling resin and plantain leaves.
The Indians assured us that the custom had been to bury the fresh corpses for some months in damp earth, which gradually consumed the flesh; they were then dug up, and any remaining flesh scraped away with sharp stones. This the Indians said was still the practice of several tribes in Guiana. Besides the mapires or baskets we found urns of half burnt clay which appeared to contain the bones of entire families. The larger of these urns were about three feet high and nearly six feet long, of a pleasing oval form and greenish colour, having handles shaped like snakes and crocodiles, and meandering or labyrinthine ornaments round the upper margin. These ornaments are quite similar to those which cover the walls of the Mexican Palace at Mitla. They are found in all countries and climates, and in the most different stages of human cultivation,—among the Greeks and Romans, as well as on the shields of the natives of Tahiti and other islands of the South Sea,—wherever the eye is gratified by the rhythmical recurrence of regular forms. These similarities, as I have elsewhere remarked in more detail, are rather to be ascribed to psychological causes, or to such as belong inherently to our mental constitution, than to be viewed as evidences of kindred descent or ancient intercourse between different nations.
Our interpreters could give us no certain information as to the age of these vessels; that of the skeletons appeared for the most part not to exceed a century. It is reported among the Guareca Indians, that the brave Atures, being pressed upon by cannibal Caribs, withdrew to the rocks of the Cataracts; a melancholy refuge and dwelling-place, in which the distressed tribe finally perished, and with them their language. In the most inaccessible parts of the Raudal there are cavities and recesses which have served like the cave of Ataruipe as burying-places. It is even probable that the last family of the Atures may not have been long deceased, for (a singular fact,) there is still in Maypures an old parrot of whom the natives affirm that he is not understood because he speaks the Ature language.
We left the cave at nightfall, after having collected, to the great displeasure of our Indian guides, several skulls and the entire skeleton of a man. One of these skulls has been figured by Blumenbach in his excellent craniological work, but the skeleton (together with a large part of our natural history collections, especially the entomological) was lost in a shipwreck on the coast of Africa, in which our friend and former travelling companion, the young Franciscan monk Juan Gonzalez, perished.
As if with a presentiment of this painful loss, we turned our steps in a thoughtful and melancholy mood from this burying-place of a race deceased. It was one of those clear and cool nights so frequent in the tropics. The moon, encircled with coloured rings, stood high in the zenith illuminating the margin of the mist which lay with well-defined cloud-like outlines on the surface of the foaming river. Countless insects poured their red phosphoric light on the herb-covered ground, which glowed with living fire as if the starry canopy of heaven had sunk down upon the turf. Climbing Bignonias, fragrant Vanillas, and yellow-flowering Banisterias, adorned the entrance of the cave; and the summits of the palms rustled above the graves.
Thus perish the generations of men! Thus do the name and the traces of nations fade and disappear! Yet when each blossom of man’s intellect withers,—when in the storms of time the memorials of his art moulder and decay,—an ever new life springs forth from the bosom of the earth; maternal Nature unfolds unceasingly her germs, her flowers, and her fruits; regardless though man with his passions and his crimes treads under foot her ripening harvest.
ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS.
[53] p. 209.—“Across the peaceful ocean arm, which fills the wide valley between the American shore and Western Africa.”