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Show CATAR...\CTS OF TilE ORINOCO. 185 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 greeni h color, ha.ving handles shaped like snakes anu crocodiles, and meandering or labyrinthine ornaments round the upper margin. These ornaments are quite similar to those which cover the walls of the 1\lexican Palace at Mitla. They are found in all countries and climates, and in the most uifferent 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 more in detail, u,re 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 bmve 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 Randal, 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 Mrica, 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 16* |