Identifier: earthitsinhabita18recl (find matches)
Title: The earth and its inhabitants ..
Year: 1882 (1880s)
Authors: Reclus, Elisée, 1830-1905 Ravenstein, Ernest George, 1834-1913 Keane, Augustus Henry, 1833-1912
Subjects: Geography
Publisher: New York : D. Appleton and Company
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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s group of figures, including a man, a snake 400 feet long,and various other animals. A few miles higher up, the caves and fissures of theCerro de los Muertos, the Cerro de Luna, and other caverns contain numerousskeletons deposited by different Indian tribes, and accompanied by a jar of somefermented drink to slake tho thirst of the deceased on his journey to cloud land. On the north side of Lake Tacarigua are seen over fifty ccrrifos (hillocks)which were formerly supposed to be natural eminences, but which arc now foundto be sepulchral mounds. Here the flesh was removed from the bones beforeinterment, and the remains disposed in regular order in the cone-shaped sarco-phagus placed in the centre of the barrow. These mound-builders belonged tothe polished stone age, and made perfectly symmetrical earthenware, probablywith the potters wheel. One of the best known of the Venezuelan wild tribes are the Guaraunos(Waraun), who are scattered over the Orinoco delta and neighboniing lowlands.
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GROUP OF GUARAUNOS INDIANS. INHABITANTS OF VENEZUELA. 107 They are generally well made, but of short stature, stout, thickset, and healthy,despite the stagnant waters of their environment. The face is broader than long,but the nose is not flat like that of the negro, and their language difiers funda-mentally from those of the neighbouring peoples. During the floods the Guar-aunos formerly lived in pile dwellings, or iu structures raised on clumps of palms,making a platform by interlacing the branches 15 or It) feet above high-watermark. These habitations were shared by a breed of dogs which resembled theEuropean collie, and which helped in capturing the fish. Although called inquestion by Level de Godas, these statements, made by Raleigh, Iluraboldt,and others, seem probable enough, and are confirmed in their main features byPlassard and Crevaux, who have visited the Guaraunos since the time of Level deGodas. The race appears to be dying out, being at present reduced to some10,000 or

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