The Ottomacas, of whom it is said by other Indians, ‘that there is nothing so disgusting that they will not eat,’ live the greater part of the year on fishes and turtles; but when the Orinoco and its tributaries swell during the periodical rains and render fishing next to impossible, they become ‘_dirt-eaters_’ and assuage their hunger with an unctuous clay. Such is their predilection for this strange aliment, in which chemistry detects no trace of organic matter, that even in times of abundance they mix some of it with their more nutritious food. The most remarkable fact is that during the two months of the year when they daily devour about three-quarters of a pound of clay, and are restricted to a meagre supply of vegetable or animal provisions, such as lizards, ants, and gum, the Ottomacas still remain healthy and strong, and never complain of indigestion. These barbarians are ugly, wild, vindictive; and besides being passionately fond of palm-wine and maize-spirit, use the powdered pods of a leguminous plant, the Acacia Niopo, as a means of intoxication. The hollow bone of a bird serves as a kind of pipe, through which they sniff up the powder, which is so irritating that a small quantity produces a strong fit of sneezing in those who are not accustomed to it. The effect of the Niopo is to deprive them for a couple of hours of their senses, and to render them furious in battle. Such is their malignant ingenuity that they poison their sharpened thumb-nails with the Wourali, so as to be able to inflict a death-wound with the slightest scratch, and such their tiger-like ferocity that they suck with fiendish delight the blood of their slain enemies. The country these wretches inhabit is described as romantically beautiful, a mournful contrast to a state of society where man is eternally armed against man. Such is the miserable state of insecurity of the weaker tribes that, when they approach a river’s bank, they carefully destroy with their hands the vestiges of their timid footsteps. During the rainy season the swollen Orinoco, like the Amazons and other great streams, frequently undermines the trees on his banks, and carries them along on his turbid waters. These natural floats, covered with a profusion of parasites and climbing plants, form so many swimming islands, pleasing to the eye, but extremely dangerous to navigation; for woe to the pirogue which at night is caught in their intricate network of roots and branches! When the Indians wish to surprise a hostile horde they bind several canoes together and, concealing them under a covering of herbs and foliage, thus imitate the natural floats of the Orinoco.