The Goajiros—Lake dwellings—Appearance—Territory—Villages—Government—Burial customs—Religion—Medicine-men—The Caribs—A fine race—Cannibalism—Headless man of the Caura—The Amazons—Industries—Religion—Marriage customs—The aborigines of Guayana—Tavera-Acosta on languages—The Warraus—Appearance—Houses—Food—Clothing—Marriage customs—Birth—Death—Religion—Treatment of sick—The Banibas—Appearance—Customs—Religion—Celebration of puberty of girls—Marriage customs—The Arawaks—Religion—Early missions amongst Indians—Wanted, a twentieth-century apostle. The aboriginal inhabitants of Venezuela preserve their habits and racial customs unchanged only in two regions of the republic, namely, along the north-west frontier and in the vast forests of Guayana. Elsewhere, a few families remain in the less accessible and more barren regions, but the “Indians” have been in general absorbed by intermarriage into the Spanish-speaking Venezuela nation, slowly emerging from the mixture of races which have at various times occupied the territory. A powerful tribe occupy the mountains and forests along the Colombian frontier, and these are generally known as the Goajiros. Some of their villages are on the shores of Lake Maracaibo, as at Sinamaica, and are of the pile-dwelling type which first gave rise to the name of the country; most of the tribe, however, live as an independent nation within recognised boundaries. Both men and women may be seen in Maracaibo on market days, clothed then in the white or blue garments which all keep for contact with civilisation. In their own villages they wear a less elaborate costume. The men are well built, light and agile, with keen and intelligent faces, but the women have the amorphous figures and dull, heavy faces which come of centuries of slavery and drudgery for their menkind. Apparently they are ethnologically a branch of the great Carib group of which we shall have more to say later. As might be surmised from the fact of their independence, the Goajiros are vigorous and warlike, and incidentally excellent horsemen. Their territory extends from Rio Hacha, in Colombia, down into the Goajira peninsula, and across the Venezuelan border to within eight or ten miles of Sinamaica. The boundary is guarded by military pickets, and most of their trading is done on the frontier, merchants travelling to this point from all sides.