Apparently the Indians, who in common with many South American tribes seek the smaller streams for their habitations, and who live in small groups all along the Cunucunuma, rarely visited this locality. Game was so abundant and so tame that it was impossible that the animals had been persecuted to any considerable extent. We also visited the house of the chief of the tribe, named Antonio Yaracuma, whose _cunuco_ (clearing) was on the Cunucunuma, a few miles above the mouth of the Sina (Sina is a Maquiritare word meaning wolf). This place he chose to call Yacaré. Surrounding the great, conical house was a small patch of _yucas_ and pineapple-plants, walled in on all sides by the interminable forest. The edge of the roof came down to within five feet of the ground, and there were eight fireplaces, equal distances apart, showing that eight families occupied the dwelling. A perfect network of poles and beams supported the ragged grass and palm-leaf canopy, and from these various articles were suspended: Drums, made of sections of hollow tree-trunks and covered with the skin of a red howling monkey on one side and of a peccary on the other; long tubular baskets of wickerwork used to express the poisonous juice of the _yuca_ root in making _mandioca_; blow-guns ten feet long, hammocks, and fishing-tackle. Everything was immaculately clean and well arranged. On one side two small rooms had been built of adobe, one for the chief, and the other for storing baskets of _mandioca_, each of which held about a hundred pounds. A walk around the edge of the clearing disclosed an obscure trail which zigzagged and wound through the forest about a mile and then opened into an immense plantation, which we estimated contained not less than a hundred acres. The trees had been cut down and burned, and _yucas_ neatly planted in hills stretched to the very edge of the clearing. Through the centre ran lanes of plantain and banana plants, bordered by rows of pineapples, sugar-cane, and cashews. The ground was carefully cultivated, and there were no weeds; the stalks of uprooted plants had been piled around the edge of the field forming a thick fence. The reason for maintaining such large plantations is that the women make a good deal of _mandioca_ to sell to the traders for cloth, matches, perfume, and trinkets. The men clear the ground; the women plant and care for the crops. From the juice of the _yuca_ a very intoxicating drink called _casire_ is made, and of this great quantities are consumed during the wild orgies which take place at frequent intervals. Boiling and fermentation destroy the poisonous effect of the fresh juice.