BOOK VI. CHAPTER XVII. Mountains that separate the valleys of Aragua from the Llanos of Caraccas.-Villa de Cura. -Parapara.-Llanos, or Steppes.-Calabozo. THE chain of mountains, that borders the lake of Tacarigua toward the South, forms in some sort the northern shore of the great basin of the Llanos or savannahs of Caraccas. In order to descend from the valleys of Aragua into these savannahs, the mountains of Guigue and of Tucutunemo must be crossed. From a peopled country embellished by cultivation, we plunge into a vast solitude. Accustomed to the aspect of rocks, and to the shade of valleys, the traveller beholds with astonishment these savannahs without trees, these immense plains, that seem to ascend toward the horizon. Before I trace the scenery of the Llanos, or of the region of pasturage*, I shall succinctly describe the road we took from Nueva Valencia, See above, chap. xii, vol. iii, p. 421. by Villa de Cura and San Juan, to the little village of Ortiz, placed at the entry of the steppes. We left the valleys of Aragua on the 6th of March before sunrise. We passed over a plain richly cultivated, keeping along the South-West side of the lake of Valencia, and crossing the ground that the waters of the lake had left uncovered. We were never weary of admiring the fertility of the soil, covered with calebashes, water-melons, and plantains. The rising of the Sun was announced by the distant noise of the howling monkeys. Approaching a group of trees, that rise in the midst of the plain, between the ancient islets of Don Pedro and La Negra, we perceived numerous bands of araguatoes going as in procession from one tree to another, with extreme slowness. A nale was followed by a great number of females, several of which carried their young on their shoulders. Naturalists have very often described the howling monkeys, that live in society in different parts of America. every where resemble each other in their manners, though the speciés are not always the same. The uniformity with which the araguatoes execute their movements is extremely striking. Whenever the branches of neighbouring trees do not touch, the male that leads the band suspends himself by the callous. Simia ursina. (See chap. viii, vol. iii, p. 170.) They and prehensile part of his tail; and, letting fall the rest of his body, swings himself till in one of his oscillations he reaches the neighbouring branch. The whole file performs the same action on the same spot. It is almost superfluous to add how dubious is the assertion of Ulloa*, and so many well-informed travellers, according to whom, the marimondoes†, the araguatoes, and other monkeys with a prehensile tail, form a sort of chain, in order to reach the opposite side of a river. We had opportunities, during five years, of observing thousands of these animals; and for this very reason we place no confidence in relations, perhaps invented by the Europeans themselves, though repeated by the Indians of the missions, as if they had been transmitted to them by their fathers. Man, the most remote from civilization, enjoys the astonishment he excites in recounting the marvels of his country. He says he has seen what he imagines may have been seen by others. Every savage is a hunter, and the stories of hunters borrow from the imagination in proportion as the animals, of which they boast the artifices, are endowed with a higher This celebrated traveller has not hesitated to represent in an engraving this extraordinary feat of the monkeys with a prehensile tail.--See Viage a la America meridional (Madrid, 1748), vol. i, p. 144-149. + Simia belzebuth. See my Obs. de Zool., vol. i, p. 327. degree of intelligence. Thence the fictions, of which foxes, monkeys, crows, and the condor of the Andes, have been the subjects in the two hemispheres. The araguatoes are accused of sometimes abandoning their young, that they may be lighter for flight when pursued by the Indian hunters. It is said, that mothers have been seen taking off their young from their shoulders, and throwing them down to the foot of the tree. I am inclined to believe, that a movement merely accidental has been mistaken for one that was premeditated. The Indians have a hatred or predilection for certain races of monkeys; they love the viuditas, the titis, and generally all the little sagoins; while the araguatoes, on account of their mournful aspect, and their uniform howlings, are at once detested and calumniated. In reflecting on the causes, that may facilitate the propagation of sound in the air during the night, I thought it important to determine with precision the distance, at which, especially in damp and stormy weather, the howling of a band of araguatoes is heard. I believe I obtained proof of it's being distinguished at eight hundred toises distance. The monkeys that are furnished with four hands cannot make excursions in the Llanos; and it is easy, amid vast plains covered with grass, to recognize a solitary group of trees, whence the noise issues, and |