Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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After Having Passed The Rapids Of Tabaje, And The Raudal Of
Cariven, Near The Mouth Of The Great Rio Meta, We Arrived Without
Accident At Carichana.
The missionary received us with that kind
hospitality which he extended to us on our first passage.
The sky was
unfavourable for astronomical observations; we had obtained some new
ones in the two Great Cataracts; but thence, as far as the mouth of
the Apure, we were obliged to renounce the attempt. M. Bonpland had
the satisfaction at Carichana of dissecting a manatee more than nine
feet long. It was a female, and the flesh appeared to us not
unsavoury. I have spoken in another place of the manner of catching
this herbivorous cetacea. The Piraoas, some families of whom inhabit
the mission of Carichana, detest this animal to such a degree, that
they hid themselves, to avoid being obliged to touch it, whilst it was
being conveyed to our hut. They said that the people of their tribe
die infallibly when they eat of it. This prejudice is the more
singular, as the neighbours of the Piraoas, the Guamos and the
Ottomacs, are very fond of the flesh of the manatee. The flesh of the
crocodile is also an object of horror to some tribes, and of
predilection to others.
The island of Cuba furnishes a fact little known in the history of the
manatee. South of the port of Xagua, several miles from the coast,
there are springs of fresh water in the middle of the sea.
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