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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"Every Time," Said Father Bueno, "That I See The Women Fetch
Water From A Part Of The Shore To Which They Are Not Accustomed To Go,
I Suspect That A Murder Has Been Committed In My Mission."
We found in the Indian huts at Uruana the vegetable substance called
touchwood of ants,* (* Yesca de hormigas.) with which we had become
acquainted at the Great Cataracts, and which is employed to stop
bleeding.
This substance, which might less improperly be called ants'
nests, is in much request in a region whose inhabitants are of so
turbulent a character. A new species of ant, of a fine emerald-green
(Formica spinicollis), collects for its habitation a cotton-down, of a
yellowish-brown colour, and very soft to the touch, from the leaves of
a melastomacea. I have no doubt that the yesca or touchwood of ants of
the Upper Orinoco (the animal is found, we were assured, only south of
Atures) will one day become an article of trade. This substance is
very superior to the ants' nests of Cayenne, which are employed in the
hospitals of Europe, but can rarely be procured.
On the 7th of June we took leave with regret of Father Ramon Bueno. Of
the ten missionaries whom we had found in different parts of the vast
extent of Guiana, he alone appeared to me to be earnestly attentive to
all that regarded the natives. He hoped to return in a short time to
Madrid, where he intended to publish the result of his researches on
the figures and characters that cover the rocks of Uruana.
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