Travels and adventures in South and Central AmericaCharles Scribner & Company, 1868 - 473 páginas |
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Términos y frases comunes
abundant Achaguas amidst animals appearance approach Apure Apure rivers Aragua Arauca attack banks Barinas beasts beautiful birds body branches bull cacao Calabozo camp canoe Caracas caribe cattle farm color commenced companions compelled corrals creatures crocodiles danger delicious distance eggs endeavored enemy escape eyes favorite fear feet fire fish forest fruit grass ground guaco Guárico hammock hand head herd horns horses Humboldt hunter Indians inhabitants jaguar jaws journey La Guaira land lazo Llaneros Llanos majada Mata monkey mountains mules nature never night occasion once Orinoco Orinoco river Paez palm pampas papelon pass peculiar plains plant plunged poison ponchos possess powerful quadrupeds region reptiles rider river saddle San Pablo savage savannas scene season seized shore side snakes soon South America species spot stream sufficient tail thousand tiger tion traveller trees tropical turtles usually valley Venezuela wild woods wound young
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Página 154 - Suppose yourself in hopeless sorrow, begin with a high loud note, and pronounce "ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha," each note lower and lower, till the last is scarcely heard, pausing a moment or two betwixt every note, and you will have some idea of the moaning of the largest goat-sucker in Demerara.
Página 287 - Full in the centre stands the bull at bay, Mid wounds, and clinging darts, and lances brast, And foes disabled in the brutal fray: And now the Matadores around him play, Shake the red cloak, and poise the ready brand: Once more through all he bursts his thundering way — Vain rage! the mantle quits the conynge hand, Wraps his fierce eye — 'tis past — he sinks upon the sand!
Página 76 - Certainly it is a marvellous fact in the history of the mammalia that in South America a native horse should have lived and disappeared, to be succeeded in after ages by the countless herds descended from the few introduced with the Spanish colonists ! The existence in South America of a fossil horse, of the mastodon, possibly of an elephant,!
Página 61 - A contest between animals of so different an organization furnishes a very striking spectacle. The Indians, provided with harpoons and long slender reeds, surround the pool closely ; and some climb upon the trees, the branches of which extend horizontally over the surface of the water. By their wild cries, and the length of their reeds, they prevent the horses from running away, and reaching the bank of the pool. The eels, stunned by the noise, defend themselves by the repeated discharge of their...
Página 85 - The lowering sky sheds a dim, almost straw-colored light on the desolate plain. The horizon draws suddenly nearer, the steppe seems to contract, and with it the heart of the wanderer. The hot, dusty particles which fill the air increase its suffocating heat, and the east wind, blowing over the long-heated soil, brings with it no refreshment, but rather a still more burning glow.
Página 456 - Tamanacs are asked how the human race survived this great deluge, the ' age of water,' of the Mexicans, they say, "a man and a woman saved themselves on a high mountain, called Tamanacu, situated on the banks of the Asiveru; and casting behind them, over their heads, the fruits of the mauritia palm-tree, they saw the seeds contained in those fruits produce men and women, who repeopled the earth.
Página 68 - The peons now ran after him on foot and threw a lasso over his fore-legs just above the fetlock, and twitching it, they pulled his legs from under him so suddenly, that I really thought the fall he got had killed him. In an instant a Gaucho was seated on his head, and with his long knife...
Página 162 - ... pours forth a succession of imitative notes. His own song is sweet, but very short. If a toucan be yelping in the neighbourhood, he drops it, and imitates him. Then he will amuse his protector with the cries of the different species of the woodpecker ; and when the sheep bleat he will distinctly answer them. Then comes his own song again, and if a puppy dog or a guineafowl interrupt him, he takes them off admirably, and by his different gestures during the time, you would conclude that he enjoys...
Página 254 - The Indians pretend," observes IIuiuboldt, " that when the araguatos fill the forest with their howlings, there is always one that chants as leader to the chorus. The observation is pretty accurate. During a long interval one solitary and strong voice is generally distinguished, till its place is taken by another voice of a different pitch. We may observe from time to time the same instinct of imitation among frogs, and almost all animals which live together and exert their voices in union. The missionaries...
Página 383 - The horizon was bounded by a zone of forests, but these forests no where reached so far as the bed of the river. A vast beach constantly, parched by the heat of the Sun, desert and bare as the shores of the sea, resembled at a distance, from the effect of the mirage, pools of stagnant water. These sandy shores, far from fixing the limits...