. The land of Bolivar; or, War, peace, and adventure in the Republic of Venezuela . sts assembled. Theywere Indians, half-breeds, and some pure-bloodedVenezuelans of the low^er class ; the males came onfoot, and the females on the backs of donkeys. Formusic we had a guitar, a harp, and the guaraguata, anIndian instrument made of the round shell of a gourd,loaded with shot. AVhen vigorously shaken, it pro-duces sounds which are considered very satisfactoryto those people who prefer quantity to quality. My guests appeared to enjoy themselves verymuch, and we had soon about twenty-five coujdIcsgo
. The land of Bolivar; or, War, peace, and adventure in the Republic of Venezuela . sts assembled. Theywere Indians, half-breeds, and some pure-bloodedVenezuelans of the low^er class ; the males came onfoot, and the females on the backs of donkeys. Formusic we had a guitar, a harp, and the guaraguata, anIndian instrument made of the round shell of a gourd,loaded with shot. AVhen vigorously shaken, it pro-duces sounds which are considered very satisfactoryto those people who prefer quantity to quality. My guests appeared to enjoy themselves verymuch, and we had soon about twenty-five coujdIcsgoing through the graceful movements of theirnative dances. Some of the brunettes were j^retty,and their charms were fully appreciated by their too THE LAND OF BOLIVAR. [Chap. xvii. partners, for the mazy dance was kept up into tlie wee short hour ayont the twal. The motherscame to look after their dauohters, and if it had been aBelgravian ball-room instead of the^atio of a hacienda,they could not have been more jealously , who had dedicated his life to science, was. JOSlS CARMEN DE OCtTMARE. much interested in those dark-eyed girls, and when Ibantered him upon the closeness of his conversationwith some of them, he protested that he was deeplyengaged in anthropological research; as these brownbeauties were very interesting ethnological types,anthroj)ology seemed to l)e a very absorbing study, Chap, xvii] GOER/KG SKETCHES THE NATIVES. 301 and the girls appeared as fond of it as the artistic powers also came into play, for hedrew the portrait of a native humorist of the negrotyj)e, Jose Carmen de Ocumare, w^ho seemed to sub-sist on his powers of making fun, and to get throughlife with all the comfort of a laughing philosopher.
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