ion, making their
dwellings upon the trees, and who can pass from branch to branch and
tree to tree almost as nimbly as monkeys. This may or may not be true.
It would not be a new thing, if true, for it is well known that the
Guarano Indians, at the mouth of the Orinoco, dwell among the tops of
the murichi palms (_Mauritia flexuosa_) during many months of the season
of flood. These people build platforms on the palms, and upon these
erect roofs, and sling their hammocks, and, with little fireplaces of
mud, are enabled to cook their provisions upon them. But they have
canoes, in which they are able to go from place to place, and capture
fish, upon which they principally subsist. The murichi palm furnishes
them with all the other necessaries of life.

This singular tree is one of the noblest of the palms. It rises to a
height of more than one hundred feet, and grows in immense _palmares_,
or palm-woods, often covering the bank of the river for miles. It is
one of those called "fan-palms,"--that is, the leaves, instead of being
pinnate or feathery, have long naked stalks, at the end of which the
leaflets spread out circularly, forming a shape like a fan. One of the
murichi leaves is a grand sight. The leaf-stalk, or petiole, is a foot
thick where it sprouts from the trunk; and before it reaches the
leaflets it is a solid beam of ten or twelve feet long, while the
circular fan or leaf itself is nine or ten in diameter! A single leaf
of the murichi palm is a full load for a man.

With a score of such leaves,--shining and ever verdant as they are,--at
the top of its column-like trunk, what a majestic tree is the murichi
palm!

But it is not more beautiful than useful. Its leaves, fruit, and stem,
are all put to some use in the domestic economy of the Indians. The
leaf-stalk, when dried, is light and elastic, like the quill of a bird--
owing to the thin, hard, outer covering and soft internal pith. Out of
the outer rind, when split off, the Indian makes baskets and
window-blinds. The pithy part is separated into laths, about half an
inch thick, with which window-shutters, boxes, bird-cages, partitions,
and even entire walls, are constructed. The epidermis of the leaves
furnishes the strings for hammocks and all kinds of cordage. From the
fruits a favourite beverage is produced, and these fruits are also
pleasant eating, somewhat resembling apples. They are in appearance
like pine-cones, of a red colour outsi