58                                        VOYAGES OP
prepared, when we were among the Caribs and Arwackes, who are the neatest of all those nations.
There is a great abundance of honey, and although it is found wild in trees and holes in the earth, it is as good as any in the world. Good mead can be made of it. There are no vines, but as the land is fertile and rich, and the climate warm, they would grow there, if they were planted, and furnish fine wines ; which, for this region, would be very wholesome ; though I would be afraid of their becoming sour from the heat.
Of the Wild Beasts and Cattle.
Many other necessaries for the support of man are to be found here, wild, of all kinds. Swine, in great numbers, of two species ; one, small, called by the Indians, pochiero, which has the navel on the back ; the other, named panigo, as large and fine as any swine, and weighing from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and eighty pounds. There are also multitudes of hares and rabbits, but different from ours; they are like young deer, twenty-four hours old. There are leopards, tigers,—one of which, ad Indian, while I was here, took and played with, while lying in his hammock,—armadillos, maipuries,®—whose meat tastes like beef,—baremoes, which tastes like mutton,—and other small animals of various flavour and colour : as apes, innumerable monkeys of different kinds, good to eat—though I was not willing to taste them—besides many strange animals; as the Caribs, who had been with one of our men up the river of Caparwaca, and in other places, told us. There are deer, which the Indians call osary ; wild hogs, white, which they call abihera ; lions, waricory,—having red hair, the fore legs like the hind ones, three toes on each foot, head like an ape, and a short tail; it is sluggish, and a small eater, wonderfully slow in moving and climbing. There is also an animal, to which we gave the name sagewynty'es, of the size of a rat three weeks old, with copperish marks above the eyes, and four small feet, like those of a water-dog ; it is very tender, and cannot be kept alive in confinement. Baboons, also, are very numerous.
* The Tapir.