In this respect the Venezuelan tribes differed from
those of Colombia, and show an affinity with the Carib
and Arawak peoples (see Ch. XII). Themost interesting
burials are found in the neigh bourhood of Lake Valencia,
the ancient Tacarigua, the seat of a primitive hunting
population. Here a large mound has been discovered,
within an enclosure of rough stones, in which had been
deposited a number of urns, most of which contained
bones. Round the mound were traces of the funeral
feasts which had accompanied the obsequies. Other
similar burial mounds occur in the neighbourhood, as
well assiteswherelheurnshavebeen deposited in simple
trenches. In thetatter case remains of as many as eight
skeletons have been extracted from a single urn. Like
the burials of the Arawak and Carib, the bodies were
evidently dismembered before burial, or more probably
had been buried for a season and the bones collected and
deposited in the urn as their final resting-place. Many
of the skulls show that artificial deformation was prac-
tised, the foreheads being flattened, probably by the ap-
plication of a board. Other remains are pottery ocarinas,
shell trumpets, bone flutes and pottery figurines, many
of which have pierced ears. Numbers of pictographs are
found on the rocks, which show great similarity to those
of Colombia, and a further link with the region to the
south-west is constituted by the stone statues which are
found especially in the Sierra de Merida.
CHAPTER III— ECUADOR

SOUTH of the river Ancasmayu, roughly as far as
the boundary between the modern states of Ecua-
dor and Peru, existed, some century before the arrival
of the Spaniards, a state which was more advanced po-
litically than that of the Chibcha, but still considerably
inferior to that of the Inca, by whom it was conquered.
