Note 5 — Chapter IX · IN CLOUDLAND

“According to what the inhabitants told me,” wrote Mollien, in the early part of the last century, “when the paramo se pone bravo is out of humor, then the greatest dangers threaten the traveler; a wind laden with icy vapors blows with tremendous violence; thick darkness covers the earth and conceals every trace of a road. The birds which, on the appearance of a fine day, had attempted the passage, fall motionless. The traveler seeks to shelter himself under the stunted shrubs which here and there grow in these deserts; but their wet foliage obliges him to find another covert. Worn out with fatigue and hunger, in vain urging on his mules, benumbed with cold, he sits down to recover his exhausted strength. Fatal repose! His stomach soon becomes affected as when at sea, his blood freezes in his veins; his muscles grow stiff, his lips open as if to smile, and he expires with the expression of joy upon his features. The mules, no longer hearing their master’s voice, remain standing, till at length tired, they lie down to die.”—Travels in the Republic of Colombia, pp. 96, 97, London, 1824. ↑