DR. B. SPRUCE ON EQUATORIAL- AMERICAN PALMS. 79 



up, the Indians of Maynas plant one of these Palms, and the 

 water soon wells up again. In whatever part of the forest, high 

 or low, they descry a Palm of this kind, they go up to it, assured 

 of finding delicious water at its foot." 



Humboldt heard the same thing at Esmeralda, where, in 1853, 

 I saw the Mauritia still growing as abundantly as he had seen 

 it half a century before me, although the human Inhabitants had 

 almost disappeared. "The trees," he says, "preserve the mois- 

 ture of the ground by their shade ; and hence the Indians say 

 that the Mauritia draws the w^ater round its roots by a myste- 

 rious attraction Thus the untutored child of nature 



confounds cause and effect"*. 



The only edible part of the fruit of the Mauritia is the rather 

 thin orange pulp, which easily separates from the endocarp when 

 ripe, but is clad with cartilaginous scales that it requires practice 

 to get rid of- The Indians of Venezuela are fond of it, eating 

 it with or without cassava, and find it quite sufficient to sustain 

 life for a considerable time without other food. I used to think 

 it insipid, but I rather liked the " yucuta," or wine, prepared 

 from it. 



At Maypures and elsewhere on the Orinoco, when the fruit 

 of the Mauritia is ripe enough to fall of itself, it is gathered up, 

 the pulpy covering is rubbed off and kneaded into a mass, which 

 is wrapped up in fresh leaves of" Platanillo" {TJranim sp. ?), and 

 enveloped in a framework of slips of Blowing-cane Palm (^Iriartea 

 setigerd)^ made first into a cylinder, and then the ends brought 

 together and tied tightly, so as to bring it to a spindlc-shape. 

 In this way the pulp is kept for weeks, until it becomes intensely 

 acid. When used, it is mixed with water and passed through a 

 sieve, which retains all the scales of the fruit ; and a little sugar 

 or molasses being added, it makes a pleasant cooling drink, 

 ■which, like the wine of the " Seje" {(Enocarptis Batmict), is emi- 

 nently diuretic and slightly laxative. 



Bundles of this " Moriche curtido" (as it is called) are sent for 

 sale up to San Fernando de Atabapo, the capital of the canton, 



where it is much esteemed. 



The Guahibos, Tarurus, and other Indians who roam over the 

 wide savannahs between the Vichada and Meta, and use no 

 canoes, often extemporize a raft from the stout petioles of the 

 Mauritia when they have a river to cross. 



The chief native names of the Mauritia are "Ita" on the 



♦ ( 



Aspects of Nature,' Sabine's Transl. i. p. 181. 



