278 MR. SPRUCE’S EXCURSION ON THE AMAZON. 
it issues from the wounded trunk, and is received into a small euya 
deposited at the base. Early in the morning a man goes into the forest 
and visits in succession every tree, taking with him a tercado and a 
large cuya (called cuyamboca) suspended by a handle so as to form 
a sort of pail. With his tercado he makes sundry slight gashes in the 
bark of each tree, and returning to the same in about, the space of an 
hour he finds a quantity of milk in the cuya at the base, which he 
transfers to his cuyamboca. The milk being collected and placed in a 
large shallow earthenware-pan, several large caraipé-pots with narrow 
mouths are nearly filled with the fruit of the Urucurí and placed on 
brisk fires. The smoke arising from the heated Urucurí is very dense, 
and as each successive coat is applied to the mould (which is done by 
. pouring the milk over it, and not by dipping it into the milk), the opera- 
tor holds it in the smoke, which hardens the milk in a few moments. 
The moulds now used are all of wood, and not of clay as formerly, and 
the one generally preferred is in the form of the battledores which 
English housewives use for folding linen, only thinner and flat on both 
sides, and the milk is applied only as far as to the insertion of the 
handle, the latter being held by the operator. When the requisite 
number of coatings has been applied and time has been allowed for the 
whole to stiffen, the seringue is withdrawn from the mould by slitting 
_ it along one side and end. In this state it is known in the Para market 
_as “ Seringue em couro,” or hides of India-rubber, and it is preferred 
to the bottle-rubber by purchasers. I send you one such “ hide,” from 
which you will see that Capitaô Pedro’s manufacture is not despicable. 
If the bottle-moulds are used, or if a shoe is to be moulded on a last, 
a stick of two feet long is always inserted into the mould to guarantee 
the operator's hand from the milk and smoke. Some shoes we saw 
here had thirty coatings apiece of seringue. The Capitaó was getting 
about six milreis an arroba (32 Ibs.) for his seringue, but in Pará it 
sells for as much as ten milreis. November is the season of ripe fruit 
of the Seringue, but the trees on the Ramos had been completely 
_! stripped by the Aráras, a sort of long-tailed parrot. 
E us 
(To be continued.) 
