Ch. IV.] THE GREAT FOREST. 57 



in a thrashing-mill. The ungrcascd axles of the rollers, 

 squeaking and screeching like a score of tormented pigs, 

 generally inform the traveller of their vicinity long before 

 he reaches them. The juice is boiled, and an impure 

 sugar made from it. I do not think that sugar-cane was 

 known to the ancient inhabitants of this country : it is 

 not mentioned by the historians of the conquest of Mexico 

 and Peru, nor has it, like maize and cacao, any native 

 name. 



As soon as we passed Pital we entered the great forest, 

 the black margin of which we had seen for many miles, 

 that extends from this point to the Atlantic. At first 

 the road lay through small trees and brushwood, a second 

 growth that had sprung up where the original forest had 

 been cut for maize plantations ; but after passing a brook 

 bordered by numerous plants of i\\e pita, from which a 

 fine fibre is obtained, and which gives its name to Pital, 

 we entered the primeval forest. On each side of the 

 road great trees towered up, carrying their crowns 

 out of sight amongst a canopy of foliage, winding 

 round everything, and with lianas hanging from nearly 

 every bough, and passing from tree to tree, entan- 

 gling the giants in a great network of coiling cables, 

 like another Samson, the simile being strengthened by the 

 fact that many of the trees are really strangled in the 

 winding folds. Sometimes a tree appears covered with 

 beautiful flowers, which do not belong to it, but to one of 

 the lianas that twines through its branches and sends 

 down great ropes like stems to the ground. Climbing 

 ferns and vanilla cling to the trunks, and a thousand 

 epiphytes perch themselves on the branches. Amongst 

 these are large arums that send down aerial roots, tough 



