140 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
Pimcnta's " chacara," some two miles out of town, on 
the Rua de Nazareth, where we were received with the 
utmost kindness. Mr. Agassiz and Major Coutinho soon 
returned to town, where no time is to be lost in begin- 
ning work at the laboratory. I remained at home and 
passed a pleasant morning with the ladies of the family, 
who made me acquainted with the peculiar beverage so 
famous in these regions, prepared from the berries of 
the Assai palm. They are about the size of cranberries, 
and of a dark-brown color. Being boiled and crushed 
they yield a quantity of juice, which when strained has 
about the consistency of chocolate, and is of a dark purplish 
tint like blackberry juice. It has a sweetish taste, and is 
very nice eaten with sugar and the crisp " farinha d'agua," 
a kind of coarse flour made from the mandioca root. 
People of all classes throughout the province of Para 
are exceedingly fond of this beverage, and in the city 
they have a proverb which runs thus : 
" Who visits Para is glad to stay, 
Who drinks Assai goes never away.* 
August 12^. This morning we rose early and walked 
into town. Great pains have been taken with the environs 
of Para, and the Rua de Nazareth is one of the broad 
streets leading into the country, and planted with large 
trees (chiefly mangueiras) for two or three miles out of 
town. On our way we saw a lofty palm-tree completely 
overpowered and stifled in the embrace of an enormous 
parasite. So luxuriant is the growth of the latter that 
you do not perceive, till it is pointed out to you, that its 
spreading branches and thick foliage completely hide the 
tree from which it derives its life ; only from the extreme 
summit a few fan-like palm-leaves shoot upwards as if 
