PLANTATION RUBBER INDUSTRY OF THE EAST. 451 



collected a supply of the old nuts of the inaja {Maximiliana regia), 

 or other pahn trees, or of the outer shell of the Brazil nut, he is 

 ready to commence operations on the first fine day. There is 

 some diversity in the manner of taking, the rubber milk on the 

 Amazon. In some districts long strips are procured from the 

 inner pith of the foot stalk of the leaf of the inaja or the Bacaba 

 palm. These are tacked obliquely round the stem of the trees, 

 with sharpened pieces made out of the hard covering of the same 

 leaf stalks. Tliis being smeared on the inside with wet clay 

 serves to form a channel to collect and conduct the milk into the 

 cup placed to receive it. In the other manner, which I consider 

 the better, three of four cuts about an inch long are made in the 

 bark with a minute axe. The cups are put on in a ring round 

 the trunk, usually a span or more apart. In tliis way the number 

 of cups is proportioned to the size of the tree. 



Tin cups are used. They are made sUghtly concave on one 

 side in order to fit the convexity of the tree triuik. These are 

 fastened to the tree with a piece of kneaded clay, of which the 

 " ciringero " carries a supply in his bag. The tapping always 

 take place as soon as there is light enough in the forest to see by. 

 One man is apportioned to each path, say, containing 100 trees. 

 When he has tapi^ed and cupped lais trees he sits down at the 

 end of the walk for half an hour or so. As soon as he perceives 

 that the tree last tapped has ceased to drip the milk, he starts 

 at a trot on the back track, detacliing and emptying the cups 

 into liis calabash as quickly as possible. The cups he leaves up 

 side down at the base of the trees. Speed throughout is a great 

 object, as the milk speedily coagulates ; then it can only be sold 

 for an inferior price as " sernambi." When the men arrive at 

 the central hut, from their different paths, they empty their milk 

 into one of the large native earthenware pans. Care is taken to 

 squeeze out with the hands aU the aheady coagulated curd-like 

 masses. These are thrown to one side to be made up into balls 

 of " sernambi." Earthen pots resembling miniature kilns are 

 placed over small fires and the " ciringero " sits down to the 

 really tedious part of the biosiness. He drops a handfvd or so of 

 the pakn nuts down the narrow neck of his Httle kiln and forth- 

 with arises a dense smoke. He now takes his wooden moiild — 

 not unlike a fives bat in form — and holding it over the pan pours 

 some of the milk over it, keeping it tm-ned, so that it shall not 

 Tvtn off before he succeeds in drying it in an even surface, as it 

 soon does as it is passed backward and forward through the 

 smoke ; this is continued, one coating of milk after another, until 

 he has finished the supply of milk for the day ; he then sticks his 

 mould up in the thatch for the repetition of the process next day, 

 and until he is satisfied with the thickness of the " biscuit." 



I beheve very good rubber might be made by simply allowing 

 the milk to congeal in moulds dm-ing the night of the day on wliich 

 it has been tapped, if, on the following morning, it were placed 

 under a very powerful press in order to expel the fluid contained 

 in the cheese-like ceUs. When fresh, the milk has a very agi-eeable 

 smell and taste, but it soon becomes putrid. The child of an 



