176 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



showing me the various processes to which the Mandioca 

 is subjected. This plant is invaluable to these people. It 

 gives them their farinha, a coarse kind of flour, their only 

 substitute for bread, their tapioca, and also a kind of 

 fermented juice called tucupi, a more questionable bless- 

 ing, perhaps, since it affords them the means of getting 

 intoxicated. After being peeled, the roots of the mandioca 

 are scraped on a very coarse grater ; in this condition they 

 make a moist kind of paste, which is then packed in elastic 

 straw tubes, made of the fibres of the Jacitara Palm (Des- 

 inonchus). When her tube, which has always a loop at 

 either end, is full, the Indian woman hangs it on the 

 branch of a tree ; she then passes a pole through the lower 

 loop and into a hole in the trunk of the tree, and, sitting 

 down on the other end of the pole, she thus transforms it 

 into a primitive kind of lever, drawing out the tube to its 

 utmost length by the pressure of her own weight. The 

 juice is thus expressed, flowing into a bowl placed under 

 the tube. This juice is poisonous at first, but after being 

 fermented becomes quite harmless, and is then used for 

 the tucupi. The tapioca is made by mixing the grated 

 mandioca with water. It is then pressed on a sieve, and 

 the fluid which flows out is left to stand. It soon makes 

 a deposit like starch, and when hardened they make it 

 into a kind of porridge. It is a favorite article of food 

 with them. 



August 30th. As time goes on, we grow more at home 

 with our rustic friends here, and begin to understand their 

 relations to each other. The name of our host is Laudi- 

 gari (I spell the name as it sounds), and that of his wife 

 Esperan9a. He, like all the Indians living upon the Ama- 

 zons, is a fisherman, and, with the exception of such little 



