184^ 



skin and is said to dissolve spare flesh and remove every blemish. It is 

 a toilet requisite in use by the young and old, producing, according ta 

 the words of a French writer, " the most beautiful specimens of the 

 human race " 



The papaw has been brought to America as a cure for the national 

 disease, dyspepsia. In its tropical home there are no dyspeptics, but 

 its use along similar lines is by no means unknown. 



The meat in these countries is tough and tasteless , beef, mutton, 

 pork, or fowl have the same flavour, and are as tough as hickory 

 wood ; boiling until they fall to pieces does not render them any 

 more tender, they simply change from solid wood to fine tough splin- 

 ters. 



One reason for this is that in this climate meat must be eaten im- 

 mediately after slaughter. (It often reaches the pot in an hour after 

 killing.) The papaw helps to overcome this. Rubbed over tough 

 meat it will render it soft and change a piece of apparent leather to a 

 tender, juicy steak. It is put into the pot with meat, enters into 

 cereals, soups, stews, and other dishes, and they are made at least more 

 edible and digestible. 



Most of the half-breeds of Indian extraction upon the South Ameri- 

 can Continent and adjacent islands are particularly given to meat diet; 

 many of them eat it raw,^ sometimes in a state of partial decay, and 

 here the papaw is brought into use, being eaten with the flesh or 

 rubbed over it before it is eaten. 



Some of these people are great gluttons ; they gorge themselves 

 until the skin on their distended stomach is stretched to its utmost. 

 It is certain that no human being could digest the kind of food and tho 

 enormous amount?! they consume without the kindly aid of the papaw 

 fruit to assist digestion. 



NAMES AND CHARACTERISTICS. 



The botanical characteristics of this family having been more or less 

 completely described by various authors, need not here be repeated. 

 Of the many species the following are edible : Carica caulifiora, C. 

 pyriformis, C microcarpa, C. integrifolia, G. Papaya and C. querci- 

 folia. 



The Carica digitata is credited with poisonous emanations, and its 

 juice is actively poisonous, causing pustulation when applied to the 

 flesh. 



The Carica Papaya is designated by different names in the various 

 localities where found. For instance, in Mexico " lechoso," in Brazil 

 " papai," " maneo" and " mamerio"; in Paraguay, " mamon."* 



Here, too, the term "jacarata" (chakarateca) is applied to the Carica 

 Papaya, as well as to several trees of the same natural order. In Yu- 

 catan the native uncultivated variety is designated as " chich put," or 

 little papaya, while the cultivated is simply " put." The Spaniards 

 designated the original species as " papaya los pajaros" or " bird pa- 



^In Bolivia and Paraguay it is a very common sight at the railway stations 

 to see raw meat peddled out in chunks to passengers. 



4 In Brazil the uncultivated plant is designated as "mameo-femeo". the culti- 

 vated form of the same as "mameo-meleo ;" the hermaphrodite plant * 'meneco- 

 macho." — (Rusby.) 



