Vellard (ibid., p. 240) points out that krakw starch is pre- 
pared not only by the Guayaki but also by the Mbya, a sub- 
group of the Guarani-speaking Caingua. They fall back on it 
as an emergency food. “To obtain the starchy pith of palm 
trees, the Mbya extracted the long fibers imbedded in starch 
from the lower part of the trunk. They either pounded them 
in a mortar and sucked them or else dried them on a platform 
in the sun or over the fire, pounded them, sifted them through 
a net, and then made them into loaves or cakes” (Métraux 
1946a: 262). Even the Paraguayans resorted to eating kraki 
“after the disastrous war against the Triple-Alliance (1866- 
1870)” (Vellard ibid. p. 240). 
For the Kaingin (Caingang), a non-Guarani-speaking 
tribe of southern Brazil, the sago of Syagrus Romanzoffi- 
anum was an important food before it was replaced by man- 
ioc flour. (The Indians crushed the pith in a mortar and 
sifted the flour before roasting it in a pan, just as is done now 
with manioc flour.) (Métraux 1946b: 445-453. ) 
Métraux (1946a: 248, 261) also describes the Toba, the 
Lengua, and the Chamacoco tribes of the Gran Chaco as 
recovering the palm starch of Copernicia cerifera. The Toba 
pound the pith in a mortar and boil it as a mush, whereas the 
Lengua grate it into flour for cakes. Carandaipe starch is a 
principal vegetable food for the Chamacoco,. 
The best documented case by far of palm-starch extraction 
for any South American Indian tribe comes from the region 
of the Warao, where chroniclers, missionaries, travellers, and 
anthropologists have become aware of its existence and 
where, on numerous occasions over the past twenty years of 
intermittent field work, I witnessed at first hand the process 
of recovery of sago from Mauritia.”. The ethnobotanical data 
available on this palm are too abundant to be treated here. 
Suffice it to say that Mauritia sago, ohidu aru, has been the 
staple food for most Warao until very recently, when it was 
supplanted by ocumo (Xanthosoma sagittifolium) and, to a 
lesser extent, by manioc (Manihot esculenta). 
The practice of extracting sago from Manicaria saccifera 
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