peeled seeds are washed thoroughly in a basket. Once washed, 
the seeds are reboiled until very soft (about 45 minutes) and 
then, while still hot, either pressed through a basket sieve or 
crushed to a butter-like consistency with a mortar and pestle. 
The crushing of the seeds is done quickly so that they are still 
warm when buried in a leaf-lined pit in the ground. 
Storage pits used for bati-butter are dug neatly into the house 
floors in areas free from ants and other insects. The pits are 
about 30 cm. in diameter and of sufficient depth to allow the 
stored food to be covered with 6 to 8 cm. of soil. A typical pit is 
approximately 60 cm. deep. Once dug, the pit is carefully lined 
with the juvenile leaves of a tree tentatively identified as Clathro- 
tropis macrocarpa (Leguminosae). This leaf, known in Tatuyo 
as “miapu”, is commonly used to package food. The leaves are 
placed against the sides of the pit with the lower surface of the 
leaf toward the pit wall, petiole up, and the pointed apex bent to 
cover the pit floor. Additional leaves are bent in the pit to cover 
the pit floor thoroughly. When complete, the leaf-lining 1s 3-, or 
4-leaves deep at all points and prepared in such a way that the 
inner leaves are lower in the pit than the outer ones. The bati- 
butter is placed in the pit and compacted. The leaves are then 
wrapped over it in a systematic manner, beginning with the inner 
leaves and finishing with the outermost ones. When complete, 
the entire leaf packet is covered with soil. 
An estimated 85% of the Erisma collected in the period of 
observation was prepared as bati-butter and stored in leaf-lined 
pits in house floors. According to the Tatuyo, this butter can be 
stored for up to a year if proper care is exercised in changing the 
leaf-lining periodically and in securing insect-free storage pits. 
Under such anaerobic conditions, the butter ferments, develop- 
ing a sharp taste and an odor not unlike a strong cheese. This 
odor is no doubt what Spruce referred to in his note on the Kew 
specimen: “. . . People who can get over its vile smell (which 1s 
never lost) find it exceedingly savoury.”? The Tatuyo do indeed 
relish the strong flavor it attains after prolonged storage. Bati- 
butter, either fresh or fermented, is prepared by cooking it with 
water into a thick dip or adding it to “puné”, a fish and manioc 
9 From Stafleu, 1954:474. 
77 
