porridge!’. As stored supplies of bati-butter decrease after the 
harvest, they become increasingly precious as food. It is then 
that women dig up portions of their supply for special occasions 
and as gifts. 
One further use of bati-butter should be mentioned. The 
Tatuyo occasionally prepare a paste of bati-butter, charcoal, 
and the larvae of an unidentified species of wasp, which they use 
as a fish poison. The paste is fashioned into pellets which the 
fisherman throws into the stream as both bait and poison for 
“boteka” (Leporinus alternus''), a much sought-after river fish. 
In the latter part of the rainy season, in late August and 
September, the Tatuyo collect Lepidoptera larvae and pupae 
known as “batiya” (family: Noctuidae!2) in great abundance 
froé Erisma trees further downstream on the Rio Papuri and in 
the area of Acaricuara!}. The larvae are collected as they des- 
cend from the canopy to pupate in the forest floor. According to 
informants, these trees are identical in flower and fruit to the 
collections made at Yapu and are assumed to be Erisma Japura. 
Monopteryx. During their harvest, Monopteryx seeds are 
occasionally eaten peeled and roasted, although they have an 
exceedingly bitter taste. The vast majority of the harvest, how- 
ever, 1S prepared for consumption as follows: the flexible seed 
coats are removed if this was not already done when the seeds 
were collected. Each seed is then split neatly in half and the 
remaining paper-thin integument peeled off with the aid of a 
knife or fingernails. This peeling is tedious and is most often 
done by groups of women in the early evening. The split pulses 
are then softened by boiling in water for a considerable period of 
'° Porridges of fish and manioc starch are very common dishes in the northwest 
Amazon. They are referred to in Spanish as “munica”. The general term in Tatuyo is 
“pune”. 
'! Determined by German Galvis V., Unidad Ictiologia, Seccion Zoologia, Instituto de 
Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogota. A voucher specimen 
is deposited at the same institution. 
'2 Determined by D. M. Weisman of the Insect Identification and Beneficial Insect 
Introduction Institute of the United States Department of Agriculture. 
'\ The traditional spelling is Wacaricuara, but current usage is now Acaricuara. 
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