OF THE AMAZON. 



25 



and the greenish stones left bare. The liquid is now 

 poured through a wicker sieve into another vessel, and 

 is then ready for use. The smiling hostess will then 

 fill a calabash, and give you another with farinha to 

 mix to your taste ; and nothing will delight her more 

 than your emptying your rustic basin and asking her 

 to refill it. 



The inhabitants of Para are excessively attached to 

 this beverage, and many never pass a day of their lives 

 without it. They are particularly favoured too, in 

 being able to get it at all seasons, for though in most 

 places the trees only bear for a few months once in the 

 year, yet in the neighbourhood of Para there is so much 

 variety of soil and aspect, that within a day or two's 

 journey, there is always some ripe Assai to supply the 

 market. Boys climb up the trees to get it, with a cord 

 round the ankles (as shown on the Plate), and with its 

 own leaves make a neatly interlaced basket to carry it 

 home. From the great island of Marajo, its igaripes * 

 and marshes, from the rivers Guama and Moju, from 

 the thousand islands in the river, and from the vast 

 palm swamps in the depths of the forest, baskets of the 

 fruit are brought every morning to the city, where half 

 the population look to the Assai to supply a daily meal, 

 and hundreds are said to make it, with farinha, almost 

 their main subsistence. 



The trees of this genus also furnish another article 

 of food. The undeveloped leaves in the centre of the 

 column form a white sweetish mass, which when boiled 

 * A small stream, literally " path of the canoe." 



D 



