MAKING PARA RUBBER IN THE FOREST 27 



a very similar wa}^ on poles. But instead of the poles 

 being held by hand over the smoke, they are balanced on 

 a roughly-made rest. A couple of pronged sticks are 

 driven into the ground to serve as props for a hori- 

 zontal bar. In the middle of this bar, which is just 

 another bit of timber, is a noose of bush- rope. The 

 pelle is made on the middle part of a separate pole. 

 One end of this pole is slipped through the noose until 

 the coating of rubber in the centre is well over 

 the smoke ; the other end is supported by hand, with 

 or without the assistance of another noose of bush-rope 

 hanging from the roof. The seringueiro turns the 

 pole round and round, always keeping it in such a 

 position that the growing ball of rubber, which he 

 frequently feeds with milk, is twirled about in the 

 smoke. 



You are wondering, I expect, how the seringueiros 

 get paid. They are all run by men of capital, called 

 "aviadores." The aviador lives at one of the com- 

 mercial centres of the Amazon rubber industry, such 

 as Para or Manaos in Brazil. His business is to arrange 

 for labourers to go up into the rubber districts, to 

 supply them with anything and everything they want 

 in the way of stores and outfit, and, if necessary, to 

 advance them the money for their journey. His 

 busiest time is in the early part of the year, because 

 all new hands start off for the forests about March or 

 April. They can then reach the scene of their labours 

 towards the middle of May, when the rubber-gathering 

 season bf3gins. 



All the labourers start off in debt to some aviador. 

 When they reach the seringal which is their particular 

 destination, the manager there instals them in one of 



