Chap, iv.] PREPARATION OF CASSAVA. 89 



The tubers are long and spindle shaped. The preparation 

 of them was conducted in a small hut. A large fly-wheel was 

 turned by a negro, and drove, by means of a band, at a rapid 

 rate, a small grinding wheel provided with iron cutting teeth. 

 The cassava root, which had been peeled and washed by a 

 negress, was reduced to a coarse meal by means of the grinding 

 wheel. The meal was then put into a waoden trough, and a 

 board was tightly pressed upon it by means of a lever, heavily 

 weighted with stones. The cassava was thus left in the press 

 for twelve hours, in order that the poisonous juice which it 

 contains should be expressed. The meal was then taken out 

 and dried on a smooth stone surface, beneath which a wood 

 fire was burning. 



The resulting chalky-white meal, when sifted, yields samples 

 of three degrees of fineness. The finest, a white flour-like 

 powder, is tapioca, i e., true, original tapioca, an imitation of 

 which, made from potato starch, is commonly sold in England. 

 The intermediate sample is used in starching clothes and in 

 cooking ; and the coarsest substance, which is coarser than 

 oatmeal, and consists of irregularly-shaped dried chips of the 

 roots, is called farinha, and is, as before described, commonly 

 eaten with gravy at dinner, taking the place of bread, and 

 forming a staple article of food. 



Our host was well to do, having thrived best of all the 

 emigrants who came out with him, and, having no family to 

 provide for, talked of going home soon. An old Cicrman was 

 staying in the house, an idler, whose real occupation was 

 gardening, his father having been Imperial gardener, as he 

 informed us with great pride. He had landed, more than 

 twenty years before, at Rio, and had reached Bahia on foot. 

 He was now travelling from estate to estate, and staying at 

 each as long as he could, under pretence of doing up the 

 garden, but, although he had been two months at the farm, the 

 few square yards of garden were as yet untouched. 



He had been too lazy to learn Portuguese, and understood 

 very little. He did a little trade in the way of peddling books. 

 He seemed, however, a favourite at the farm, and was well 

 taken care of, tea being made as a special luxury for him, and 

 he had many stories to tell, and quaint sayings, and had 

 amusingly strong Prussian sympathies. 



The farmer guided us to a large tract of primitive forest 

 close by, which was extremely difficult to penetrate. Here I 

 caught a curious bat (^Saccopteryx canina). This bat has 

 remarkable glandular pouches on the under sides of the wings, 

 at the elbow joints ; these pouches are well developed only in 

 the males, rudimentary in the females, and secrete a red- 



