THE RUBBER INDUSTRY 185 



contrary, who can tell from long experience where the 

 arteries run, makes his incisions only in such places as 

 yield an abundant flow. It was chiefly for the purpose 

 of instructing the men in this branch of rubber collecting 

 that my partner had given us the benefit of the female 

 expert's company. But her lord and master, who had 

 resented the attentions paid her by the cook and others 

 on the way, objected strongly to her serving as school- 

 mistress to her admirers in the solitude of the forest ; so 

 that she was more like a firebrand in a village of thatched 

 huts than the peaceful lamp of learning my partner had 

 intended her to be. And that is why I spoke of her, 

 when referring to the composition of our party, as the 

 apple of discord ; not an apple of the choicest variety it 

 is true, but good enough in the wilderness where there 

 were no other apples, to cause dissensions which gave me 

 a great deal of trouble and hampered our experiments. 



The seringueiro having treated his batch of trees in 

 the manner described, returns to the hut where he and 

 the rest of the party eat and rest until nine or ten o'clock, 

 when they revisit the trees, remove the cups, pour their 

 contents into larger vessels, and then replace them under 

 the incisions, taking care to keep the latter clean and 

 open by removing any coagulated milk that may obstruct 

 the flow of fresh latex. There remains to be performed 

 the operation of smoking the milk, so as to produce the 

 ordinary raw rubber of commerce known when it comes 

 from the Amazon region as Para rubber. Certain nuts, 

 especially the seeds of a kind of palm, are preferred for 

 smoking, but where such nuts are not obtainable branches 

 and twigs are used. The seringueiro, having prepared his 

 fire, dips a paddle-shaped piece of wood into his vessel of 

 latex, so that a thin coat of the milk adheres to the blade 



