4?8 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



on one side (rudely figured at a], into which fire is 

 put, and another at the opposite (as at b], which 

 serves as a flue. Of the articles laid on the budari, 

 c is the brush of piassaba tied tightly round at 

 midway, which serves for sweeping the oven before 

 the cassava cake or farinha is spread out to bake ; 

 d is the palm-leaf fan for blowing the fire ; and my 

 Indians would have it that d' was another fan, but 

 the hook .at one corner (which, whenever it occurs 

 in these figures, indicates a bit of liana-rope by which 

 the utensil is hung up) renders it probable that 

 something else was meant ; e is a stage (or shelf) 

 such as may be seen of various sizes hung from the 

 roof of an Indian's hut, but especially over the oven 

 and hearth, the smoke from which acts as an antiseptic 

 to the dried fish and other viands kept on the 

 stages, and also partially keeps off the cockroaches ; 

 f is either the mandiocca-grater or, more probably, 

 a flat piece of board, sometimes with a hole to 

 insert the fingers, which is used to raise the edges 

 of the cassava cake and to aid in turning it over. 

 All these articles are in use to this day throughout 

 a vast extent of country on the Orinoco and Casi- 

 quiari. Even in the Andes, a triangular or square 

 fan, plaited by the Indians of the leaves of maize or 

 wild cane, is the only bellows used by the Quitonian 

 housewife. 



The figures marked B (Fig. 17) were declared 

 by my Indians to be dolphins, whereof two species 

 abound in the Amazon and Orinoco. 



C they said was plainly the same sort of thing 

 as the big papers (maps) I was continually poring 

 over. For a is the town often consisting of a 

 single annular house, with a road from it leading 



