200 CARIPI. Chap. V. 



in his bamboo tinder-box with a piece of an old file and 

 a flint, the tinder being a felt-like soft substance manu- 

 factured by an ant (Polyrhachis bispinosus). By gentle 

 blowing, the shavings ignited, dry sticks were piled on 

 them, and a good fire soon resulted. He then singed 

 and prepared the cutia, finishing by running a spit 

 through the body and fixing one end in the ground in 

 a slanting position over the fire. We had brought 

 with us a bag of farinha and a cup containing a lemon, 

 a dozen or two of fiery red peppers, and a few spoonsful 

 of salt. We breakfasted heartily when our cutia was 

 roasted, and washed the meal down with a calabash full 

 of the pure water of the river. 



After breakfast the dogs found another cutia, which 

 was hidden in its burrow two or three feet beneath the 

 roots of a large tree, and took Raimundo nearly an hour 

 to disinter it. Soon afterwards we left this place, crossed 

 the channel, and, paddling past two islands, obtained a 

 glimpse of the broad river between them, with a long 

 sandy spit, on which stood several scarlet ibises and 

 snowy-white egrets. One of the islands was low and 

 sandy, and half of it was covered with gigantic arum- 

 trees, the often-mentioned Caladium arborescens, which 

 presented a strange sight. Most people are acquainted 

 with the little British species, Arum maculatum, which 

 grows in hedge bottoms, and many, doubtless, have ad- 

 mired the larger kinds grown in hot-houses ; they can 

 therefore form some idea of a forest of arums. On this 

 islet the woody stems of the plants near the bottom 

 were 8 to 10 inches in diameter, and the trees were 12 

 to 15 feet high ; all growing together in such a manner 



