EXPLANATORY INDEX. 457 



had no connection with each other. Piwarri (which is also 

 spelled Piari or Paiworie) is prepared as follows. 



Cassava bread is chewed, and then placed in a large pot, in 

 which is some of the expressed cassava juice already mentioned. 

 It is boiled for twelve hours, and then put into jars, where 

 fermentation takes place, and it is ready for use. It has an 

 intoxicating quality of a very feeble character, but the natives 

 compensate for lack of quality by quantity, and, by dint of 

 drinking successive bowls of the liquid, they do succeed in 

 intoxicating themselves. 



When the natives can get brandy, they prefer it to any 

 other liquid, because it makes them drunk so soon, but next' to 

 brandy they like piwarri. 



Not only is it a favourite beverage, but it has a kind of 

 sanctity attached to it, and is drunk at their solemn feasts. 

 Here we have a most singular resemblance to the kava 

 drinking of Polynesia. The Mexicans prepare a drink called 

 " mudai " in a similar manner, except that they employ apples 

 instead of cassava or kava. Those who have been obliged to 

 drink Piwarri for reasons of policy, say that it rather resembles 

 very weak table beer. In some of the larger settlements, 

 they have enormous Piwarri bowls, shaped like canoes, of 

 about the same size, and called by the same name. 



PLANTAIN (Musa paradisaica). 



PLOVERS. There are many species of Plover in Guiana. 

 The most common are the Black-breasted (Charadrius Virgini- 

 anus), the Ring-neck (C. semipalmatus), and the Sandy 

 Plover (Strepsilus interpres). 



PORCUPINE. The species mentioned by Waterton is the Tree- 

 Porcupine, or Coendoo (Cercolabes prehensilis), which, like the 

 sloths, finds its nutriment in the trees and not on the ground. 

 In Northern America there is an allied species, also living in 

 trees and called the urson, cawquaw, or Canadian porcupine, 

 from which the " Indians," as they are called, procure the quills 

 with which they decorate their dresses and other articles, pre- 

 viously staining them with dyes extracted from various herbs. 



