30 THE ADVENTURES OF 



it affords a much more certain crop. L'Encuerado, seizing 

 his machete (a straight and a short cutlass, indispensable to 

 the inhabitants of the Terre-Chaude), cut down a magnifi- 

 cent stem, and, peeling it, offered each of us a piece. The 

 sugar-cane is extremely hard, and it is necessary to cut it 

 up in order to break the cellules in which the sweet juice 

 is contained. My companions set to work to chew the pith 

 of the valuable plant ; and even Gringalet seemed to be just 

 as fond of it as they were. 



Not far from the cane-field, some Indians were working 

 on a new plantation. The ground was covered with ashes. 

 The foreman explained to us that when the canes are cut 

 down, the first thing is to pull off the long leaves, which are 

 left on the ground. In eight days this rubbish is dried 

 by the tropical sun ; they then- set them on fire, and the 

 ashes which result serve as manure. Five or six Aztecs 

 were cultivating this apparently sterile ground by means of 

 a primitive kind of plough, made of a mere stake attached 

 to circular discs of wood forming spokeless wheels ; it was 

 drawn by two oxen yoked together. 



Sumichrast took Lucien by the hand. 



" In future," said he, " when you crunch a lump of sugar, 

 you shall know something of the manufacture of what you 

 are eating. The sugar-cane is called, in Latin, Saccharum 

 officinale, that is, ' druggist's sugar,' because the product of 

 this plant was so rare that it was sold only at the druggists' 

 shops. The plant itself is said to be a native of India, and 

 is, as you see, a tuft of vegetation, from which spring six to 

 twenty tall stalks, with joints varying, both in number and 

 in distance, from each other. The most esteemed variety, 

 the Tahiti cane, is striped with violet. The specimen you 

 are looking at is one of the most remarkable as regards size, 

 for it must be nearly thirteen feet high." 



" It is like a stalk of maize," said the boy. 



