KINDRED PRODUCTS TO RUBBER 47 



their way. The work of paddling the boats along this 

 route is made specially hard bj^ masses of grass, which 

 drift down from the Savannahs. A way has to be 

 hacked through the floating barriers with cutlasses. 

 You can imagine what a difficult task this is when I tell 

 you that the grass on the water is sometimes so firm 

 that people can walk on it. 



When a balata-bleeder reaches his destination he 

 builds himself a hut — a wooden framework, thatched 

 with leaves. Then he makes a dabree, a large tray 

 about half a foot deep, in which balata latex is coagu- 

 lated. The dabree is composed of closely- fitted strips 

 of palm, the crevices between which are filled with 

 damp clay or earth. The joins are dried in the sun, 

 after which the tray is made water-tight with a lining 

 of balata. When the dabree has been fitted to a frame, 

 and a screen of palm-leaves has been put up on the 

 windward side to keep off the rain, the whole construc- 

 tion looks very much like a bedstead. 



Next comes the work of locating balata-trees within 

 the appointed tract. This is a serious version of the 

 game of hide-and-seek. The trees are concealed 

 somewhere — anywhere among other trees and a tangle 

 of undergrowth and overgrowth ; the nigger-man who 

 has come to find them has to clear the way for every 

 step he takes in looking for them. After he has dis- 

 covered a number of them, he makes his plans for going 

 the round of these to collect a supply of latex. 



Each tree is tapped by means of a cutlass, an imple- 

 ment which the British Guiana nigger uses for cutting 

 anything from a loaf of bread to a path through the 

 bush. The cuts are made in featherstitch pattern, 

 running from the base of the trunk to a great height 



