86o nieuhoff's brazil. 



flood twenty-four hours, there being many of the Brazilians who boll and drink it 

 without any harm. The root mandioka, is likewife immediately after it is taken out 

 of the ground, fliced in pieces, and laid in frefh water for four or five days ; when 

 it begins to be foft it is called Puba, or Mandiopuba, and Mandiopubo. This the 

 wild Brazilians inhabiting the deferts and woods, roafl in the afhes and eat ; becaufe 

 it is done without much trouble. The fame mandiopuba, toafted before the fire, is 

 called Kaarima, which being afterwards beat to powder with a wooden peftle in a mor- 

 tar, they call Kaarimaciu ; of this they make a pap with boiling water, which, feafoned 

 with fome Brazilian pepper, or Nhambi flowers, affords a very good difti, efpecially 

 with the addition of fome fifh or meat, when it is called Minguipitinga by the Brazilians, 

 who look upon it as one of their beft dainties. It is alfo very wholefome, for this 

 Kaarima, and the flower Tipiaka, boiled in orange-flower-water and fugar, to the con- 

 fiftency of a fyrup, affords a very good antidote. They make alfo a kind of fl:arch of 

 the flower called Kaarima, which they called Mingaupomonga ; as likewife very fine 

 cakes, by mixing it with water, butter and fugar. There is a kind of meal prepared 

 from the dregs of the mandioka or mandiopuba root, thus fl:eeped in water, called by 

 the Brazilians, Vipuba, and Viabiruru, and by the Portuguefe, Farinha Frefca, or 

 frefli flour, and Farinha d*Agoa, or water-flour. It is very well tafl:ed, but will not 

 keep above twenty-four hours. But if you make it up with water into balls and rolls, 

 and let them dry in the fun, they will keep good for a confiderable time ; thefe they 

 call Viapua and Miapeteka. The Tapoyers, and almofl; all the other Brazilians, pre- 

 pare it thus, and afterwards mix it with another meal called Viata, which affords it a 

 more agreeable tafl:e. 



The mandioka root is likewife prepared thus ; after it has been cleanfed, and cut in 

 thin flices, they beat it with a wooden peftle, and fqueeze the juice out with their 

 hands only, which being dried, they call Tina and Mixakuruba ; another way of 

 preparing the mandioka root is, to cut it into pieces of about two fingers long, and 

 two inches thick, which, without being fqueezed, is expofed to the fun, and after- 

 wards beat to powder in a wooden mortar, called by the Brazilians, Tipirati, by the 

 Portuguefe, Farinha de Mandioka Crua, or the flour of raw mandioka ; the pieces before 

 they are beaten to powder are very white, and may be ufed inftead' of chalk. Out of 

 this flour they make very good white bread and bifcuits, called Maipeta, the laft of 

 which are chiefly ufed in the camp, becaufe they will keep a great while. 



Out of the root Aipimakaxera, the Brazilians boil a certain pleafant liquor not unlike 

 our whey, called by them Kavimakaxera. The fame root, chewed and mixed with 

 water, furniflies them with another liquor they call Kaon Karaxu. The cakes made 

 from the flour of this root, laid in a calk with water, till it ferments together, affords 

 them likewife a fort of fl;rong and very good beer. 



All thefe different kinds of mandioka roots, if they be eaten frefli, prove mortal to 

 mankind, except that called Aipimakaxera, which roafted, may be eaten without dan- 

 ger, and is of a good tafte. But all forts of beafts, both wild and tame ones, do not 

 only feed upon the faid roots and leaves, without the leaft hurt, but alfo grow fat 

 with them, not withftanding that the juice of both is mortiferous as well to men as 

 beafts. The negroes and Brazilians bruife the leaves of the mandiiba in a wooden mor- 

 tar, which being fpoiled, they put oil or butter oyer it, and eat it as we do our 

 fpinage ; this is fometimes done by the Portuguefe likewife, and the Dutch, who 

 make a kind of fallad of the fame leaves. The Brazilians prefer the bread made of the 

 mandioka root before ours, but it is not fo natural to the Europeans, it being, if 

 ufed in a great quantity, pernicious to the nerves and ftomach, and corrupts the blood. 



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