EXPLANATORY INDEX. 445 



custom of their kind. The flesh of the Pacou affords excellent 

 food. 



Paddle. — The Paddles are really curious objects. They are 

 made from the wood of the Paddle-tree (As2ndosj)ermum excel- 

 sum), a most strange-looking tree. It runs to a considerable 

 height, and the outline of the trunk is most remarkable. 



The reader will remember that the Ceiba (see p. 395) has 

 the lower part of the trunk modified into buttresses, but 

 the Paddle-tree seems to be all buttress, and bears a curious 

 resemblance to the clustered pillars found in some of our old 

 cathedrals. Indeed, the section of the tree looks "very much 

 like a piece of one of those intricate puzzle -maps and pictures 

 which used to be found in the toyshops. 



As the wood is soft while fresh, an Indian, when he has to 

 make a new paddle, splits off one of the "flutes," as these 

 buttresses are called, trims it carefully into shape, and then 

 hands it over to the women, who paint it in divers patterns 

 of black and red. 



The Paddle-wood tree is called by the natives Yarari or 

 Massara. "When dry, the wood is very light, very elastic, very 

 hard, and very strong. This oddly-shaped tree averages sixty 

 or seventy feet in height, and five feet in diameter. A good 

 section of it is in the Technological Museum of the Crystal 

 Pafe,ce. 



Pappaw or Papaw-Tree {Carica papaya). — This tree is 

 planted by the natives near all their permanent settlements, 

 and is seen in company with the cotton and red pepper. It 

 not only furnishes an edible fruit, but possesses the singular 

 property of making tough meat tender when rubbed with the 

 acrid juice of the unripe fruit, or even with the leaf. In fact, 

 as Tom Cringle says, it can convert a piece of bull's hide into 

 a tender beef-steak. 



Paint, Red, used by Natives. — The natives are fond of 

 decorating their bodies with paints during feasting times. Eed 

 and black are the two chief coloui-s. Red is obtained from the 

 seeds =ai the Ai-notto plant [Bixa orellana), and the black from 



