RoTH] PLANT FOOD 25 
Guajiva and Chiricoa did not cultivate their lands at all. They were 
always traveling from river to river collecting wild fruits; never 
built houses, and had no shelter from sun or rain (G, 11, 227-228). 
Indeed, it is probable that their nomadicity saved them from ex- 
termination. 
231. On the Amazons there is Acufia’s authority for the state- 
ment that a kind of ensilage was practiced by the Indians. “They 
make great holes in the ground, wherein they put these [? manihot | 
roots, and, having well stopped them up with earth, leave them there 
as long as the floods (the annual inundations) last. . .. When the 
water runs off they open these pits and take out their roots without 
finding them at all the worse for lying in the earth” (AC, 57). The 
Indian also eats many roots, bush fruits, etc., which he sometimes 
plucks green and buries underground to ripen (PEN, 1, 113). 
232. Though the Otomac were essentially an agricultural people, 
... they did not, however, store their harvests, but just saved 
enough for the purposes of sowing. Among all the nations they 
alone knew how to make food and starch from the various fruits and 
roots which the others discard as being bitter, or but little whole- 
some. “The bread,” says Gumilla, “is made as follows, its manu- 
facture being woman’s work: Each one has in the neighborhood of 
the river the necessary pits. In each pit there is fine chalk (greda) 
or picked clay, well kneaded and pounded by dint of constant water 
in which they keep it, after the manner of the clay which potters 
use in making fine earthenware. In the center of the said clay they 
bury the maize, fruits, or other grain, the substance of which they 
have to extract, and after a definite number of days the mixture 
arrives at maturity—i. e., the buried grain reaches the point of sour- 
ness (agrio). When it is time they take out the clay, already kneaded 
and well mixed up with the starch, and place it on earthen pans 
specially made for the purpose. Kneading it a second time with a 
large quantity of water they pass it through a strainer, manufactured 
with this object, and the very liquid mass falls into other clean pans. 
Here it rests, the earthy sediment with the starch of the grain or 
fruit sinking to the bottom, and leaving the water clear on top. This 
water they drain off. They then take a large quantity of turtle or 
alligator fat, stir it up, and mix it with the sediment, to form rounded 
loaves, which are then put in the ovens. If no fat is available they 
content themselves without it. The heat of the ovens dries up the 
moisture. If fat has been used the paste comes out of the oven soft; 
if not, as hard as a brick. Owing to the crunching of the earth dur- 
ing mastication it has been stated that the Guamo and Otomac feed 
themselves on earth ” (G, 1, 177). 
233. The Warrau extract their starch from the mauritia palm as 
follows: When an ite tree begins to fructify it is cut down, a large 
