216 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS (ETH, ANN. 38 
slice is cut off one side, and the stringy substance of the interior is 
cut into shreds, the remainder of the trunk serving as a trough, in 
which it is triturated with water, by which is disengaged a consider- 
able quantity of starch. The fibrous particles are then extracted, 
and the sediment, or aru, formed into molds like bricks. This is 
spread out on stones or iron plates over the fire, and makes a very 
nutritive but at the same time unmasticable bread (HiB, 327). 
Gumilla gives the name of yuruma to the mauritia starch (G, 1, 150). 
The present day Moruca River Warrau and Arawak call both cas- 
sava and ite starch aru or haru. 
234. The Pomeroon Arawak make theirs from the bitter variety 
of cassava, but they can manufacture it from the sweet. The former 
is treated as follows: After being scraped and grated it is squeezed 
with the hands and the fluid collected in a calabash, where there 
gradually forms a sediment, which is subsequently poured off. This 
sediment (the starch) is washed and strained through a very fine 
sifter and dried in the sun. Mixed with kereli (sec. 257), it can be 
baked into round cakes and eaten. Tapioca is made from the starch 
removed before the mass goes into the matapi or squeezer. A com- 
mon dish when meat is scarce is made of cassarip mixed with starch 
and boiled for a considerable time with peppers to taste; any cut-up 
green stuff, such as calaloo, ete., can be added. Indeed, with 
any scarcity of food the Indians will mix or thicken whatever they 
may happen to have—e.¢., a handful of smal] fish—with peppers 
and starch (Mak., Pat., Are.). 
235. Cassava, cassada, cazabe, etc., is the “ bread ” made from that 
most useful of edible plants: known as yuea, yucca, magnioca, man- 
dioca, manioca, manihot, etc. Digging, loosening, and heaping up 
a small mound of earth, the Indian female will place in it two slips 
of cassava stem from 18 to 20 inches in length. Being inserted on 
the slope, one extremity of each stick is left exposed, the other 
being covered up with the earth just removed. On the islands the 
women are said to have used long pointed sticks for the digging 
(PBR, 241). Arawak have told me that two slips are invariably 
used in case one of them should fail to strike. The crop will ripen 
in about nine months, but whether the same field can be replanted 
will depend upon the kushi ants and the nature of the soil. It is true 
that cassava can be propagated from seed, but this procedure is not 
practiced. There are two kinds of cassava—the yuea dulce and yuca 
brava of the old Spaniards (G, 11, 242)—corresponding with those 
now known to the Creoles as sweet and bitter (poisonous) varieties. 
to the Arawak as biisuli and kalli, and to scientists as Manihot uti- 
lissima Pohl. (Jatropha manihot Linn.) and MW. aypim Pohl., re- 
