218 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [BPH. ANN. 38 
string making. The grated seed is squeezed by wrapping it in this 
straw and then twisting the ends of the latter in opposite directions 
after the manner of a towel in the making of a hot fomentation. It 
is now mixed with a little cassava and baked, when it forms a cake 
of the color of coconut husk. It still tastes bitter, but is good, in 
that “it kills nobody.” The reason why it is squeezed in the straw 
and not in a matapi is that usually a sufficiently large quantity is not 
made. The object of mixing it with a little cassava is that it would 
otherwise prove too dry for the palate. 
240. Greenheart seeds (Nectandra rodiwi Hooker) : The seeds are 
grated and put in fresh water, and a matter precipitates similar 
in appearance to starch. It is repeatedly washed to lessen its bitter- 
ness, which it never loses entirely. It is then mixed with rotten 
wood, pounded previously and sifted, and those who have it in their 
power mix a little cassava flour with it. This substitute for bread is 
not only quite black, but as bitter as wormwood, and can not be whole- 
some (SecA, 346). If cassava is scarce, the Warrau of the Barima 
mix the meal with greenheart seeds and the pith of the ite palm 
(SR, i, 196). 
241. The seed of the dakamballi (Vowacapoua americana) is used 
by the Indians, in time of scarcity, for bread, it being grated and 
mixed with the flour of the cassava root ... It is by no means dis- 
agreeable when baked (BE, 14; CC, 55). 
242. Pario seeds: These are peeled, grated (but not soaked), 
mixed with a little cassava, squeezed either in ite straw or a matapi, 
and baked into cakes. It is not so bitter as mora, and if not mixed 
with a little cassava it is too dry. 
243. Nuts of the sawari tree [Caryocar (Pekea) tuberculosa] with 
mora and greenheart seed, grated and mixed with rotten wood, served 
instead of cassava bread in season of scarcity, on the Demerara 
(Dalit: 
244, Maize—While the ordinary maize (Zea mays) was cultivated 
throughout the Guianas, Gumilla draws attention to an alleged 
special variety met with on the Orinoco: “ All the Otomac Indians 
who live near the lakes, of which there are many, and very large 
ones, as soon as the waters fall, plant up the soil now left exposed. 
In the neighborhood of these lakes the said Otomac, Guamo, 
Pao, and Saruro sow a peculiar kind of maize, which has not spread, 
nor have I seen it amongst other nations. In their own language they 
call it onéna or ‘two-month maize’ (mais de los dos meses), be- 
cause in two months from sowing it grows, throws out ears of corn, 
and ripens, with the result that in the circle of the year they 
collect six harvests of it. In between they plant sweet canes, plenty 
of calabashes, and a large quantity of watermelons” (G, m, 231). 
