Cuarter XIII 
FOOD ADJUNCTS 
Sauces: Cassarip (tukupi) (248) ; arubé (249). 
Salt: From plants (250); from inorganic sources (251); varying use by In- 
dians (252). 
Earth eating (253). 
248. With regard to sauces, that obtained from the cassava and 
known as cassarip, the quisire of Gumilla (G, m, 242), has the 
widest distribution. After the poisonous juice from the cassava 
has been expressed by means of the matapi, time is allowed for its 
contained sediment (starch) to settle. .This expressed juice, together 
with its starch, is known as keheli to the Arawak. The water is 
then carefully poured off and, with peppers, boiled for about three 
hours or so, by which time it will have become thickened as cassarip. 
A little salt may nowadays be sometimes added to the peppers in 
the boiling. The tukupi sauce of the lower Amazons (HWB, 163), 
of the Rio Negro (KG, 1, 332), etc., is apparently identical with 
cassarip, save that it is seasoned with small fishes in addition to 
the peppers. Bates says this “is generally made as a liquid, but 
the Juri and Miranha tribes on the Japura make it up in the form 
of a black paste by a mode of preparation I could not learn. ... I 
have seen the Indians on the Tapajos, where fish are scarce, season 
tukupi with leaf-carrying ants (Z’codoma cephalotes). It is there 
used chiefly as a sauce to tacaca, another preparation from mandioca 
(cassava), consisting of the starch beaten up in boiling water.” 
249. Arubé is another sauce on the lower Amazon made of the 
poisonous juice of the cassava boiled down before the starch is pre- 
cipitated and seasoned with peppers (HWB, 163). Earthworms 
may be boiled with fish to give the latter an extra relish (ARW, 
201). Not at ordinary meals but on occasions of rejoicing and de- 
bauchery the Carib islanders would use a seasoning made from Ara- 
wak fat (RO, 500). 
250. Though salt is a comparatively rare article with the Indian, 
he is not ignorant of the methods of procuring it otherwise than by 
exchange and barter, from products of both organic and inorganic 
nature. In the former case it is usually obtained from certain palms. 
In Cayenne the particular kind is known as “ pinot” (or pineau) 
to the coastal inhabitants, and the Roucouyenne of the Yary River 
procure it as follows: After burning, the ashes are placed in a large 
222 
